{"id":3723,"date":"2011-12-02T17:17:00","date_gmt":"2011-12-02T17:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/2011\/12\/02\/colt-expands-to-florida\/"},"modified":"2019-08-16T18:16:59","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T18:16:59","slug":"colt-expands-to-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/?p=3723","title":{"rendered":"Colt Expands To Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:12214,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/onlygunsandmoney.blogspot.com\\\/2010\\\/08\\\/winchester-plans-moving-center-fire.html&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:14252,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.sdreadytowork.com\\\/Key-Industries-Firearms.aspx&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20140101180156\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.sdreadytowork.com\\\/Key-Industries-Firearms.aspx&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-20 01:40:10&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-03 10:55:41&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-05-03 10:55:41&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:16608,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.flgov.com\\\/2011\\\/12\\\/01\\\/governor-scott-and-colt%e2%80%99s-manufacturing-co-announce-new-jobs-coming-to-osceola-county&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.flgov.com\\\/2011\\\/12\\\/01\\\/governor-scott-and-colt%E2%80%99s-manufacturing-co-announce-new-jobs-coming-to-osceola-county&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>Given the relatively hostile climate for gunmakers in Massachusetts and Connecticut, I think it should come as no surprise that Colt&#8217;s Manufacturing Company &#8211; the civilian side of Colt &#8211; announced yesterday that it is setting up a regional headquarters and production facility in Florida. According to the announcement from Florida Gov. Rick Scott&#8217;s office, Colt is making a $2.5 million capital investment in a building owned by Osceola County. They expect to have a staff of 63 that will begin phasing in during 2012.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t have a crystal ball but I think this is only the first of many expansions by firearms makers outside of their traditional &#8220;Gun Valley&#8221; home. I think the moves will be made for two major reasons: a more favorable&nbsp; (and gun friendly) business climate in the new location and lower personnel costs due to non-unionized workforces. It was only <a href=\"http:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.blogspot.com\/2010\/08\/winchester-plans-moving-center-fire.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">last year that Olin Corporation&#8217;s Winchester Division began moving most<\/a> of its center-fire ammunition production from East Alton, IL to Oxford, Mississippi. That move was done for both those reasons.<\/p>\n<p>I would also keep my eye on announcements out of the state of South Dakota. They have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sdreadytowork.com\/Key-Industries-Firearms.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an industrial development project<\/a> run out of the governor&#8217;s office that is targeting firearms manufacturers and others in the gun industry. They promote their gun-friendly attitude as an attraction for businesses in the industry.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flgov.com\/2011\/12\/01\/governor-scott-and-colt%e2%80%99s-manufacturing-co-announce-new-jobs-coming-to-osceola-county\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">full announcement<\/a> for the office of Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) is below:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><i>12\/1\/2011 Osceola County, Fla. \u2013 Today, Colt\u2019s Manufacturing Co. LLC announced its commitment to create 63 jobs in Osceola County for its new regional headquarters and product manufacturing center. The center will hire people for engineering and manufacturing jobs, among others. In 2012, Colt is projected to begin phasing in the first of 63 jobs paying an average salary of $45,060 to be created during the following three years. Governor Rick Scott and Colt\u2019s Manufacturing Company President and CEO Lieutenant General M. William Keys USMC (Ret.) were joined by the Osceola County Board of County Commissioners for the announcement. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a supporter of new job creation and the Second Amendment, this announcement sends the clear message that Florida is both open for business and a defender of our right to bear arms,\u201d Florida Governor Rick Scott said. \u201cMy primary responsibility as governor is to be our state\u2019s chief advocate for job creation. My personal involvement in bringing Colt to Florida demonstrates my administration\u2019s deep commitment to rebuilding our economy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Colt is making a $2.5 million capital investment in a vacant building, which the company will lease, that is owned by Osceola County. Governor Scott and his economic development team at Enterprise Florida Inc. and the Osceola County Economic Development Department worked with Colt to bring this project to fruition. State incentives include $250,000 from the Governor\u2019s Quick Action Closing Fund and funds for workforce training. Osceola County is offering additional incentives, including renovation of the building and rent concessions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cColt looked at many possible sites across the nation, but we ultimately decided to locate our new facility in the State of Florida,\u201d Gen. Keys said. \u201cFlorida offered a strong pro-business incentive package. Coupled with the low cost of doing business in Florida and a favorable regulatory environment, opening this new facility was very attractive to us. <strong>Governor Scott\u2019s personal commitment to both Colt\u2019s growth plan and America\u2019s right to bear arms was instrumental in our decision.\u201d<\/strong><br \/>\n\u201cAttracting an American icon like Colt, which is one of the world\u2019s top brands, is a real coup for our economic development efforts,\u201d said Commission Chairman John Qui\u00f1ones. <strong>\u201cBeyond creating new, high-wage jobs, Colt is going to be a great asset to our community.\u201d<\/strong><br \/>\n\u201cColt\u2019s expansion to Osceola County is a perfect fit for the region,\u201d said Dr. Sanford Shugart, president of Valencia College, which will design a specialized training program for the company. \u201cValencia College stands ready to deliver the best trained, best educated workforce possible. We welcome Colt\u2019s Manufacturing Company to Osceola County and commit to partnering with them and serving their employees and families for many years to come.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Osceola County is located southeast of Orlando and just due west of Cape Canaveral.<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Given the relatively hostile climate for gunmakers in Massachusetts and Connecticut, I think it should come as no surprise&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1989,1339,626,1590],"class_list":["post-3723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-colt","tag-firearms-industry","tag-florida","tag-industrial-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7460,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723\/revisions\/7460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}