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Armed and Prosperous
Marlin Firearms has survived
and thrived by being an arsenal
of technological innovation
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Business New Haven
1/11/1999
By: Susan Banfield
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The Marlin Firearms Co. has been a fixture in the New Haven community since the 1870s, when it opened for business in its original Willow Street location.
For nearly 130 years the company has manufactured a full range of rifles and shotguns. It is easy to chalk up Marlin's longevity to the enduring nature of the products it makes - people will always hunt and shoot, and thus will always have a use for firearms.
However, Marlin has had to contend with many of the same issues manufacturers of other products have had to grapple with: new technology and modernization, the rising costs of doing business in the Northeast, foreign competition, recessions - even competition from computers (young boys today would rather hone their sharpshooting skills on computer-based action games than out of doors with a real rifle).
Yet Marlin has more than merely survived these challenges - it has thrived. Once just one small company among the many firearms manufacturers that gave Connecticut its nickname, “The Arsenal of the Nation,” today Marlin is one of the largest in the country, with 500 employees and annual sales of $50 million.
One of the factors that has enabled Marlin to grow throughout recent decades has been that the company has remained technologically at the cutting edge of its industry. It was among the first to introduce tape-driven machine tools.
Back when computers were still in their infancy, current board chairman Frank Kenna Jr. enrolled in a computer school run by IBM in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Marlin then went on to pioneer the use of computer-driven machines for the manufacture of receivers and other intricate, close-tolerance parts.
In the early 1970s, Kenna had occasion to observe legs for Queen Anne chairs being shaped en masse by an automatic lathe. He visited the maker of the machine in Vienna and asked him if the concept couldn't be adapted to the shaping of wooden gun stocks. Soon thereafter Marlin became the first firearms manufacturer to employ automatic lathes.
Marlin has also been an innovator with respect to its products. The company pioneered a new type of barrel, dubbed Microgroove. Most recently it has been a leader in developing guns for use in the newly popular sport of “cowboy action shooting.” (Guns used in these simulation games must be of a type in use prior to 1900.) The late 1960s and early '70s were boon times for the firearms industry. Marlin reflected the industry's overall well-being with its move into a new 250,000-square-foot facility in North Haven.
(Interestingly, holding on to the historic Willow Avenue plant rather than selling it proved to be a wise decision financially. More than merely a delight to architects, in recent years the building has been a choice rental property, much sought after by start-up biotech and other firms.)
However, the plush times of the '70s were followed by the recession of the early '80s which, says Kenna, was the toughest challenge Marlin has had to confront in the last half-century. The philosophy Kenna used to pull the company through those tough years has been, he maintains, central to Marlin's success in general: “Always maintain a positive cash flow.”
The recession of 1982-83 was in fact just one of five that Marlin has weathered under Kenna's leadership. In every case, the company addressed all of its expenses and cut back wherever it deemed most prudent.
“We did what we had to do,” is how Kenna puts it, to maintain that positive cash flow. In the early '80s, cuts went so far as to put hourly workers on a four-day work week and cutting salaried employees' pay by ten percent. It was painful for management and labor alike, but the results permitted the company to weather the storm.
Marlin has resisted other popular “quick fixes” to financial difficulties. At a time when many Northeastern manufacturing firms were moving their operations south to save money, Marlin stood fast in North Haven. Kenna maintains that the strong work ethic of Northern working men and women, along with the machine-shop expertise traditionally found in Connecticut, meant that in the end remaining in the Northeast was more, rather than less, economical.
Marlin has also resisted the temptation to diversify. The company has shown no interest in making towel rods or ball bearings, or in acquiring a local carton business.
(Since 1913, Marlin has had a side business of manufacturing glass-enclosed bulletin boards used for communication with workers in a plant, or in other similar situations. “Marlin News Centers” were the brainstorm of an earlier company president. However, since that time the company has stuck strictly to the manufacture of sporting firearms.)
When asked whether Marlin had ever considered manufacturing ammunition as well, Kenna replies, “When General Motors starts making gasoline, that's when Marlin will consider making ammunition.”
Like most industries, the gun industry has had to contend with the challenge of foreign competition. Europeans have a centuries-old legacy of firearms manufacture. More recently, Latin Americans and the Chinese have entered the market.
Kenna says the key to Marlin's successful rebuffing of foreign competitors has been the quality of its products. While some European guns are equal in quality to American firearms, they are considerably more expensive. Most foreign guns, Kenna says, are noticeably inferior products. Foreign makers “are not as good at mass production,” Kenna says.
In recent years, things have more or less leveled out in the gun industry. There is slow, steady growth. Surprisingly, the rise in gun-control legislation, rather than hurting the industry, has actually heightened interest in sport shooting.
A key to Marlin's current marketing philosophy is responsiveness to customer demand. Each new Marlin firearm owner is polled as to features he or she likes, doesn't like, or would like to see added in the future.
While the company makes about 12 basic models, it is continually developing new products. Five new models, for example, are slated for introduction in 1999.
Perhaps the bottom line is that the people at Marlin simply enjoy making fine firearms. “It's fun,” says Kenna. “Guns are a psychologically pleasing retail product.” BNH
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