A German manufacturer of handguns and assault weapons said it is expanding its Columbus operations as part of a move to close its plant in New Hampshire.
Heckler & Koch said it expects to add 84 new jobs in Columbus over the next two years as a result of a $28.5 million expansion that will add a new 50,000 square-foot factory in the west Georgia city.
The company said it expects to have the new facility ready by this summer and to “consolidate” its plant in Newington, N.H., at that time.
“HK’s new U.S. factory will make use of advanced manufacturing technologies and will be staffed by German and American engineers and technicians,” said Francisco Hidalgo, CEO of HKUSA.
The company, which announced the move late last week, said it “worked closely” with the Georgia Department of Economic Development and Columbus’ chamber of commerce and development authority before deciding to consolidate operations in Georgia.
Columbus is home to the U.S. Army’s Fort Benning, a large training center and for its infantry and elite Ranger special operations units.
Company officials did not respond to a reporter’s emails.
The company is eligible for a number of state and federal tax credits tied to creating new jobs and investments for capital equipment, said Stefanie Harper, director of communications for the Georgia Department of Economic Development. She did not provide a dollar total for the expected incentives.
“They don’t get the money until they create the jobs,” she said.
Incentives offered to Heckler & Koch for earlier expansion plans in Columbus became a sore issue in the past.
The state offered a $300,000 grant to back Heckler & Koch's plans to build a 200-employee gun factory in Columbus more than a decade ago, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. But the company drastically downsized the project, to a 15-employee distribution center, after it failed to land a $1 billion military contract — a pre-condition the company had failed to disclose to state officials, the AJC reported.
The state froze the $300,000 grant and no state money was lost.
The New Hampshire Union Leader reported last week that Heckler & Koch’s Newington plant, newly opened in 2008, makes pistols as well as HK MR556 and HK MR762 rifles, which are semi-automatic assault weapons intended for U.S. and foreign military and law enforcement customers.
In April, the newspaper reported, Heckler & Koch also announced that it had landed a $44.5 million contract with the U.S. Army to produce 3,643 compact sniper rifles for its units, including spare parts and training.
