Smith & Wesson (SWHC) Announces Streamlining of Operations; Cuts 80 Jobs

September 25, 2008 4:25 PM EDT

Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation (Nasdaq: SWHC) announced that it has implemented management changes to streamline its organization and to provide enhanced sales and marketing focus. The Company also announced that it has eliminated approximately 80 hunting-related rifle production jobs at its Rochester, New Hampshire facility.

Michael F. Golden, President and Chief Executive Officer, said, "As we have discussed over the past several months, economic conditions and their impact on consumer discretionary spending have negatively impacted the hunting-related long gun portion of our business. As is the case in any manufacturing organization, reduced volumes create added pressure on our infrastructure, which has been built to service higher levels of operation. Until the market for these products strengthens, we remain focused on making sure that our factories operate efficiently. We have made the difficult decision to eliminate 80 production jobs in our New Hampshire manufacturing operations, a facility dedicated to the production of hunting rifles. At the same time, we have also acted to ensure that the sales and marketing functions throughout our company become increasingly streamlined, maximizing our responsiveness to the market conditions in which we operate. We are executing these changes in a manner that assures that we can continue to be responsive to the needs of our customers."

As part of the revised management structure, Leland A. Nichols has been appointed to the newly created role of Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Thomas R. Kelly has been named Vice President of Marketing.[SM]

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