Roebuck said he is receiving no economic incentives to consolidate and grow his operations in Daytona Beach. Roebuck said while the economic incentives that Blount County and the state of Tennessee offered were enticing, "I never took a dime of it with the exception of the land which I'm giving back." The 68 acres that Blount County had turned over to Roebuck for his planned headquarters campus will be awarded back to The Blount Partnership, Muir said. Roebuck said he is walking away from Maryville after investing nearly $1 million there, Roebuck said he also realized, "it would be too costly to lose production in Daytona Beach and move. He paid his taxes and made donations (to Maryville area charities). We worked diligently with him to help him get employees. We had high expectations when he came here. Jeff Muir, communications director for The Blount Partnership, the economic development group for Blount County, Tennessee, said Roebuck's decision to pull the plug on his Maryville operations "was definitely a shock. "I couldn't get good people because (the other Maryville manufacturer) was sucking them all up," he said. He attributed that primarily to the presence of a large manufacturer in Maryville where the starting pay was much more than he could afford to offer. "Labor costs in Tennessee are 30% more than here (Daytona Beach)," said Roebuck. While Tennessee and Blount County economic development officials "immediately made me feel welcome," Roebuck said he discovered that it was harder than he anticipated to find available skilled workers. He decided last year to temporarily lease a 10,000-square-foot building next to the site of his planned future headquarters "to see what it was really like to do business in Tennessee." Those plans were delayed by an unexpected industry-wide slump in gun sales. He also intended to create 350 jobs there. Roebuck said he originally planned to immediately build a new headquarters campus on 68 acres in Maryville with the goal of beginning production there in 2018. The state of Tennessee and Blount County had offered SCCY roughly $5 million in potential economic incentives to persuade Roebuck in 2017 to agree to move his headquarters and most of his manufacturing operations to the Maryville area outside Knoxville. Roebuck said his company is on track to have one of its best-ever years for sales. "We currently have a 10-month backlog," he said. The roll-out of that new product, combined with a surge in gun sales thanks to the coronavirus pandemic as well as the looming Presidential election has resulted in an upswing in orders for SCCY, said Roebuck. Similar guns made by high-end brands such as Sig Sauer and Springfield typically retail in the $600 to $800 range, Roebuck said. The pistol has a suggested retail price of $289 for a standard model and $389 for one that comes with a red dot sight. The company recently launched its newest product: a light-weight nine millimeter semi-automatic pistol called the DVG whose initials stand for "David versus Goliath," Roebuck said. The New York native describes himself as "an inventor, mechanical design engineer and tool-and-die maker" who has invented a number of products including medical devices over the years.Ī January 2020 article in Guns & Ammo magazine described SCCY as "a leading brand in affordable carry pistols (that) is revolutionizing the everyday-carry market with the launch of their red dot-equipped CPX-1 RD and CPX-2 RD nine millimeter pistols." The company makes semi-automatic pistols that offer the quality of high-end guns, but at more affordable prices, according to Roebuck. "I'm fully invested here," said Roebuck, who started SCCY in a small leased building in South Daytona in 2003. Roebuck also recently paid $1.7 million to buy an aircraft hangar home in the Spruce Creek Fly-In community in Port Orange. He said he expects to add 30 more workers here that would boost his total work force locally to 200 by year's end. "By the end of October, 100% of our products will be manufactured in Daytona Beach," Roebuck said. Roebuck recently agreed to lease a 20,000-square-foot space there with possible plans to lease additional space in that building as his business grows. He said he will close his plant there by the end of October and move the manufacturing equipment to Daytona Beach.Ī second manufacturing plant is set to open here in a portion of the former Costa Del Mar headquarters building at the Center Point Business Park on Mason Avenue. Roebuck said he informed economic development officials in Tennessee last week of his decision to scrap plans to build a nine-building headquarters campus there. View Gallery: Gun maker SCCY Firearms to close Tennessee plant to expand in Daytona
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