AMMO Inc., producer of high-performance ammunition and components and owner of GunBroker.com, held a grand opening of its new 185,000-square-foot ammunition manufacturing facility in Manitowoc, WI, on Sept. 22. Attendees at the ribbon-cutting ceremony included a number of state and local officials, as well as company chairman and CEO Fred Wagenhals and directors Richard Childress, Harry Markley, Jessica Lockett and Rob Goodmanson.
“We are incredibly excited to expand our company’s footprint here in Manitowoc. I’m proud of the entire Ammo team for their hard work on this project, which will provide a solid foundation for the company’s continued growth in the ammunition and components manufacturing side of our business,” Wagenhals said. “The other new plant opportunities we aggressively and diligently explored were substantially more expensive and involved proposed schedules that would have set our operations back considerably. The efforts of the collective Ammo, city of Manitowoc, and general contractor/architect teams over the past 18 months were critical to ensuring that the project was executed successfully, on-time and within our budget, with incredibly helpful assistance provided by Mayor Nickels’ team throughout.”
The 185,000-square-foot manufacturing plant integrates state-of-the-art capabilities, allowing the company to significantly expand production capacity to meet the increased demand for its commercial, military and law enforcement products, both domestically and overseas. AMMO currently employs more than 300 people in Manitowoc and anticipates hiring another 100 team members over the next year with the completion of the new facility.
In August AMMO announced its intention to separate its cartridge and marketplace (GunBroker.com) businesses into two separate firms. “AMMO’s management team and board completed a detailed analysis and assessment of our operations, business units and growth opportunities, all with the singular goal of unlocking and enhancing shareholder value,” Wagenhals said at the time. The publicly traded firm’s leading stockholder, however, has launched an effort to halt the split.
