Sturm, Ruger confirmed Wednesday afternoon that they will acquire the historic Marlin Firearms brand from Remington and add it to their line up.
Ruger was the successful bidder for the Marlin assets in Remington's Chapter 11 sale last week for $30 million. The agreement was accepted by Remington and has been approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
"The value of Marlin and its 150-year legacy was too great of an opportunity for us to pass up," said Ruger President and CEO Chris Killoy in a statement. "The brand aligns perfectly with ours and the Marlin product portfolio will help us widen our already diverse product offerings."
Marlin was formed in 1870 in Connecticut by firearms designer John Mahlon Marlin. While the company produced handguns, shotguns, and machine guns over its existence, as well as bolt- and pump-action rifles, it is in the field of lever-action "cowboy" guns that it made its reputation, cranking out more than 30 million such rifles by 2008.
Acquired by Remington over a decade ago and moved from its long-time New England home, the company's current catalog includes the Model 1895, Model 1894, and Model 336 lever-action rifles as well as the Model 60, Model 795, and XT-series rimfire rifles. It is unclear if Ruger, who has seen wild success with their own rimfire line built around the Ruger 10/22 series, will continue production of Marlin's legacy .22s.
Court filings detail that Ruger stands to acquire more than 80 pages of tooling, machines, components, and spare parts needed to produce Marlin firearms as well as related intellectual property, patents, FFLs, domain names, social media pages, and trademarks. Ruger made clear this week that the deal will not include "Remington firearms, ammunition, other Remington Outdoor brands" or facilities, and real estate. Once the sale is completed in October, Ruger will start moving the Marlin-centric assets from Remington's current facilities.
"The important thing for consumers, retailers, and distributors to know at this point in time," continued Killoy, "is that the Marlin brand and its great products will live on. Long Live the Lever Gun."