NEWPORT — Sturm, Ruger & Co. laid off about 10% of the employees at its Upper Valley firearms factory last week, according to state.
The company reported 63 layoffs this month to the state Department of Labor, John Garrigan, the department’s general counsel, said on Tuesday.
Before the layoffs, Sturm, Ruger employed 655 people in Newport, Garrigan said, adding that the Southport, Conn.-based company said that it had no plans at this time for additional job cuts.
“They’re not closing the location,” Garrigan said in a phone interview.
Ruger produces some of its pistol models, most of its revolvers, and some of its rifle
models at the Newport facility, according to its 2024 financial disclosures.
On Monday, Sturm, Ruger spokesman Rob Werkmeister confirmed there had been layoffs across the company but had declined to say how many people the company had laid off in Newport.
The company, which also operates firearms manufacturing plants in Arizona, Kentucky, Missouri and North Carolina, had about 1,750 employees, according to a regulatory filing from last spring.
Werkmeister said Monday that the total number of layoffs across all facilities was less than 5% of the company’s total employees. That would suggest the majority of the cuts were in Newport based on the numbers from the state.
The entire firearms industry has in recent years.
In a conference call with investors in November, Sturm, Ruger & Co. CEO Todd Syfert, who took over his role last year, said the market is trending down 10 to 15%, and added that background checks were down roughly 4% to date compared to 2024.