April 27, 2024
RICHMOND HILL, Ga. — Firearm components manufacturer C&H Precision broke ground last week on a 50,000-square-foot multipurpose building near Savannah in Richmond Hill, where the company said it expects to roughly triple its current local workforce of 35 employees after completion in 2025.
The expansion marks the latest economic development project in bustling Bryan County, which has seen a deluge of investment in recent years, headlined by Hyundai's massive $7.6 billion electric vehicle plant slated to begin production early next year.
“Nobody thought we would ever pull off anything,” former longtime Development Authority of Bryan County director Sean Register said at the C&H groundbreaking, referring to the county's early efforts to attract businesses. “You look around today, and it is amazing.”
According to Census data, Bryan County was the sixth-fastest growing in the U.S. by population percentage, between 2010 and 2020, as well as the fastest-growing county in Georgia across that same period.
C&H Precision, which relocated to Richmond Hill in 2017 from Florida, manufactures red-dot sights and sight mounts for pistols.
It was ranked last year by business magazine Inc. as the fastest-growing privately held manufacturing company in the Southeast, based on revenue percentage growth from 2019 to 2021.
Speaking at the groundbreaking, C&H Precision owner Buck Holly recalled that ranking as “a moment of validation and a testament to the hard work and dedication of every individual who has been part of this journey with me. But let me be clear: we are just getting started.”
The $17 million development, located on the north side of Richmond Hill just off of Interstate 95, will encompass factory and office space, as well as a cafe, gun store and gun range open to the public.
The company was not included on Inc.'s most recent ranking, which was released last week. Only one Southeast Georgia business — Savannah-based electrical engineering firm Current Edge Solutions — made the list, which tracked growth between 2020 and 2022.
Gov. Brian Kemp had been scheduled to attend and speak at the groundbreaking, but dense fog in the Savannah area prevented his plane from taking off, according to Kemp's office.
The C&H Precision expansion comes amid other news in Georgia's firearms industry, as LaGrange-based RemArms closed its Remington Firearms legacy factory Monday in upstate New York, paving the way for growth in Troup County, about 60 miles southwest of Atlanta.
