Ruger quietly relocated its corporate headquarters from Southport, Conn., to Mayodan, N.C., in January 2026. The company maintains some operations in Connecticut, but the change increases management personnel at the firm’s largest production facility.
“Our largest footprint, employee base and production capacity is in Mayodan,” Rob Werkmeister, a Ruger spokesperson wrote in a statement to Connecticut Insider magazine. “Additionally, we were using less than 20% of the total footprint of the Southport facility over recent years.”
None of the roughly 20 employees based in the state lost their jobs or were forced to relocate due to the move. Some of the company’s key personnel, including chief executive officer, chief financial officer and general counsel did not have their offices at the Southport location.
William Batterman Ruger opened a small machine shop in Southport, Conn., not long after World War II. Between jobs, he designed what would become his gun company’s first firearm: the Ruger Standard Model .22 pistol.
Finding the funds to launch his new venture was a challenge, however. In 1949, he formed a partnership with Alexander Sturm—a firearm collector, author and artist—who provided $50,000 in seed money and designed the company logo.
Operations were set up in a small shop nicknamed the “Red Barn” (seen above), and two of the first eight Ruger Standard Models produced went to noted gun writers at the time, including NRA Publications’ Maj. Gen. Julian Hatcher. Another went to a competitive shooter who won a variety of matches with the handgun. The combined publicity they generated resulted in 9,000 backorders by summer of 1950.
Alexander Sturm died in 1951 at the young age of 28. In honor of his memory, black replaced red in the company’s original eagle logo. It remained there until 1999, when the company celebrated its Golden Anniversary.
Manufacturing at Ruger’s Southport site was discontinued in the early 1990s.
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