Smith & Wesson headquarters in Tennessee grand opening announced

MARYVILLE, Tenn. (WATE/WWLP) – Smith & Wesson has officially announced when their new headquarters in Tennessee will open this fall.

A grand opening and fall festival event for the new Smith & Wesson Headquarters is set for Saturday, October 7 in Maryville, Tennessee.

The company announced in September 2021 that it would relocate its headquarters from Massachusetts to East Tennessee, along with distribution, assembly and roughly 550 positions currently located in Springfield. A groundbreaking ceremony at the 240-acre headquarters campus was held in Partnership Park North in Maryville in November 2021.

“Great American companies like Smith & Wesson, who had the option to relocate anywhere in the nation, chose the best state in America and that’s Tennessee,” Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said at the groundbreaking ceremony.

Their move to East Tennessee created hundreds of new jobs in Tennessee. Although Springfield will be losing its headquarters and more than 500 positions, the company has said previously it plans to keep its Springfield location operational with some reconfigurations. This includes operations in forging, machining, metal finishing and assembling revolvers. Smith & Wesson will still have more than 1,000 employees in Massachusetts.

Since 1832, Smith & Wesson has been manufacturing guns in Springfield. However, with Massachusetts lawmakers contemplating legislation that would ban the manufacturing of semi-automatic rifles, Smith & Wesson made the decision to transition to Tennessee.