Sig Sauer announces closure of factory in Germany

The German arms company Sig Sauer has announced it intends to close its arms factory in Eckernförde by the end of year. The company blamed "locational handicaps" and the German military and police preferring a "few other local producers". The media group NDR claimed that the companies shareholders are "are no longer willing to invest additional money in the financially troubled company."

The campaign group Aktion Aufschrei (Action Outcry) also pointed to research that suggests the company may have illegally shipped weapons to Mexico, despite senior staff at Sig Sauer being given suspended sentences in 2019 after delivering thousands of weapons to Colombia without the required authorisation from the German government.

Sig Sauer is made up of two companies, one based in Germany (Sig Sauer GmbH & Co.KG) and the other (Sig Sauer Inc) in Newington, New Hampshire, where 1000 employees produce around 43,000 weapons a year. Both companies are wholly owned by the German holding company L&O Holding.