[Dean Speir]

Hodgdon Acquires Assets of IMR

This would have been huge news for High Power competitors a decade or so ago, but now I'm not so sure that this is a stop-the-presses, replate the front page kinda deal.

But it's nice to know that IMR (nee Dupont) 4895 lives on!

Tom Shepherd still has a sense of humor…

Hodgdon has no plans to consolidate the lines from either company. We feel that they both have unique (excuse the wording) features and advantages. We will continue to supply the IMR products unchanged from their current manufacturing plant. We look forward to doing more aggressive marketing and updating some of the IMR data etc. We hope that you will continue to use our products and appreciate the business that you have given us in the past.

Whattya think, Charlie?

 

[Daniel Watters]

It seems oddly appropriate since Bruce Hodgdon started his business after WW2 repackaging surplus military powders, of which much was DuPont's IMR family.

 

[Charlie Petty]

I think it makes business sense.

IMR has always had a big share of the OEM market from most of the big ammo companies and since Hodgdon had no manufacturing facilities (except for Pyrodex) they had a hard time being price competitive. The purchase gives them a place to make smokeless powder which can only be good.

The thing that strikes me as interesting is that Hodgdon has done a wonderful job of coming up with powders that compete very effectively with the best IMR numbers. There have been more than a few cases where I found that Hodgon's product did better than the comparable IMR number. Some of the stuff from Australia is really great.

It will be interesting to see how this shakes out. I think it's a good business move but I don't know that it will have much effect on the handloader.