Horry County gives gun maker PTR Industries more time to pay overdue rent

PTR Industries missed a September deadline to pay Horry County more than $50,000 in overdue rent, but county officials say they will give the Aynor gun maker more time to cover that debt.

The extension is the third the company has received this year, though public records indicate PTR, which makes military-style rifles, has been paying its monthly rent since the county threatened to retake the building that serves as PTR’s headquarters in June.

“Everything’s good,” said Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus. “They’re working through a refinance deal on some other stuff they have which will work some other things out for them. As far as their rent payments and what we’ve agreed to, they’re doing fine. There’s no problems at all.”

County officials sent a default notice to PTR on June 10 stating that the company had 30 days to pay its rent or the county would retake the building the company leases in the Cool Springs Business Park. At the time, PTR owed the county more than $73,000.

The letter stated that county officials had tried to work out a payment plan with the company but hadn’t received any payments since March 23. The county had previously reached out to PTR on Jan. 30 about late rent.

Despite the urgent tone of the June letter, county officials worked out a repayment plan with the company that called for all debts being settled by Sept. 15, including a final check for nearly $53,000.

That payment wasn’t made, but county spokeswoman Lisa Bourcier said the arrangement was an informal one and no contract was signed by either party. She said the county expects the final payment in 30-60 days.

PTR moved from Connecticut to South Carolina in 2013 after lawmakers in the company’s home state enacted new gun policies in response to the Sandy Hook school massacre.

When the company originally agreed to move to Aynor, its leaders promised they would have 100 employees after three years and 150 within five. The company has about 50 full-time employees.

Despite the rent issues, PTR leaders are optimistic about the company’s future in South Carolina and its relationship with the county.

Josh Fiorini, PTR’s CEO, said via email that the repayment plan the company and the county worked out in July was contingent upon PTR negotiating a loan agreement for a property the company owns in Connecticut.

“The county knew this at the time and that the timeline for the payment would be subject to that process,” he said. “At the time, we set 9/15 as a guideline date by which we expected to be able to close on that deal. Unfortunately, that process has taken longer than we thought to bring to the finish line and is not done yet.”

Fiorini noted that his company has shown in recent months that it is committed to paying off its debt.

“We are working toward the same goal, despite the fact that we weren’t able to settle the issue fully by 9/15,” he said. “In the meantime, since our meetings with the county in early July we have made $43,699.66 in payments to date, which I imagine has generated some good faith in addition to bringing the overall balance down (despite new month accruals) over the period. We are still working toward paying the full old balance, now with a guideline date of 11/15, and I think we will achieve that. The county is comfortable with that arrangement so long as we continue making monthly payments of at least the current amounts due (which we have, we can and we will).”

PTR leaders also said this year’s sales have been a dramatic improvement over those in 2014, which saw the company lay off workers amid sharp declines.

“The sales for the PTR brand have been unusually strong for the summer months, on both a national level and locally,” said John McNamara, the company’s executive vice president. “All in all, things are going well. We just received a contract increase in both unit price and unit quantity on our contract manufacturing work, which should create 4-6 new jobs prior to the year’s end.”

Wal-Mart recently announced that its stores would stop carrying high-powered rifles, the kind similar to those PTR makes. The retail giant cited a decline in demand as reason for its decision.

PTR’s McNamara said he wasn’t surprised by what happened with Wal-Mart and noted that his company doesn’t do business with the big box store.

“Because of the high demand for the AR style rifle, new manufacturing outfits popped up seemingly overnight to take advantage of the demand, which resulted in a huge surplus of unwanted inventory which is probably why Wal-Mart is seeing declining sales for this style firearm,” he said. “If we look at the firearms industry from a few steps further back, sales are healthy and we have seen a very busy summer.”

Lazarus, the council chairman, said the fact that PTR has been making its monthly rent payments is a good sign. There’s another positive indicator, too.

“All the people that they laid off awhile back, they hired them all back,” he said. “That’s plenty of people working out there. Moving along, they’ve got business. And that’s a good thing.”

This story was originally published October 10, 2015 at 1:47 AM with the headline "Horry County gives gun maker PTR Industries more time to pay overdue rent."