Bullet-maker seeks to expand facility in Brownville, add jobs

BROWNVILLE – A company that makes bullets has been working since May 16 from a leased facility on Route 11 but now wants a permanent home.

To help X-Ring Industries of Maine, an offshoot of MDM Muzzleloaders Limited of Maidstone, Vt., Brownville officials are hoping that residents will support a Community Development Block Grant application of up to $400,000 at a special town meeting next week. A public hearing will begin at 6:30 p.m. followed by a special town meeting on Aug. 8 at the Brownville Elementary School.

“We’re excited to have a manufacturing company within our Pine Tree Zone,” Brownville Town Manager Sophia Wilson said Monday. She said the company is talking about creating jobs for 14 to 20 people. “These jobs will give a much-needed boost to our local economy,” she said.

“Company officials have indicated that approval of the grant is extremely important for the company’s growth,” Marc Scarano, executive director of the Piscataquis County Economic Development Council, said Monday. Scarano’s office is working closely with Brownville officials in the CDBG application.

“[The grant is] absolutely essential if we expand up there,” Craig Sanborn, president and chief executive officer for MDM and X-Ring, said Monday. The company can provide the local grant match, he said.

Sanborn said the closure of Ox Yoke in Milo, a manufacturer of gun accessories, prompted the creation of X-Ring. Before it closed last spring, Ox Yoke was building part of MDM’s product line, he said. That closure left MDM without a supplier.

Since there is a trained and reliable work force from Ox Yoke, Sanborn said the company opted to temporarily produce its “Dyno-core” bullets in a leased Katahdin Storage facility rather than relocate the product line to the company’s Vermont plant.

But the continuation of that arrangement hinges on the town getting a block grant to help the company find permanent quarters, he said.

Six people are now employed at X-Ring’s Route 11 business. If the grant is approved, about 18 more positions could be added, Sanborn said. The possibility also exists that the product line could be expanded to add even more jobs, he said.