EAST BLOOMFIELD, N.Y. — More than 100 jobs are on the chopping block in East Bloomfield as the Crosman Corporation prepares to downsize after decades in Ontario County. The air gun manufacturer is expected to shut down the majority of its operations, impacting employees and local businesses that depend on them.

“This closing will affect approximately 150, 160 full-time employees and the great majority of them are in manufacturing and assembly,” said Fred Wille, East Bloomfield Town Supervisor.

After decades of making recreational air rifles, Crosman Corporation is preparing to exit the town of East Bloomfield. Wille says the company was purchased by a competitor, Daisy Manufacturing, an Arkansas-based company.

“When the people from Daisy came to East Bloomfield to look at the plant they said this is a carbon copy of what we have in Arkansas — so there’s no need for duplication,” Wille said.

With no need for mirroring jobs, Wille says Daisy decided to close the East Bloomfield operation.

“It’s a devastating loss to us economically, culturally, commercially,” Wille said. “So the restaurants and service gas stations, the coffee houses — they will all be affected by this loss indirectly.”

Businesses in the area often serve Crosman employees. The owner of Sykes Pizzeria says Crosman employees often come for the lunch rush.

“Having 160 people losing their jobs, that’s horrible obviously. And then it will definitely affect my business in some sort of way, especially my lunch rush,” Sykes said. “I’m assuming I’ll get quite a bit of less people. I see them in here with their Crosman tags on their uniforms. It’s unfortunate.”

In a statement, Crosman Corporation says many employees will be impacted and there is a significant focus on providing support to those affected. Potentially, a small number of employees will transition to working for Daisy.

“We can just hope that somebody comes in and fills that large factory and hopefully provides more jobs to the Bloomfield area,” Sykes said.

The Crosman representative also says there will still be a local manufacturing presence by Crosman, so 20% of those employees will hopefully keep their jobs.

A.I. assisted with the formatting of this story. Click here to see how WHEC News 10 uses A.I.