The story of Winchester starts with a story of economic collapse. Its predecessor the Volcanic Repeating Arms Company in 1857 became in solvent. The next firm to head up the production of the repeating rifle was the New Haven Arms Company. It was during this period that the Henry Rifle was first offered. A dispute over the change of the name of the New Haven Arms Company to the Henry Repeating Rifle Company cause Oliver F Winchester to separate from the New Haven Arms Company and found the Winchester Arms Company in 1866. Due to liens on equipment Winchester became the de facto heir to the lever action business.
The company progressed and did well until the double sided sword of World War 1. In 1918 the large amount of debt the company took on to expand to cover the increased production demands of the war years combined with financial predictions for after the end of the war caused the company to re-organize as the Winchester Company with the Kidder, Peabody & Company as the major financial backer.With the new influx of capital the company went on an acquisition spree.
However in August of 1922 the company merged with the Associated Simmons Hardware Companies to become the Winchester Simmons Company. This expansion of operations to increase cash flows to covered the debt load didn't work for long and in 1924 began to cause losses. This however didn't cause them to stop this course. In 1929 the company once again had to re-organize with the Winchester Simmons Company change its name to the Mercantile Securities Corporation which became the holding company for the Winchester Repeating Arms Company of Delaware.
Unfortunately, the stock market crash of 1929 doomed both companies and in 1930 they were in failure, but managed to maintain operations in 1931 the company fell into full receivership and was purchased by its major competitor in the cartridge business, the Western Cartridge Company of Alton, Illinois.The Olin family established the Winchester Repeating Arms Company of Maryland in that same year and a formal transfer of the assets was complete.
The next several years were characterized by varying levels of success, but by the 1960's a switch in designs and from forgings to castings was to cause 1964 to become a pivotal date in the history of the company. The following years were full of issues with quality and acceptance. A severe decline that began in 1976 was topped off by a 6 month labor strike in 1979 that lead to the sale of the arms side of the company.
In 1981 the company was purchased by the U.S. Repeating Arms Company. This was the official end to the tradition of these firearms being made by a company actually named Winchester. Since that date all rifles have been made under the license of the name from the Olin Corporation. In 1987 the ownership of U.S. Repeating Arms changed and again in 1990 when the sole ownership passed to Fabrique Nationale who continues ownership to the present day.