Photo courtesy of The Ford Report

Paint manufacturer Brass Eagle will be closing the doors on its Neosho, Missouri-based manufacturing facility in mid-February. The factory will continue full production until mid-January, when it will begin scaling down. By mid-February, the plant will close, leaving at least 60 people out of work.

The 2009 recession hit the paintball industry hard, with many operations scaling down and others closing shop for good. According to reports, Neosho’s director of economic development Gib Garrow is already hard at work to find jobs for soon-to-be former Brass Eagle employees.

Brass Eagle was best known for manufacturing recreational-grade paintballs sold at paintball retail outlets as well as mass market retailers like Wal-mart.

As for the other brands owned by Brass Eagle’s parent company, Jarden? JT Sports continues business as usual, in spite of rumors to the contrary.

In an exclusive interview with JT’s Chuck Geiling, Shooting Hot Editor-in-Chief and publisher of the Ford Report, Dale Ford lays the rumors of JT’s closing to rest. In a phone interview with Ford, Geiling noted the closing of the Brass Eagle paintball manufacturing plant will have no impact whatsoever on JT Sports’ product lines, including VL Viewloaders and JT’s lines of goggles, paintball guns and soft goods.