Handgun maker SCCY Industries has announced it will move its factory and headquarters to new 68-acre campus in East Tennessee.

The Knoxville News Sentinel reports (http://bit.ly/2o7qOOL ) that SCCY is relocating to Maryville from Daytona Beach, Florida, and plans to hire at least 350 people at the new facility over the next five years.

SCCY founder and CEO Joe Roebuck says the Florida factory will be gradually shut down, and that only a handful of employees will make the move to Tennessee.

Construction on the new 75,000-square-foot plant is expected to begin as early as the end of this year, and production is expected to begin in the second half of 2018.

Italian gun maker Beretta last year celebrated the opening of its new manufacturing and research facility outside Nashville.—AP

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