Looks like Colt is in financial trouble, after 160+years will this be the end of a era or will they become another name in a portfolio like many of the other industry giants have.
http://www.colt.com/ColtintheMedia/P...ded-Terms.aspx
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Looks like Colt is in financial trouble, after 160+years will this be the end of a era or will they become another name in a portfolio like many of the other industry giants have.
http://www.colt.com/ColtintheMedia/P...ded-Terms.aspx
Get em while you can.
Heh, I posted this last year, the year before, the year before.
Colts in trouble every year but they get bailed out at the last minute.
This year maybe I will bail em out.
They narrowly averted a bankruptcy in Nov 14. This is sad news. But it's a new world and competition is tough. A company always needs to be on it's "A" game to stay around...even Colt.
Anxiously awaiting Obammy to bail them out ala GM............
Colts are fine guns, they just seem to appeal to an older crowd. Most of this may be caused by the price being higher than most others. And the fact that the plastic mainspring housing cracked on my Delta is a bit of crap. They need to make something as refined as the Ruger 1911, at about the same price. Or I'd by a Peacemaker if the were under a grand.
Obammy bailing out a gun manufacturer. Color me surprised if he does. Glad I got my XSE Commanders in 9 mm and .45 before the bottom falls out. Warranty repair? Not counting on it.Quote:
Originally Posted by BPTactical
If Colt has financial troubles in this market, they're clearly doing something very wrong. Economic darwinism.
I love Colt guns. Wish I had more.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bailey Guns
The WWI, WW2, and Vietnam crowd. Fine guns but a little overpriced due to sentimental reasons IMHO... especially their 1911'sQuote:
Originally Posted by ben4372
They just kept their stuff too high priced for too long. When even a RIA is shooting relatively well, it is hard to justify more money for a colt for the average joe.
Why own Colt when you can own Glock?
Why say stupid things on the internet?Quote:
Originally Posted by Bunny
Does Glock make an AR-15? Did Glock make 1911 pistols in WWI and WWII? Does Glock make single action revolvers? Can I own a Glock and a Colt?
Colt's prices have more to do with their labor force than sentimental reasons. And with their new stocking dealer program the prices (at wholesale, anyway) are significantly lower than they have been.
Yes, for the record.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bailey Guns
Either that or I didn't get the memo. :)
O2
I agree with this. Most average Joe's I come across, just want a 1911 to have a 1911, not because of the name on the side.Quote:
Originally Posted by sniper7
Someone will always buy that name, at least for the model P / SAA.
There is no better way to boost sales than to create a shortage by announcing a going out of business sale. This should get them over the hump for the short run. They have good products if they would just price them competitively and stop looking for government handouts (contracts).
I love Colt, but I think they need some new designs.
I am certain that is the first time I have seen "refined" and "Ruger" used in the same sentence.Quote:
Originally Posted by ben4372
That said, I can't find fault with their SR1911 - other than using a cast (vs forged) frame and barstock (vs forged) slide. Nice gun.
While this is true, it seems crazy that they're picking this point, while they're on the edge of bankrupcy, to start restricting which dealers can sell their product. To say you have to buy a minimum of 10 guns they've selected, or you can't buy any, when Colts just aren't selling as well as other products is baffling to me. I might sell a 1911 or an AR here and there, but what am I going to do with mandatory Colt Mustangs?Quote:
Originally Posted by Bailey Guns
Maybe they're trying to sell the idea that Colt is "special"?? I guess it briefly worked for M855... :)
Never understood why they stopped making the DA revolvers (Python, King Cobra, Anaconda). Those sure were nice.
Yep, this.Quote:
Originally Posted by funkymonkey1111
Interesting article about the history of Colt's lack of leadership:
http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles...fter-crisis#p1
Maybe if it was run by someone more in tune with guns rather than Wall Street, they could turn the company around.
IBTL
Not sure what that post has to do with COLT.
And.....a troll.
As kid said IBTL.
Sent from my VS880 using Tapatalk
Time to block an IP.
I thought Bush ran Colt into the groundQuote:
Originally Posted by airborneranger
No shit...... This thread was to inform fellow members of the troubles a cornerstone in the firearms industry currently facing. Not a thread for a political rank and a place to rip on members. FJOQuote:
Originally Posted by airborneranger
Less paperwork and overhead for them when multiple guns are ordered at a time vs 10 separate orders at 1 gun a piece.. Big orders look good on the books when you have outsiders looking in over your shoulder.Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian
I see this all the time in my industry.. Companies go with independent rep firms then at some point get the idea to save money and sell in house while weeding out the fly by night and small order dealers then when that fails they go back to independent reps and so on over and over... All the big consumer electronics firms constantly go through this.
^^ That may be true but it won't apply to Colt. They'll be selling guns in bulk to distributors. I don't think they fill individual dealer orders except for Custom Shop type special stuff.
Even Kimber, which is dealer direct, requires a hefty buy-in in order for a dealer to qualify as a Master Dealer. Then they require minimum orders after that...or they did, anyway. The upside is dealers get the best pricing that way. A mom and pop shop that's a Master Dealer gets the same pricing as a huge retailer.
This just in: Poorly run business appears to be going out of business. Film at 11:00.
anyone know what ever happened with the rumor Colt was buying LWRC for 60 million ?
Colt probably realized they don't have 60 million dollars to spare right around the time they filed chapter 11.Quote:
Originally Posted by motoboy
Colt has been sold and resold multiple times since the 1970s. Only if the new masters impose their ideology upon their servants will the change ever be noticed.
Sometimes change is for the better. More often, change is for change's sake and ends up being for the bad.
Amen to Laissez-faire and the free market!!!!
This mornings news showed a crawler that said Colt filed for chapter 11 today.
We knew it was headed that way.
Maybe Colt will follow Winchester's example and sell the name to FN, Browning, contract with Miroku in Japan, and create other items with the Chinese.
[Train]
If/when they close down I'm sure any Colt will see a spike in value.Quote:
Originally Posted by 10x
This gives a bit more info from a purely economic viewpoint. Yes, this is Bloomburg (but the trading platform) and yes I am aware that might as well be synonymous with Satan around here but he does not have anything to do with the writing when it comes to this level. I have no reason to not belive this is true. For those of you going for laissez-faire economics (which by the way is French)........ so since these guys bought Colt and basically sucked it dry........ You would be good if a Billionaire like Bloomburg simply went out, bought all of the major gun manufactures (and probably ammo resources like Hodgdon) through dummy corporations and then one day just shut them all down? Guess that means he will win eventually. To be clear: I am not saying to-big/old-to-fail but this seems like an easy and cheap way for that assclown to win.
Quote:
The gun company founded by Samuel Colt has flirted with financial disaster for much of its 179-year history. Now the storied West Hartford (Conn.) maker of rifles and pistols is heading into Chapter 11, in large part because of more than a decade of dubious financial engineering and accumulating debt.
Quote:
Colt Defense, as the main part of the company is now known, filed for bankruptcy protection on Sunday while listing as much as $500 million in debt. Cooling demand for its civilian semiautomatic rifles and handguns, as well as delays in certain large U.S. government and foreign military orders, have exacerbated the company's finances. But the main reason the company hasn't weathered rocky market conditions since the winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is that the New York financiers who control the company borrowed too much and paid themselves lavishly.
As I reported in a feature story last year, the private equity firm Sciens Capital and its affiliates loaded Colt with debt since the mid-2000s while taking cash out in the form of "distributions" and "advisory fees." Sciens remains the controlling owner of Colt Defense, according to a regulatory filing. An executive with Sciens did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
In 2009 and 2010, meanwhile, Colt somehow missed out on the "Obama surge," a run of strong civilian gun sales prompted by fears whipped up by the National Rifle Association that the Democratic president would stiffen federal gun control. The panic-based buying that lifted the small arms industry has now eased, making it even more difficult for Colt to move the military-style semiautomatic rifles it had hoped would be its salvation. "The industry's recent rapid growth is expected to slow over the next five years, increasing at a more modest average annual rate of 4.1 percent," according to the research firm Ibisworld.
Here's how Bloomberg News is reporting on the bankruptcy protection filing:Colt’s current sponsor Sciens Capital Management LLC has agreed to act as a stalking horse bidder for all of its assets and liabilities related to existing agreements, according to a statement from the gunmaker. Existing secured lenders have agreed, subject to court approval, to provide a $20 million debtor-in-possession credit facility, Colt said. The current management team will remain in place.Open for business, perhaps, but vulnerable now to being sold off in pieces with little remaining behind the brand associated with such iconic firearms as the 1873 Single Action Army, known as "the gun that won the West," and the Colt 1911, the official sidearm of U.S. Army soldiers from WWI through Vietnam.
“Colt remains open for business,” Chief Restructuring Officer Keith Maib said in the statement.