Colt Company Trouble?

[Shotgun Franklin]

I read an article the other day and it was mentioned that the company is having problems? Anyone know for sure? I usually don't keep up with such stuff.

[St. George]

This is one of those topics that can be best explained by looking it up on the 'Wall Street Journal' and 'Business Insider' websites, rather than on a firearm-oriented website, where uninformed, emotional opinions can take on a life of their own.

Before 'that' happens, head off to your favorite search engine and see what's what from reliable sources that deal with real world business.

Thanks.

Scouts Out!

[Pettifogger]

"Colt" has had problems on and off for the past 25 years.

[Trooper Hook]

Just posting this for info:  http://www.guns.com/2014/11/15/colt-warns-of-possible-default-likely-to-miss-10-9-million-payment/

[yahoody]

That is nasty.  If you thought the prices of USFA guns went crazy.  Wait till you see where the prices of Colt SAAs (or any Colt) goes.

Colt (and Winchester) has had problems since WWII and before.   Boom and bust cycles that use to be from the WARS we were in and now it is just the election cycles.

Best thing that ever happened to the gun industry was 6 years of Obama and the Dems in congress.

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-colt-default-warning-1115-20141114-story.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-13/colt-defense-searches-for-financing-as-default-looms.html

http://online.wsj.com/articles/gun-manufacturer-colt-warns-of-possible-default-1415892942

[Hargrave]

This may not be so bad .... The colt name has value and free markets prevail .... I am sure someone will take charge and with a name like colt .... And a good marketing dept. they may just decide the civilian  market is the future and make the necessary changes to meet the demand.

[yahoody]

Thing that surprised me was not Colt but the rest of the industry mentioned..

"The West Hartford, Connecticut-based gunmaker's competitors are also suffering from reduced demand for firearms. Shares of Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. (SWHC), whose profit narrowed by 45 percent in the first quarter, have fallen 28.5 percent this year. Sturm Ruger & Co. (RGR) is down 49.2 percent. "

[St. George]

Of course, this report's based on figures 'after' the big scare that caused prices to artificially skyrocket, so they all took that to be gospel for future sales predictions...

Scouts Out!

[Trooper Hook]

Colt has secured a 70 million dollar loan avoiding the default deadline I posted about above. See link:   http://www.guns.com/2014/11/18/colt-secures-70-million-loan-to-avoid-default/

[Roscoe Coles]

Well, now Colt is filing for bankruptcy protection.

In recent years, Colt has given away a good bit to S&W.  Colt no longer makes DA revolvers, they have not pursued new developments in semi autos and they have fallen behind a lot of companies in producing and or developing the guns which made them famous (the 1911 and the SAA).  They seem to have focused primarily on military contracts and now that the war is slowing down a bit (for now anyway), its not surprising that they have taken a hit on military contracts. 

I love Colts and have a lot of them.  But, its not really a big surprise that they are having trouble.    I hope they can reorganize and make it out of bankruptcy. Or, failing that, that they get purchased by someone with the will and the means to bring this great company back to a healthy footing. 

[rickk]

It is not surprising.  Connecticut is a very expensive state to do business in. The taxes are near the highest in the country. Unions have brought wages through the roof.  The AR15 is illegal to buy or own in CT as well.

All the other CT gun manufacturers were smart and bailed out of the state a year or more ago. For some reason Colt hung on to false hopes... or is that that maybe the management is old, stale and too close to retirement age to care? I dunno.

Anyway, filing for bankruptcy implies that they want to keep business going, but there doesn't seem to be a plan in place to make things better.  I wonder if the management is just buying some time to fatten up their 401K plans a tiny bit more before they close the doors.

[maldito gringo]

hard to market a quality product when no one cares about quality anymore. I'll take a junked up pre 1970 Colt over an Italian clone anytime. Whatever has happend to the Colt over the last 70 years, it was right when it left the factory and can be put right again. No help for Italian crap, and who wants to try. My 2 cents.

[Jake C]

hard to market a quality product when no one cares about quality anymore. I'll take a junked up pre 1970 Colt over an Italian clone anytime. Whatever has happend to the Colt over the last 70 years, it was right when it left the factory and can be put right again. No help for Italian crap, and who wants to try. My 2 cents.

The Italian guns are fine. And not everyone can afford to spend a grand just for the name 'Colt.'

[Mike]

I think the problem is the name not the product when it comes to cost. The guns are the same intrinsically. The Italian  made guns have given every one interested in the SAA a chance to experance the feel of the old west. The price is affordable and out of the box shoot. To be competitive work needs doing. The Colt SAA is expencive compared to the Italian import and hence people think twice about investing hard earned $ on one or two.
I personal would have a old Colt to collect as a investment but have owned ten Italian made guns to shoot most i have lost little of my investment when sold and i have had hours of enjoyment shooting them.
Colt need to look hard at how there product fits into the market and price them to sell if that is what they want to do. If the want return for there investors they need to sell lots of items at a price people want to pay.

[Roscoe Coles]

When I bought my first Colt SAA from the custom shop, it would not even work.  When I called them about it they told me that it was not intended to be a shooter, but was an heirloom (!!???).  When I sent the gun back for repair, it took them a year to send me a replacement.  But, that was a number of years ago and they have improved their SAAs.  I have one of their recent guns and it is very nice.  But in the time it took Colt to get things worked out, they lost the SAA market to the Italians because they wanted top dollar for guns that were no better and were sometimes a lot worse than what you could get from the folks a Cimmarron and Uberti for a third of the money.

I love my 1938 C prefix Colt 1911.  Top quality, lovely finish.   But take a look at the 1911s that Colt is currently turning out and compare them to the product currently being turned out by Kimber and the other popular makers and you will see that Colt is not keeping up with the desires of the market.  The Colt guns lack the fit and finish, design improvements and range of variation that are common among their competitors. 

Another critical issue is that for the last decade or more, Colt has not really seemed to want to sell things on the civilian market.  They wanted to focus on military contracts.  I used to have a gun store and have worked in and managed others and it was always difficult to get Colts.  Back in the 80s I worked for a Colt distributor on the west coast.  But when I worked at Sportsman's Warehouse, they did not carry Colts.  When I ran a small store in California, I tried to buy Colts for the shop but the distributors never seemed to have them in stock.  So what are dealers and buyers supposed to do?  They buy what is available.

So, with a history of spotty quality, high prices, lack of product development, limited interest in the commercial market and a relatively poor supply chain, its hardly surprising that Colt has been unable to remain profitable in the face of the loss of their military contracts.

But, as I said before, I hope they are able to turn things around and make the company what it should (could) be.

[Capt. John Fitzgerald]

Nothing new.  Colt has a long history of bankruptcy.  Samuel Colt went bankrupt with the Patterson revolver.  Somehow, and God only knows how, Colt has manages to survive.  Buyouts, bailouts, all have contributed to Colt's survival.  Somehow they will manage to survive this latest financial fiasco.  Colt has been on the financial ragged edge for may years now but there is someone out there who will be willing to throw good money after bad to keep the Colt name alive.

[Cliff Fendley]

hard to market a quality product when no one cares about quality anymore. I'll take a junked up pre 1970 Colt over an Italian clone anytime. Whatever has happend to the Colt over the last 70 years, it was right when it left the factory and can be put right again. No help for Italian crap, and who wants to try. My 2 cents.

I've handled plenty of both and the so called Italian crap in recent years has become more acceptable out of the box than Colt. I have seen new Colts so far out of time I couldn't believe it came from a so called custom shop. The Italian ones are hit and miss but for the most part here lately they are very good and I have seen some that are exceptional right out of the box.

You say no one cares about quality but it appears the Italian makers are caring more about it all the time, that or their machining and assembly capabilities are just getting so much better it appears that way.

It's actually Colt that doesn't seem to care about quality as far as function, I don't think they figure people will want to even shoot them and just buy them for investment. I know a lot of guys that have bought them and don't want you to even work the action for fear of scratching the cylinder. I tell them if it is timed right it wont scratch the cylinder if it is used properly.

From a CAS standpoint which is what this board is about I would take three Italian ones for the same price as a new Colt any day of the week.

[Blackpowder Burn]

Saw this in an email from the NRA today.

In the meantime, the company is open for business and fully operational. Sciens Capital Management has made a proposal to purchase Colt, and a press release issued by the legendary firearms company stated, "As part of the Sciens led bid, Colt will be able to reassure its employees and local community of its commitment to continued operations in West Hartford through a long-term extension on the lease for its manufacturing facilities and campus in West Hartford."

Despite the naysayers, I still plan to buy a pair of Colts when I have the funds available.