Iconic gunmaker Colt is on the brink of bankruptcy

CNN Money ^ | 6/13/2015 | Aaron Smith

[BenLurkin]

Well, the obvious thing is for fedgub to step in an order an AR-15 for every adult citizen.

Kenyes would be proud.

[umgud]

My only Colt.

[Jeff Chandler]

I wonder how much of their financial woes is due to labor costs?

[advertising guy]

Bttt

[FlingWingFlyer]

My thoughts also.

[Cicero]

I don’t think it has helped Colt to have its headquarters in Hartford, CT. Connecticut was one of the biggest manufacturing states in earlier times, but those times have gone. The state is weighed down with taxes and gun haters.

[Farmer Dean]

I’ve got the same gun,it was made in 1916.A family friend carried it in the Argonne Forest in 1918.

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Mismanagement of money.

[headstamp 2]

What’s this the fifth go round with this outfit?

If a gun company can’t make it in this environment, they need to hang it up.

[headstamp 2]

That’s a real piece of history. Cherish it.

[umgud]

Wow. Mine’s circa early 2,000’s.

[Chainmail]

Colt has been in sad straits for years. The company had some labor issues about 20 years ago, just when the company was transitioning to a leadership team who was looking for ways to make the products cheaper. I was interviewed twice by Colt for an executive position but both times I asked to see the production floor and to talk to the craftsmen. That was not a proper thing to do according the Front Office and they didn't want me both times.

When I went to Hartford, Colt still had very fine workers and outstanding craftsmen, particularly in the Colt Custom Gunshop but the factory floor was dirty and filled with both 19th Century overhead belt-driven polishers and computer-controlled machinery stations. While the Colt workers wanted to keep making the beautifully-hand finished Colts we all know and admire, the Front Office wanted castings and plastic and roll pins.

Never could convince them that we want quality and most of us are willing to pay the difference. Their loss.

[PAR35]

Incompetent management. Anyone who would keep a firearms manufacturer in Connecticut shouldn’t be able to take refuge in the ‘business judgment rule’.

[barmag25]

So where did the profits go from the past 7 years? No liquid was saved for slowdown in sales?

Poor planning and management. How did they not plan for a slowdown in sales after everybody stocked up.

[Lurker]

We have two Colts. One Combat Commander and one Python. Our most recent acquisitions is a brace of Kimber 1911s. Superb quality guns those. Accurate right out of the box, too. After the recommended break in they’re eating everything we feed them.

Sorry, Colt but the cost delta between you and Kimber just wasn’t enough to swing things your way.

L

[Lurker]

See post 16.

Best,

L

[umgud]

Nuthing wrong with Kimbers

[Delta 21]

Ammend that to “any new Colt product” and I will support it!

[rey]

I’m certain they will get a bail out just like GM.