COLT Layoffs ?

[il.bill]

I just read a short article on the Midsouth Shooters Blog concerning layoffs at Colt: http://www.mssblog.com/2017/03/03/colt-re-enters-the-rumor-mill-with-layoffs/.

Apparently 'pink slips' are going out at the venerable firearm company, including Brent Turchi, Colt’s customer service and pro shop director. The blog post contains link(s) to other forums talking (or speculating?) about the developments. I did not see a thread on THR concerning this, so what have folks heard?

 

[tarosean]

I read about this yesterday, a couple hours before picking up a Colt custom shop gun. I sure hope there are no issues with the gun.

 

[PabloJ]

I would say next two years till mid-term elections will be very very hard on the bottom line of most gun companies. The employees will most likely be on "Raman Noodle" diet until the 2020 election.

 

[Slamfire]

The real news will come out. We don't know from the layoff of one employee or a few employees just what that means short term, medium term, or long term. It is my recollection from an American Rifleman article, is that Colt has less than 100 employees. Most of the component work must be subcontracted out.

Hard to know from the outside just what is going on, but Colt has very little of the firearm market. Its main products are $1000 + single action revolvers and M1911's. That area is well covered by others who make decent products but at a lower price. I recently was looking for a 9mm 1911, handled a few Colt M1911's. One was as loose as a goose but was priced on the high end of loose as a goose M1911's. The other was tight and well fitted but on the high end of well built M1911's. I was not going to pay a premium for the Pony and ended up with a Kimber. I am hoping Colt lasts long enough so I can handle their re introduced revolvers.

The only thing Colt has, is its past. There are many who will buy based on historical brand names, but I wonder if that group is dwindling. With so many great American brands placed on junk coming out of Mexico, China, Vietnam, Thailand, etc, brand loyalty means very little anymore. Colt sold its name for use on cheap cutlery. In my opinion that really cheapened the brand. I bought a Colt branded knife only to find that it was made abroad and it was not all that different from other low quality knives made overseas.

I wonder when we will see Colt branded firearms coming out of China? Will people still buy them just for the Pony?

 

[gun_with_a_view]

Apparently there's been a significant downturn for gun manufacturers lately:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sm...as-trumps-surprise-win-saps-demand-2017-03-03

It looks to be another long, hot summer this year in the large urban cities IMHO. Guns acquisitions may be back on shortly. Stay tuned.

 

[PapaG]

My Ruger stock has been falling steadily.

 

[CapnMac]

Well, the stories about Colt Canada being shuttered other than for those on the C8 line is not comforting.
Also, that it's not just the Custom Shop director, but a substantial portion of the staff therein is also disquieting.
Sadly, what we know as Colt is a legacy of getting close to four decades' of case-example MBAs swooping in to companies and running them so as to not endanger profits to shareholders in the short term and ignoring long-term issues for the company at large. Which is sore complicated with Defined Benefits UAW contracts in place.

What seems likely--to me--is that, if Colt is to remain a US arms company, it will probably have to go through the throes of full-on Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The peices would be reassembled in some rural, open-shop state where everyone can pull together and work to produce quality products as a team. If they try to limp along under Chapter 11, they will have to adhere to the whims and wishes of the Connecticut Teachers Retirement System (one of the major owners) and to the terms of UAW contracts drawn up in the 70s, also the UAW consortium that owns a sizable percentage, too.

What that means is that Colt is not free to pursue what it ought to--firearms. Because they have to respond to the dividend requirements of all these players, they have no real budget for R&D. Not so much for the expense of R&D, so much as they cannot afford to put new products out that do not realize immediate profits (like the Colt 2000 debacle).

I'd rather not see Colt go the way of AMC, or DeSoto, but they might. Military production contracts are not what they once were, and there area lot of players in that market, too. The retail arms market is also full of players, and they are all out chasing very narrow margins and customer segments.

Or, at least that's my 2¢

 

[hdwhit]

Starting in the 1950's Colt has continually mis-managed itself into one near-bankruptcy after another. If they didn't egage in any strategic planning for what to do in the case of a Trump victory, this may very well be their swan song.

 

[jhb]

dont worry. will end up like all great american brands under fn ownership like winchester, Browning, etc.

sadly maybe the best place for it. what feeedom groups done to remington and the like is shameful and makes fn look like a good guy.

 

[hdwhit]

CapnMac wrote:
What seems likely--to me--is that, if Colt is to remain a US arms company, it will probably have to go through the throes of full-on Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The peices [sic] would be reassembled in some rural, open-shop state where everyone can pull together and work to produce quality products as a team.

Chapter 7 is liquidation. The only way the "pieces" could be "reassembled" would be if someone managed to buy ALL of them out of the bankruptcy court. Lose even one piece and Colt as we know it would be gone forever.

One of the Coors (i.e. Coors beer) brothers once noted that, "Unions are the result of bad management". If we accept as true the sage wisdom of brothers who have successfully operated a major non-union company then we're left to conclude that Colt's problems must thus be a consequence of a series of managment teams that can only be called "incompetent".

Colt products today are to a large extent outsouced to third-party manufacturers who adhere neither to the historic ethos of the Colt name nor its quality standards. If Colt can't get its act together on manufacturing quality firearms, then they should quickly be consigned to the "garbage can" of history so that the way is cleared for new, quality manufacturers who can - and will - pick up where Colt left off.

 

[Panzerschwein]

They still make the only TRUE M1911 pistol, and with the reintroduction of the snake guns, I hate to tell the haters this but the rampant pony will continue to ride for many years. This is just a rough patch for them.

 

[hdwhit]

Cooldill wrote:
I hate to tell the haters this but the rampant pony will continue to ride for many years. This is just a rough patch for them.

One is not a "hater" to acknowledge the continuous incomptence - and in paricular lack of strategic vision - of Colt management starting in the aftermath of Wold War II.

Cooldill wrote:
This is just a rough patch for them.

If so, it is a "rough patch" that has continued since at least 1950.

 

[Solomonson]

Colt really never got its act together to profit from the hardcore demand over the past 8+ years. Now that things seem a bit steadier within the company, let's hope that a drop in demand doesn't kill it off. Then again, Colt will never die. Their name alone in the firearms area is worth $$$

 

[Solomonson]

They still make the only TRUE M1911 pistol, and with the reintroduction of the snake guns, I hate to tell the haters this but the rampant pony will continue to ride for many years. This is just a rough patch for them.

One could accurately say that Colt has already died -- at least once. Colt will never really die. Its name will always be worth $$$ to other manufactures who would love to slap that name on their wares...

 

[hdwhit]

Cooldill wrote:
They still make the only TRUE M1911 pistol,

How do you figure that?

During World War II, the goverment (who held all the rigths to the design) licensed it to any number of manufacturwers. The patents on the deign itself would have expired in 1939, so that aftwards anyone making a pistol that was true in cartridge, dimention and reliability to the old M1911 was mading a "true" M9111.

 

[Ks5shooter]

[QUOTENew
Starting in the 1950's Colt has continually mis-managed itself into one near-bankruptcy after another. If they didn't egage in any strategic planning for what to do in the case of a Trump victory, this may very well be their swan song.
][/QUOTE]

I agree. Mismanagement from upper echelon will be the demise. They were trying to keep going on just a name. In this market especially the AR market,you need to be innovated with design and marketing.

 

[gun_with_a_view]

Any way you cut it, should the new "Colt" Detective Special go out of production anytime soon, bingo, you have an instant classic worth more than the original.

 

[Alte Schule]

Another article on the subject. http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/...op-director-employees-company-rumored-gutted/
Was looking forward to getting my hands on the new model Cobra but have reservations now. Colt has been talking about the new Cobra for months but, as of today and as it has been for the past several weeks, their website indicates unable to purchase. I really don't see it happening now but if it does it will probably b be a limited production. Hope I'm wrong.

 

[Balrog]

If I was Colt, I would back off on the number of 1911s I am producing and add the SAA back. People are not afraid of a looming gun ban at the moment. Gun guys are stocked up on semi auto pistols and rifles. A new run of Single Action Army revolvers would sell well in this climate. Economy is good, people have money, and are looking to buy things other than another AR.

 

[Panzerschwein]

Another article on the subject. http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/...op-director-employees-company-rumored-gutted/
Was looking forward to getting my hands on the new model Cobra but have reservations now. Colt has been talking about the new Cobra for months but, as of today and as it has been for the past several weeks, their website indicates unable to purchase. I really don't see it happening now but if it does it will probably b be a limited production. Hope I'm wrong.

Doubtful. Colt will pull through, and the Colt Cobra will be a hit on the CCW market. They've already stated this will NOT be a limited run.

 

[barnbwt]

I swear, Colt's been going out of business longer than Comp-USA (which did finally go out of business IIRC). For like a decade or two, every town I lived in had a Comp-USA hosting a going-out-of-business sale.

Colt entered the terminal phase when they botched their reboot move to Florida a few years ago. New territory in a permissive, business friendly environment was the only thing that could have possibly saved them.

TCB

 

[barnbwt]

Doubtful. Colt will pull through, and the Colt Cobra will be a hit on the CCW market. They've already stated this will NOT be a limited run.

We'll see how quality holds up in the face of layoffs. Colt had to drop the revolvers in the first place for a reason, and to my knowledge they've done little to resolve those underlying issues. They just found a way to turn the clock back a little with a design that is cheaper to produce and at a lower quality level than before. Remington has already blazed that trail to the bottom, so it isn't a solution either.

TCB

 

[Hookeye]

Think of the custom shop as a hot rod center, associated but maybe not actually part of the division/company.
Years ago I heard is was separate.
Maybe just in operation, but possibly by management, legal and other.
If so.............the custom shop shutting down doesn't mean diddly.

TC shut down Fox Ridge but TC is still in business.

 

[buckhorn_cortez]

... they will have to adhere to the whims and wishes of the Connecticut Teachers Retirement System (one of the major owners)

Can you explain this statement further? Since 1994, 85% of Colt has been privately owned by Zilkha & Company, a financial group that is owned by Donald Zilkha.

How can the Connecticut Teacher's Retirement System have any affect on Colt, if Colt is owned by Zilkha & Co.?

 

[Cowhide Cliff]

If I was Colt, I would back off on the number of 1911s I am producing and add the SAA back. People are not afraid of a looming gun ban at the moment. Gun guys are stocked up on semi auto pistols and rifles. A new run of Single Action Army revolvers would sell well in this climate. Economy is good, people have money, and are looking to buy things other than another AR.

I've been saying they need to do that for a long time. They are trying to compete where all the competition is. The SAA is theirs if they would bother making them.