God damn it Colt

[fatdog]

The Custom Shop is still operating but is not accepting new work. According to Colt this is so they can focus on their backlog.

I pinged a friend in management at one of their distributors this week, they had just signed up for a new marketing/promotion campaign with Colt so he was very interested in the nature of the rumors. This morning he finally talked to somebody at Colt who confirmed "Custom shop not closed in last week's cutbacks..."just under new management""

There were "significant layoffs" in the "front office" but no details on that.

[Maple Syrup Actual]

Well, that's more encouraging than what I was told, although Brent Turchi had a good reputation running the CS.

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[fatdog]

The other interesting tidbit my friend who is in management at this big distributor told me (they carry dozens of product lines, all firearms or firearms related) is that based on the first two months and and his forecast for March, the gun business overall is going to be down >30% over Q1 '16. In other words, a crash. 2015 and 2016 were record years for them, but America's greatest ever gun salesman has now retired, and people are sitting on a MOUNTAIN of inventory.

He said look for a big uptick in the pace of sales & promos as they all struggle to adjust inventories this Spring. If Q1 finishes as badly as they are forecasting, there will be a sense of urgency about inventories and costs in Q2. In his words, from gunshops to distributors to manufacturers, some of the weak may even fail in this environment.

[Maple Syrup Actual]

That sounds extremely plausible to me.

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[GardoneVT]

The other interesting tidbit my friend who is in management at this big distributor told me (they carry dozens of product lines, all firearms or firearms related) is that based on the first two months and and his forecast for March, the gun business overall is going to be down >30% over Q1 '16. In other words, a crash. 2015 and 2016 were record years for them, but America's greatest ever gun salesman has now retired, and people are sitting on a MOUNTAIN of inventory.

He said look for a big uptick in the pace of sales & promos as they all struggle to adjust inventories this Spring. If Q1 finishes as badly as they are forecasting, there will be a sense of urgency about inventories and costs in Q2. In his words, from gunshops to distributors to manufacturers, some of the weak may even fail in this environment.

The word isn't "crash" though- it's "correction".

Let's call this what it is; the gun industry has been in a demand bubble since Obama took office .Thats eight years of abnormal market behavior . Now that the White House occupant is at least ambivalent about guns ,the government-induced demand engine is over for the next four years. Those who did their business planning on either Hillary winning or assuming the current pace of record sales would continue indefinitely will be proven wrong in the hardest way.

[LockedBreech]

Yeah, I'm guessing toward the end of this year is about the perfect time to start scooping things up off wish lists, that's about as low as prices will be for the foreseeable future.

[Mitchell, Esq.]

A friend of mine who works at the custom shop said he still works there.

[hiro]

A friend of mine who works at the custom shop said he still works there.

Just to clarify, your friend is still working at the Colt custom shop or Brent is still working at the Colt custom shop?

[Matt O]

Just to clarify, your friend is still working at the Colt custom shop or Brent is still working at the Colt custom shop?

I'm pretty sure he means his friend, and thereby extension, that the custom shop is still operating. Brent made a statement on 1911 forum that acknowledged he's no longer with Colt.


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[ReverendMeat]

Congrats to misanthrope for being cited on TFB, that's how you know you've hit the big time

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2...umored-gutted/