Colt the brand will never go away. They'll be part of Freedom Group before you know it and spitting outshiny turdsquality classics like Marlin and Remington.
Colt the brand will never go away. They'll be part of Freedom Group before you know it and spitting outshiny turdsquality classics like Marlin and Remington.
Thanks for cheering me up.Originally Posted by StraitR
Well that answers a few questions. Has Freedom put their hands on anything and improved either the product or the business?
Thank you. This amuses my greatly.
Coming out of bankruptcy - sort of. They negotiated a deal with their bond-holders and the investment company that owns Colt still retained ownership. They merely renegotiated outstanding loans, they didn't actually clear the debt, except for the unsecured debt they owed (which was minimal to the tune of about 25 million, whereas they owed 100+ million in secured debt AND 250 million to bond holders).
Well, technically a year and a half ago, but yes they did nearly default. We had pretty good coverage of it (for those not in the know) here: https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....oom-quot/page2
At present they are owned by Scien's Capital Management, an investment group, not Freedom. There were efforts in 2015 by the bondholders (who are owed some 250 million) to wrestle control of Colt from Scien's but Scien's maintained control in the end. Because it turns out that Scien's owns at least a portion of the company that owns the building that Colt leases for manufacturing.
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As for the layoffs the Hartford Courant, generally a solid source on Colt news, has not reported anything (yet). If there are layoffs at the production facility in CT, it is almost certainly because the bankruptcy restructure did not protect UAW contracts. If that is the case it is GREAT NEWS for Colt, because once they can get out of their UAW Pension requirements they can shed a solid 2/3rds of their outstanding debt.
As for the shutdown of production lines, stripping of resources, etc. This isn't unusual for a manufacturing company this time of year. As they get close to having to tax time, inventory and production facilities are just material resources they pay tax on. Trimming things down in advance of a planned production move and/or in advance of tax filing makes plenty of sense for them. I wouldn't worry about this - until we get hard confirmation on who is getting laid off, when, and for how long. But I expect hearsay on this matter for a while, because Colt is privately owned and therefore under minimal obligation to reveal its plans to anyone but the bond-holders/investors.
I suspect the same forces that are driving the price of ammunition down are at play here. We no longer have an anti-gun President and it's being reflected in the market in terms of product demand. I hope I'm wrong but we may see layoffs at other companies in the industry too.
Incredibly inept management over and over and over and over and over. Why are unions the first to be blamed? Colt has fallen way behind, failed to innovate, failed to release new products, failed to capitalize on trends...and basically rode their name and 1911/AR-15 without regard to how crowded that market has gotten. What's the last marketing you've seen from Colt? People can laugh at "The Saint" or the lifestyle branding of Sig's Legion...but that shit moves guns. What's Colt's Shield or Glock 43? Those are what Joe Snuffy is buying when he get his shiny new CCW. What's their pricing strategy to appeal to a larger market segment?
The new "Cobra" is something, but at the price point and for a .38 I seriously doubt it's a large volume seller. It will remain a prestige/nostalgia purchase and I suspect everyone who wants one will get one early and then it will languish a bit.
Then compare to other legendary makers like S&W or Sig. Their core lineup is still there, but they've cranked out a variety of new offerings and at multiple price points. There are entry level guns, prestige guns, nostalgia guns, utility guns, etc. Combined with slick ad copy, "lifestyle" marketing and brand ambassadors like Jerry Miculek, and they appeal to a much larger audience.
So does this mean I should get that 1911 Colt Competition model now, rather than later?
Was really hoping to hold off on any more gun buys until the end of the year (or until after any fallout from the new shed hits.)
This is sad. My first AR was a ban-era Govt Carbine, acquired with PD letterhead. It worked wonderfully well*. I had a couple of excellent Government Model pistols. OTOH, I had a run of several egregiously bad Commanders in the late Eighties and early Nineties, one SAA's hammer would not even reliably fall, and my Stainless Python's exterior marked it as a "Monday gun," though it worked well enough.
I reckon that if I am going to get another Colt AR, at the local cop shop, I had better hurry. An AR is the only Colt that interests me at this point in time.
*I sold this Govt Carbine to a younger police officer, because my aging eyes started preferring a longer sight radius. This was before we were allowed to run optics on our patrol rifles. That younger officer is now a sergeant, who just might save my rear end with that Govt Carbine, someday, so I cannot say I regret the sale.
Some folks on another forum -- some of whom know people inside Colt really well -- are painting a pretty ugly picture of what happened this week. It looks like Colt got rid of some of their best people. Colt's ownership sucks.
Based on some of their new 1911 models I was really hoping Colt was turning a corner. But instead it looks like they are listening to the wrong people about what to do. They absolutely could be a leader in the industry but they can never take the right steps and follow through. They obviously were not prepared for the new era of less panic gun buying the political change has brought.
I've been thinking about buying a 9mm Rail Gun -- the one I examined recently seemed really well made, but now I don't know if I want to. Maybe I'll start looking elsewhere.
I really like what they are producing today. I hope they keep going. I often thought they were trying to bankrupt themselves with dumb decisions. I really like my 1911 combat unit and my Wiley clapps.
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