Gun maker Colt Defense LLC plans to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy-court protection by Monday, according to people familiar with the matter, amid business-execution issues and a heavy debt burden.
Source: Colt Defense to File for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection by Monday – WSJ
And back in November I was taken to task because I dared to ask how come one of the great names in firearms could get itself in so much financial debt when even pot metal guns were flying off the shelves. Apparently the situation was as bad as everybody but the experts thought.
Now think about it, two gun companies are on bankruptcy in 2015 and for the same reason: They did not pay attention to their customers.
Colt and Armatix, sitting on a tree…
Glad I got my prancing ponies back in the day. Hope they get their act together and come back. If not, Springfield’s here to pick up the slack.
They did this to themselves. They pretty much turned their back on the gun world and put all of their eggs in the government contract basket. They should have never stopped making revolvers that a lot of people liked. I guess they couldn’t figure out that the government can only buy so many guns. It’s not like they wear out and have to be replaced every two years.
There was a good article in Forbes or Business Insider detailing how the current owners of Colt (in all its myriad forms) basically used Colt as an ATM. They made a ton of money, they just never rolled it into anything beyond lining the pockets of the owners.
It’s my understanding that Colt went bankrupt once or twice in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s as well.
Two words could have saved them.
Python and Anaconda.
Hopefully the new owners, if there are buyers, will realize that simply producing the Python for a few years would generate millions of sales. (Like there isn’t a gun nut out there that doesn’t want what Rick Grimes carries?)
Actually I think it would driven them faster into bankruptcy. Revolvers are expensive to produce and people would expect the highest quality for the new issue and in today’s world, that would make them close to $800 to $1,000 guns. The money was on re-issuing 1911s with the pony on the slide (Imagine a GI version with good sights) and coming up with their own plastic fantastic.
That is just my opinion.