Good ‘beginnings to now’ read. Too bad it reads like a B-movie script. More troubles ahead.
test test
They need to relocate to a gun friendly, non-union state.
Colt probably will not survive the coming downturn.
They have had some of the most incompetent executives the world has ever seen.
Colt’s has been mismanaged since my POV was a tricycle. I was going to say “systematically mismanaged” but that would imply a certain degree of competence that never existed. Sad.
I have been setting aside their catalogues and fliers for years in the expectation that the company would collapse any day. I don’t know how they keep going.
Gov contracts?
I’m going to be mildly entertained if Colt goes the way of Winchester… and, ironically, gets bought out by FN.
I just read an article on Bloomberg Business week (link). I found it to be fascinating and depressing at the same time. There was so much of its history that I didn’t know about. After reading the article it seems like the company has always been and continues to be cursed by incompetent leadership that consistently exhibits extremely poor decision making skills. It’s almost as if the people in charge are mental copies of Alan from “The Hangover”. This article also brings to mind the cluster fudge going on with their expansion into Florida. First they buy the facility, then try to back out of it, then commit to it, and still as far as I know haven’t really done anything with it.
As for what I see, there are a couple of things that I got out of it. Bankruptcy needs to be avoided for the simple reason that if anyone was willing to buy the company I’m willing to bet that they would split it up at best or sell it off in bits and pieces at worst. Even though privately held, Colt needs a corporate leadership enema. If I ran my company like this I would have been out on my ass a long time ago. Another thing I feel that has to be done is they need to move. Go to a non union state and lower your employment costs. Moving, while costly, also has other benefits such as a more tax friendly environment and modern facilities which will have a lower operating cost. It does come with the perils of losing experienced machinists but with an investment in job training and a merciless quality assurance staff it can be mitigated. Heck why not partner with Mike Rowe (of Dirty Jobs fame) and his Mike Rowe foundation, which is trying to churn out people with the exact type of skills that Colt would need with such a move. Next up they need to find the Capitol for R&D and come up with something new. We’re always looking for that “perfect pistol” after all. Other that the M1911 and a few others they don’t have anything to be beholden to. I think this is an opportunity they need to go with. Or is the article way off base and my conclusions are therefore wrong?
What are your thoughts on the article and your take on the implications and ramifications. If anyone has any inside knowledge, does the article ring true? Is Colt still, after all these years, stuck in the mentality of GM from the 70s and 80s? Has anyone seen an improvement in the quality of their products (aside from the M4)? Does anyone see any hope for this company or do you think that it is destined to be in bankruptcy in the near future? Is bankruptcy their only hope, that a white Knight investor could save it, and in the process be freed from the financial situation they are facing? Are there any out there who could be that white Knight? We know that the freedom group would probably be a disaster? Who would you pick to head up the new team? Where would that person come from? Detroit? Silicon Valley? Houston and the oil industry? What do you think can be done?
The unions played a roll in the FL facility. That has been worked out now.
A good friend of mine is in a place of some power and control. Many of the really “positive” changes to Colt AR’s (like changing the hammer/trigger pins to .154) was his doing. He will do his best to influence and change some of the sacred cows there (or will die trying).
As for what I see, there are a couple of things that I got out of it. Bankruptcy needs to be avoided for the simple reason that if anyone was willing to buy the company I’m willing to bet that they would split it up at best or sell it off in bits and pieces at worst. Even though privately held, Colt needs a corporate leadership enema. If I ran my company like this I would have been out on my ass a long time ago. Another thing I feel that has to be done is they need to move. Go to a non union state and lower your employment costs. Moving, while costly, also has other benefits such as a more tax friendly environment and modern facilities which will have a lower operating cost. It does come with the perils of losing experienced machinists but with an investment in job training and a merciless quality assurance staff it can be mitigated. Heck why not partner with Mike Rowe (of Dirty Jobs fame) and his Mike Rowe foundation, which is trying to churn out people with the exact type of skills that Colt would need with such a move. Next up they need to find the Capitol for R&D and come up with something new. We’re always looking for that “perfect pistol” after all. Other that the M1911 and a few others they don’t have anything to be beholden to. I think this is an opportunity they need to go with. Or is the article way off base and my conclusions are therefore wrong?
What are your thoughts on the article and your take on the implications and ramifications. If anyone has any I side knowledge, does the article ring true? Is Colt still, after all these years, stuck in the mentality of GM from the 70s and 80s? Has anyone seen an improvement (non M4) in the quality of their products? Does anyone see any hope for this company or do you think that it is destined to be in bankruptcy in the near future? Is bankruptcy their only hope, that a white Knight investor could save it, and in the process be freed from the financial situation they are facing? Are there any out there who could be that white Knight? We know that the freedom group would probably be a disaster? Who would you pick to head up the new team? Where would that person come from? Detroit? Silicon Valley? Houston and the oil industry? What do you think can be done?
Commercial and Mil are now united and this will help with a lot of things in the future.
Yes I agree on needing to move out of the State they are in.
C4
They’ve dodged bullets for many years, pulling boner-Chihuahua moves that would have sunk other companies without a product the government was locked into.
Series 70 bushings. Series 80 lockworks. High prices due to Union costs. Split pin, big pin, receivers blocked (and cut carrier) ARs. Repetitive high bids on government tenders – all self-inflicted foot shots.
They just bought LWRC. Is the public really demanding a high price point piston rifle/carbine?
Let’s just hope that Freedom Group isn’t interested in Colt. We can see what they did to Remington and the rest of their companies.
To my knowledge this is not correct.
C4
:sarcastic:
The LWRCi purchase carves that notion in STONE!! Who buys those fukktards???
Nuts. I was planning on buying a couple LWRC rifles at some point, now I don’t know if they’ll be in production long enough or not double in price by the time I get around to it. 
Colt’s situation is so much like other northeastern based companies and unions: because they’ve been around forever they assume that they’re entitled to be as stupid as they want to be because they’re entitled to survive it. They figure they don’t have to keep earning their place in the world because someone else years ago already did. Kodak, GM, and IBM never thought there to be a problem with having 50-100 extra overpaid executives sitting around having meetings about when the next meeting will be, promising their union retirees the moon, halting all innovation around 1990-1994 or so, etc. Entire cities are mothballed because of that. Rust Belt stupidity.
How is it that such high level of incompetence always finds its way to leadership?
New management team has its act together and knows what has to get done.
The company is in a transition. It has to diversify away from Army M4 contracts and increase sales from several areas including:
- international military (lumpy, CLTDEF is about done with a large Malaysian M4 contract).
and
- commercial sales.
Where are the new commercial sales going to come from?
A) More of an emphasis on handgun sales. Handguns are still showing solid growth post-2013 panic, driven by new gun owners (particularly women), rising penetration of CCW (IL alone is going to get 300,000 applicants this year, that means more CCW pistols), and the tendency for gun owners to own more than one gun. The average, according to NSSF is 8 guns per person. If EBR sales are down 30% YoY, handguns are still plodding along at 5-7% growth. Colt is now one company (after being two separate companies since 2003), so they can easily sell more handguns. But there’s only so many 1911’s that Colt can sell.
B) New product introductions. I heard from the grapevine that Colt may be (finally) introducing a polymer-frame, striker-fired pistol sometime in the next few months. Heard the designer was affiliated with Glock. Colt needs to introduce a sub $1,000 gun to compete with Smith & Wesson (M&P), Ruger, Sig, and Springfield Armory XD, etc. Cross your fingers.
C) Sell more parts. Holy crap, you know and I know that Colt could have minted money last year if it could have made available BCG’s and uppers. But there was no place, other than Specialized Armament, to order parts and accessories (and we all know SA is very pricey, I kinda wonder if they just part out whole Colt guns). That’s why BCM got a $hitload of my business, lol. By the way, guess what Colt is doing right now? Take a looksee here: https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?151662-Colt-Complete-Uppers-are-being-offered-again!
D) Colt Canada civilian sales. Colt is probably going to start selling rifles to civilian customers in Canada. Strangely enough, “restricted” and “prohibited” class endorsed licensees have been pretty much able to get whatever we have in the states, but no Colt product. Colt Canada has been just sitting there as an idle asset, primarily doing the R&D for the Canadian Armed forces. This is low hanging fruit for Colt.
Other things that Colt is working on:
E) Recapture margin on US M4 rifle sales. When Colt was two different companies, it was a dysfunctional situation to get LE6920’s to the commercial market. Colt Defense LLC (CLTDEF) made the rifles, and had to sell them through Colt’s Manufacturing (CMC) to get to the civilian market, since CMC owned the Colt trademark. On top of that, CLTDEF had to pay a $100 royalty on each gun sold to CMC. CMC as a result didn’t have a huge incentive to sell these rifles. With the merger of the two companies last year, this has all gone away.
F) Produce more handguns outside of West Hartford, CT. Colt has negotiated a contract with the UAW which gives Colt the flexibility to expand handgun manufacturing in a lower-cost, gun-friendlier climate. Location TBA. That means better profitability.
It’s a do or die this year for Colt. Bankruptcy is a real danger for them.
Threads merged.
No mention of LWRC in the latest 10-Q.
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1508677/000110465914038672/a14-9446_110q.htm
While it’s been bandied about in the blogosphere, and the company’s body language is that they are interested in LWRC, such a transaction has not closed.
Colt doesn’t have the cash.
Are they still going to use the place in Kissimmee, FL? I haven’t been by it in a while, but last I saw it didn’t look like anyone had moved in to it.