Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns The future of Colt??

That�s EXACTLY the problem. Colt�s leadership has gone from corporate raider to corporate raider, to inept, to corrupt corporate riders, back to inept. And keep in mind, there are two distinct Colt�s, Colt�s Defense, and Colt�s LLC, so while Colt�s Defense is the boom and bust, Colt�s LLC while not a big money maker, IS a money maker. I could see someone buying up Colt�s Defense for the name if the price was low enough. Then move production to someplace more reasonable.

As for Colt�s LLC (civilian guns), I can see someone like Cerberus snatching them up, pouring in some investment (and I don�t think it would take a ton), to modernize some and possibly expand their offerings. It would be very difficult financially to move them out of CT, but if they could pull them off, they could probably turn Colt back into a real gun company.

Their current 1911�s are VERY good quality, better than most. S&W�s 1911�s are highly regarded and my Colt�s is MUCH nicer than my S&W, more accurate and since both have been 100% reliable, that�s parity. Colt�s marketing for their civilian guns S U C K S ! ! They couldn�t sell water to a dying man in a desert. Even with such piss poor marketing, they are selling guns and actually making a profit.

If Colt's had any sort of decent marketing, they'd be selling a lot of 1911's because the new 1911's are really good guns.

The AR-15 market is just freaking brutal. The guys making money in that market are the ones changing their catalog every 15 minutes to accommodate the latest AR-15-a-holic whims...Hey, that's the market like it or not, either play the game or understand that you're just not going to do well. Again, Colt's is still selling AR-15's, at a profit, but much hungrier companies are out-working them in offerings and marketing.

Oh, goodie, now we can start a big fight over internal vs. external extractors!

War has always been the savior of Colt's. Colt's has always, literally from day one been a poorly run company. Sam Colt was a hell of a salesman, but he wasn't the greatest CEO.

They nearly went broke after the Civil war, that was probably the biggest threat to the survival of the company ever because they hadn't built up much of any foreign customers. S&W sold the Government the Schofield and that cut into Colt's rather small US contract. Then the Spanish American war and the contract for the DA revolver saved them from bankruptcy. And the story goes on and on, they have been on the ropes and nearly out, to be saved by the latest war. Seriously, look 1-2 years before every US war and you'll see that Colt's was nearly bankrupt. They really screwed up when they lost the M16A2 contract and even the Gulf War couldn't save them, so they went bankrupt in 1992. The new wars and the patent on the M4 completely saved their arse. Since the invention of the M16 Colt's has received a LOT of corporate welfare with the US military buying M16's just to keep the production lines rolling.

The new wars were advertising gold for Colt and the M4 because the M4 has performed exceptionally well and has become the weapon of choice for spec ops groups all over the world. Colt's foreign sales are really their bread and butter, but it looks like large scale US military involvement won't happen for some time, so they're in a world of hurt.

The 'two Colts' reunited a year or two ago.

Not much of a fight. Externals are cheaper, not better.

Yes, the name itself, like that of Winchester, is quite valuable. Some company with purchase it just for that.

Horseschitte. Workers that deliver 5 hours for the 8 they are paid is the problem and is precisely why we build schitte elsewhere.

If you've got an entire company of people delivering 5 hours of work for 8 hours of pay....you've got a pretty big management / leadership problem.

How do you know that's the case or is it just your anti union BS?

The only BS that I see is what you are spewing. Management is responsible for productivity. I have taken over too many crews that weren't producing and turned them into top producers. It starts at the top always has always wil.

A company doesn't get good or bad from the bottom up, it gets good or bad from the top down.

More like a union problem.

Once again, you prove that you're full of schitt and don't know what you're talking about.

Nope, that is a management problem, a lack of good leadership. Men will only give their leaders minimum expectations. Productivity and quality begins at the top, not the bottom.

That's disappointing news to hear.

I have one of their 1911's which seems pretty high quality. Yes, I did pay a little bit of premium for their name, but it was my first 1911.

��spent a few years teaching "Leadership Training for Managers" in a couple of UAW plants (GM & Ford)----UAW required that we offer segregated classes to union as well as salaried personnel----I can't bring myself to fully agree that ALL quality and production issues begin at the top----too many unions have invested themselves in disruption for self preservation; however, I get your point.

Re: the current Colt quality; I bought a Wiley Clapp Cmdr. a couple of years ago and Lightweight full-sized Govt. model last fall, and both have been superb guns in function and esthetics. It's been 8 or 9 years since I purchased a new SAA, but the finish was as good as anything ever to leave Hartford---the action wasn't as smooth as a 2nd Gen gun, but that was easily resolved. Personally, I feel like they've come a long way from their low point in the 80's. They just haven't kept up innovation-wise.

Of course, I could be wrong.

Management should not accept disruption.

agreed��..but in a cause and effect discussion, neither did they necessarily cause it��..ignoring it might propagate more however.

Having only one major client/customer is suicide regardless of how good/bad your management/work-force is.

Management should never agree to a contract that controls their destiny.

You mean, like having essentially only one client/customer? Agreed.