Colt bankrupt

[JAG2955]

Colt needs to subscribe to the Disney "Vault" marketing plan.

Set aside one small line for that year's "Vault" releases. Each year, make a different classic pistol in relatively small numbers. Figure out what's the flavor of the year, make a few thousand, sell at a premium. You might take initial losses on the tool up side, but the next time you use that tooling, you're making profit on top. Use the profit to set up a run of another style of classic pistol (or rifle, I suppose).

Of course, I suppose with the size of Colt, runs like this wouldn't make a ton of money, but it would put the Colt name back on the Internets and drive up business.

[Vonz90]

They really lost their opportunity about 8 or 9 years ago. If they come out with a bunch of premium sporting AR's in 223, 300, and AR10 based 308, 243, 7-08, it would have leveraged them into the sporting rifle market as one of the top names.

With Remington, Ruger and Smith all in that space now, that ship has sailed.

The only place they have any brand equity any more is really the big revolver niche. I'm not sure that is a long term growth market.

[blackeagle603]

The only place they have any brand equity any more is really the big revolver niche. I'm not sure that is a long term growth market.

Maybe I'm the odd man out but I can think of several old Colt automatic pistols that would set me to drooling.

[Greg]

WeaponsMan's excellent blog has been covering the impending collapse of the Colt house of cards since back in early May.

Any company that could lose control of their own M1911 and M-16 stream, and who took >45 effing years to realize that their AR receiver pattern was the Betamax in the AR VHS/Betamax Wars before finally pulling their heads out of their fourth point of contact and joining the other 4,387 AR makers in making their stuff compatible with ten gazillion parts, doesn't just deserve bankruptcy; their board of directors, like most sitcom casts, should be shot live in front of a studio audience.

Colt stands for Clowncarnucopia Of Lost Technology.

Those idiots could go broke running a concession selling water in the desert.

[Aesop]

Colt needs to subscribe to the Disney "Vault" marketing plan.

Set aside one small line for that year's "Vault" releases. Each year, make a different classic pistol in relatively small numbers. Figure out what's the flavor of the year, make a few thousand, sell at a premium. You might take initial losses on the tool up side, but the next time you use that tooling, you're making profit on top. Use the profit to set up a run of another style of classic pistol (or rifle, I suppose).

Of course, I suppose with the size of Colt, runs like this wouldn't make a ton of money, but it would put the Colt name back on the Internets and drive up business.

Except, if you cruise over to WeaponsMan's site as I linked, and search for his entries on "Colt", you'll read that he noted that Colt sold off their patents long ago to raise capital when they were being actively looted by their corporate overlords, so they don't even own the rights to make those "vault" wish-list pieces.

Other than the name, that carcass was well and truly sucked dry years ago.
Unless they introduce the phased plasma rifle in the 40W range tomorrow for <$300@, they were already screwed by the late 1990s/early 2000s.

[First Shirt]

I gave up on Colt back in the late 70s/early 80s, when they decided that QC was an unnecessary extravagance for civilian sales. (When you have to send a brand new Gold Cup back to the factory three times, and it still won't feed hardball, the mystique of the Prancing Pony looses its luster.) I haven't owned a Colt product since 1982, and right now, Usain Bolt couldn't run fast enough to give me something that says Series 70 or 80 on the slide.

They treated the civilian product line like a cash cow that could be milked indefinitely. They were wrong.

[Jericho941]

Well.

For Colt’s Native American suitors, it’s not just business; it’s history, interest and commitment, their attorney said. “We have gone to great lengths to get our hands on Colts,” he said. “Just ask General Custer.”

[randy]

Heh

[Baja boy]

I've been happy with my Colt AR HBAR - Clinton era acquisition. I have developed a handload for it that hovers at about 1 MOA, which is a bit better than my eyes these days. It has no bayonet lug but I can live with that. I corrected the fact it had no flash suppressor, not because I felt I needed a flash suppressor but rather, I needed threads to screw a golf ball launcher on to. Side note - I scored 800 5.56 blanks at a garage sale last month for $30. Now I'm gonna hafta' get some more golf balls. I suspect Colt will eventually exit bankruptcy in some form or another. Hostess went tits up and they couldn't kill the Twinkie...... jus sayin.......

Speaking of Twinkies ????/

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-2 ... day-after-

[HTRN]

They treated the civilian product line like a cash cow that could be milked indefinitely. They were wrong.

Basically, this. The company, and it's successor organization, has been mismanaged since at least the 80s, if not earlier. The whole reason why companies like Springfield and and Kimber exist, is because Colt can't make a good, functioning 1911 at a sane price point.