Colt May Default - Bloomberg - Today
 

Colt, whose credit rating was cut by Standard & Poor’s today to CCC-, has been struggling to service its $308 million of debt after losing U.S. contracts due to defense budget pressures and amid dissipating concern that the government will limit the ownership of firearms. Consumers rushed to buy weapons after shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, and Aurora, Colorado, fueled speculation that federal restrictions would increase.

S&P’s rating reduction reflects “the increased likelihood of Colt defaulting in the coming months, perhaps as early as next week, as a result of the deterioration in its liquidity position due to poor earnings and cash flow in recent months,” analysts led by Chris Mooney wrote in a report today. The rating indicates that Colt is vulnerable to nonpayment.
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Colt Defense Searches for Financing as Default Looms - Bloomberg

Amazing, I would have thought they were sitting pretty after the gun rush of 2013... I thought everyone needed an AR or three.

I don't like it one bit.

This seems weird to me too, so I did some reading. Colt has a monster load of debt ($300MM). As a result, it makes money only in boom years like 2009, 2013. It loses money in slow years like 2010, 2012. In the last five years Colt has, in total, made close to no money.

They lost the M4 contract in 2013. Civilian AR sales have plunged. International sales are still doing okay for them.

They are overwhelmingly dependent on the M4/AR15 rifle. Everything else, including handguns and machine guns, is a small part of sales.

Looks like a very bad business, financially speaking. I imagine bankruptcy will put them out of the running for US govt contracts, for some years. Maybe they figure since they just lost the M4 five year contract and there is no real momentum toward a new US military rifle (AFAIK), this is a good time to go BK and cut the debt. If Colt had no debt, it would be profitable even in the slow years.

Sounds like bad financial management - not bad products.

Maybe they are pricing themselves out of competition, too?

Sales in 2013 went up about [correction] +13% excluding the increase from buying the Colt handgun business mid year. I don't know if that means they lost share in the AR market. Also not sure why they lost the military M4 contract, I assume to FN? Basically it looks to me like they've failed to innovate, still selling the same products they've sold for decades. No polymer guns. No CCW guns. Living on the past.

I wonder if this is also because many financial institutions are divesting themselves of connections to the firearm industry.

BTW: Who has the M4 contract now?

The administration would love to see them shut their doors. I hope it doesn't happen.

FN has had it since 2013

Walk into the local gun store, what says Colt on it? It's a legendary name, one that I think could sell well if applied to the right products. They make a 1911, but I rarely see it in stores. They make an AR-15 and M4, but I rarely see it in stores. Their revolvers like the Python are legendary and EXPENSIVE on the used market, yet they only produce novelty cowboy action revolvers. Seems like a combination of status quo thinking and piss poor market penetration.

They seem to be missing a lot of business in the AR parts market by chasing the pipe dream of profitably selling budget premium-brand rifles. The markup they could get out of selling Colt brand parts (most of which are made by outside mfgs) could put some good cash in their pocket.

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colt
 

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Love my older Colts. Agree, never hardly see a new Colt 1911 in a Gun store.

1973 911 T MFI Coupe, Aubergine

Steve

So why don't we see Colt 1911s in stores?
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And why did they stop making the Python?

We have plenty around here, but they aren't cheap and, for what they cost, I think Dan Wesson, STI, Ed Brown and Les Baer make better 1911s. Have you see the smoking deals on Colt ARs on CDNN? How much cheaper can they get?

The Colt we are talking about here is "Colt Defense". They were the M16/AR15 maker. The handguns were made by a different company, "New Colt". The two companies separated in 2002, then were reunited in mid 2013. I don't know how much cooperation there was between Colt Defense and New Colt, but I assume some since they apparently shared some facilities.

Now that I think about it, when was the last significant new gun design that Colt developed? They didn't even develop the M16.

Demonstrate an inability to make money in the best five years that your industry has had in our lifetime, and financial institutions will sure enough walk away from you . . .

Very interesting article! Thanks.

Jeff, the cowboy action guns are cool. But I'm sure you'll concede that they only appeal to a small segment of the handgun buying public. I don't have any western nostalgia, and they don't have any appeal to me. A modern Python, on the other hand, would be at the top of my "gotta have it" list. Different strokes for different folks, a diverse product mix gets more customers.

Indeed, I bought (or built) four.
But certainly not Colts. There are other makers that are just as good, if not better, and who offer more options . As other posters mentioned:
failure to innovate
failure to see market trends
failure to meet customer demands
and pricing their product like they are still the only game in town


at least, that's how I see it.

Cash:

Not to mention that they live in a high tax, high regulation state, which has passed laws showing they do care for firearms.

I think their priority, after stabilizing the company, would be moving to a gun friendly, low tax state, like Texas or Arizona. NW Houston (Cypress) could be ideal, because we have a proliferation of trades and materials.

you guys need to stop by our shop. We have a whole showcase full of Colt 1911's, and a bunch in the back room. we have a wall of "other make" 1911's as well.

Targa - Christmas is around the corner! Please post a picture of the display!

sure.. i'll be there today..

Targa911s sent you a pm

I guess I found the term "cowboy action gun" a bit humorous. They are anything but. The sport of Cowboy Action Shooting is a modern contrivance of the last 20 years or so, wherein grown men and women dress up and play cowboy. Yes, they use period correct single action revolvers, but that in no way makes the Colt Single Action Army a "cowboy action gun".

Colt has manufactured their SAA almost continuously since the early 1870's. It has in no way survived on "nostalgia" alone, although that is certainly a part of it. It also happens to be a damn fine firearm, as useful today as it was when it was first produced. Single actions, be they Colts, Rugers, Freedom Arms, or from a host of other manufacturers, remain on the top of the heap as an outdoorsman's sidearm and as a hunting revolver as well. The popularity of the single action among knowledgable shooters has never waned, and shows no signs of doing so.

All of that said, Colt has to be the worst managed firearms company of my lifetime. The Businessweek article nails it. Their single action costs three times what a Ruger Blackhawk costs, and is arguably not as good of a gun. Its fit and finish beats anything out there hands-down, no doubt, but they could do with a bit of an updated version, along with updated manufacturing methods to produce it. That's where the company it hopelessly stuck in its past. It's signature product line is simply too expensive to produce (SAA, Python, etc.) and their superior fit and finish only go so far in today's firearms market, especially at the premium charged. They do desperately need to compete in the plastic, matte finish, less than heirloom quality market if they are going to survive. Not enough discerning shooters are willing to pay for "Colt quality". They need to also appeal to the guys who are more interested in magazine capacity and all the latest gee-wiz bells and whistles.

So what Chinese company will come along and buy Colt, pack up all the tooling and move it to China?

If they did, they'd loose the US market. No firearm/ammo imports from China ...

A good MBA would make a killing here.

The Party mandates gun semi-ownership for the defence of the Party/
A billion Chinese are forced to buy shares in a Colt firearm.....say 50 shares per gun. (that never is made).
The monies from these transactions are loaned to stable economies (like Germany @ 1%.

I've patented this idea so the rest of youz' guys are SOL. I gotta work on the ammo bit cause that's where the big bucks are.........

no shortage of Colts or 1911 clones here..

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These are all new. Nothing used...

Nice inventory you have there; it's great to see some Colts on the shelf. Alas, as others have pointed out, that is indeed a rare sight these days. Such a shame - Colt should have jumped to the front of the "custom" 1911 bandwagon when it first started taking off 20 years ago. With some proactive maneuvering on their part, they could have been the biggest player in that market. What a missed opportunity.

So, how are the new Colt 1911's? As I've mentioned in several threads, I personally think their latest run of Peacemakers are up there with the best ever. They certainly stand apart from those they were selling in the '80's and '90's, whose beauty was only skin deep. Very pretty on the outside, but rough actions and wildly varying dimensions in chambers, cylinder mouths, and barrel and groove diameters. They were rough as a cob inside and wouldn't stay on the bottom of a washtub if you held the muzzle inside one...

Their 1911's of the same era were, if possible, even worse. I tried several that would not even reliably feed hardball, nor would they shoot anything resembling a "group". That, and they remained very traditional 1911's - no lowered or scalloped ejection ports, no extended ejectors, no beavertail safeties, no throating, military "sights", and on and on. They sat on their corporate ass for decades as everyone else introduced ergonomic and functional improvements to the venerable 1911, counting on the idea that folks would still want a "real Colt". Problem was that quality had slipped so much that none of us considered them "real Colts" anymore.

Anyway, if they have stepped up their game on the 1911's in the same way they did on their Peacemakers, it might be worth looking at them again. After all, "Colt" chiseled into the side of any gun seems to add quite a bit of cache. But that's only because it used to really mean something... Oh well, even if they have, it may very well be too little, too late. Again.

personally I think the quality of the new 1911 is much to be desired. They shoot like they should and as they all do, it's a simple machine not rocket science. Fit and finish? I have yet to see one that has the good old blue finish that they used to have. I don't like stainless guns so I won't comment. Colts customer service is the worst in the biz. Right behind S&W. I really want the 38 super in the case, but it's finish doesn't meet my standards for a $1000.00 gun. You cannot order one in "royal Blue" so if I did buy it, I would send it back to them to have it done that way. In the end they are Colts and money in the bank. I paid $600 for my 1918 GOVT model 1911 15 years ago. I turned down an offer of $2500.00 a while ago. Hell the ivory grips alone are worth $3-4 large. As for the clones. The Ithaca and the Dan Wesson ( made by CZ) are absolutely the best off the shelf 1911s out there.

Dang. That's kinda what I was afraid of.

I've checked out a few new S&W revolvers lately. Like you, stainless just doesn't do much for me. So, I'm looking at the "blued" examples, and they appear to be anything but. Gone is the old polish and carbona bluing that we all took for granted years ago. I would pay extra for it, if it were still available. My new Peacemakers still have the good old "Colt blue", and it's absolutely gorgeous, so I know it's still possible.

Modern "bluing" (on a Ruger Bisley):

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Real Colt and S&W bluing:

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colt will do royal blue for you on a 1911 for around $200+ and I will do it if I buy the super. But my cost on that gun is still around $850, plus the $200 for bluing and it's a really expensive piece. I'll probably lay one away and make payments on is as work comes in, then send it back when it's mine. That makes it more palatable for me rather than one big chunk of change. Hell my Cimmarron 1851 Colt Navy reproduction conversion gun has better blue than the new Colts.

Those are nice pieces Jeff.

Thank you. That little M19 is a favorite. It doesn't get shot as much as it should, and I never carry it, but it boasts the sweetest action I have ever personally run across on a revolver of any kind. I bought it used at a gun show many years ago, and I have no idea of its history, but my God is it slick. Like melting ice gliding on melting ice. I don't think it was ever tuned or anything; just one of those where everything came together. I don't think anyone could produce one like it today, even by accident.

Have you had the chance to actually see their Royal Blue as applied to a 1911? If it really is the Royal Blue they are known for, that would be a stunning firearm. Nicely blued 1911's are special in their own way.