It doesn't look good for Colt's Manufacturing LLC.
There's too much debt and not near enough income to have even the slimmest chance of escaping bankruptcy.
Their present "offer" to their shareholders is between shit and a shit sandwich and selling the sandwich by saying, "look there's bread too!"
Not astonishingly, the bond holders aren't rushing for the "deal", even though it might be as good as they get.
Part of me, though, is optimistic about their survival. It seems like they've been walking this tightrope over their grave since... as long as I've been buying guns. You just hold your breath and wait for the miracle to occur, again!
But...
A huge part of me really hopes they don't die. I want Colt to succeed.
A serious problem with my being able to help with their success is they need to make something that I want to buy and having done that, something I can afford to buy.
Something that isn't identical to some other company's offering at half the price.
You'd think it'd be simple, wouldn't you?
WW2 nostalgia running rampant and Colt didn't make a parkerized with brown plastic stock M1911A1 clone? Especially when that could be made more cheaply and still sell as dearly as a heavily polished blue edition. It's simple misses like that, over and over that characterize the failure.
Not paying attention to the secondary market in used Colt designs is another clue. SIG-Sauer paid attention with the P238 clone of the Star D-Series Colt Mustang.
Preemptive acquiescence to the anti-gun crowd is a no-win plan. Never modify your product to suit the desires of people who are not now and never will be customers. Especially when catering to non-customers alienates the people who are your customers.
And those things above, still won't save them. The people running the place have looted it. The horse pony is out of the barn, closing the door now will not put it back in. Decisions like the above are a key reason why the door got opened to let the looting begin.
Should we delve into the UAW's role? Do we need to go beyond that Colt's is yet another union shop that's not competitive against other businesses who aren't? Do specifics change the metrics?
