Do you have total net profits of these companies to justify your point?
Colt Firearms files for Bankruptcy...
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Do you have total net profits of these companies to justify your point?
I bought my first Colt revolver on by 18th birthday. And have been adding to it ever since.
But there is one Colt I am still looking for. A Colt Python from their custom shop. In the bone blued/black finish.
But there is one Colt I am still looking for. A Colt Python from their custom shop. In the bone blued/black finish.
Ruger's SR line curb stomps them in the AR market.
I forgot about the Python, but they could sell a big run of those to Walking Dead fans with basically no effort.
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I watched this on our evening news yesterday. The outcome of them filing for Chapter 11 protection could affect thousands of Connecticut jobs. The short story is that Colt wants to eliminate all of it bond debt, allowing them to move forward with suppliers and production, freeing Colt from approximately $10.9 million interest payments.
Here is the full news report (Hartford Courant).
"Colt Defense has filed for bankruptcy protection after failing to renegotiate payments to the owners of $250 million in unsecured bonds. The company intends to continue operating through the restructuring, and, in a written statement issued after the filing Sunday, said its vendors and suppliers would be paid all they are owed. The bankruptcy filing proposes to wipe out the bond liability. Colt also said there would be no changes to the terms of the union contract that covers the large majority of its nearly 800 employees. CEO Dennis Veilleux, who took over in October 2013, will remain after the reorganization, the company said. Colt Defense, with its headquarters and largest factory in West Hartford, is the operating company formed by the 2013 merger of Colt Defense LLC and Colt’s Manufacturing Co., which made and marketed non-military guns.
The company has been struggling to pay the interest on the bonds for the better part of a year, borrowing from Morgan Stanley last November in order to make the November $10.9 million interest payment. Colt failed to make an interest payment owed last month of $10.9 million, and the timing of the bankruptcy was determined by that default.
An affidavit in the bankruptcy case says the company had to stretch out payments to its suppliers in order to make the November payment, and as a result, those suppliers have slowed their sales this year, “to manage their credit risk profile,” wrote Keith Maib, a turnaround specialist hired by the company in March. He said the suppliers’ reaction has hurt the company’s ability to produce guns and rifles on schedule. “The company is obligated to the U.S. Government to deliver product at ‘ramped up’ rates by year end,” Maib wrote. “Any further deterioration in the company’s financial situation will put additional stress on the availability of critical raw materials and parts and count result in the loss of significant business from the U.S. Government,” he said.
The bankruptcy filing is the latest in a long history of financial troubles at the company founded in Hartford by Samuel Colt. Sales at Colt slipped in the first three months of 2015 to $50.1 million, down from $63.8 million in the first quarter of 2014. In all of 2014, the company reported $191 million in revenue. U.S. military sales are a small part of the company’s revenues — just 8 percent in 2014, after Colt lost a contract to supply the M-4 carbine. But the 32 percent of revenue that comes from international sales is dependent on U.S. military contracts, Maib said.
The company’s restructuring proposal is that the current majority owners — Sciens Capital Management, a private equity firm — would continue to own the new firm. The ownership, which is structured as a partnership, has made millions of dollars in payouts to its members in recent years, documents show. The company had previously tried to negotiate a partial repayment of those bonds, but the largest bondholders rejected it. The first offer was that the lenders would only get back 31 percent of what they were owed. The large, institutional bondholders countered that they should get back 50 percent of the principal they are owed, and also 40 percent equity in the restructured company. Colt said that would still be too much debt for the company, and suggested they get back 45 percent of what they were owed. The bondholders rejected that offer this month. In its bankruptcy filihng, the company proposes to cut them out entirely. One of the reasons the company rejected the bondholders’ counter-offer was that Colt wanted to end its obligation to file financial reports with the U.S. Securites and Exchange Commission. Colt has struggled to accurately portray its finances; its annual report released in May covered 2013, not 2014; many of its past reports have been revised; and it has admitted its internal controls were lacking. Maib wrote that the company could spend more energy on cost-cutting if it were not spending so much time trying to prepare these reports.
The company no longer has the small manufacturing operation in Florida it announced four years ago. At the end of 2013, its annual report said it had 811 full-time employees, with about 700 in West Hartford, mostly production employees covered by a contract with UAW. The report also said at that time, the average age of the production employees in West Hartford was 51, and about 13 percent were 65 or older. The union employees hired before March 30, 2012, have a traditional pension and post-retirement health benefits; management’s pension was frozen in 2009.
Colt, in its filing, warns that if a team of bondholders takes over Colt, it could jeopardize the stability of the company for two reasons. One, it could take too long to come to an agreement with all creditors, and that would continue the supply chain problems. And two, the private equity firm has owned 30 percent of the West Hartford factory for the last 10 years, after a past landlord wanted to sell to developers. If Sciens retains control of Colt, it will keep manufacturing in West Hartford for the long-term, it said in a press release.
The company suggests it could exit bankruptcy within 90 days. It warns that if this option is not accepted by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, “the only other alternative is a chapter 7 liquidation” of the company. Maib wrote that if a different set of owners wanted to manufacture somewhere else, it “would take a minimum of two or three years.” He said there would be environmental and collective bargaining issues, in addition to a cost of tens of millions of dollar and the normal business risk of relocating complex manufacturing operations.
The largest Connecticut creditors include:
Microbest in Waterbury, $755,172
Wilson Arms Company in Branford, $628,530
Pricewaterhousecoopers in Hartford, $551,653
Superior Plating Co. in Southport, $404,200
Light Metals Coloring in Southington, $360,967
BML Tool and Manufacturing in Monroe, $264,472
Duz Manufacturing in Milford, $217,845
Creed Monarch in New Britain, $185,161
Cantor Colburn in Hartford, $165,478
Bourdon Forge Company in Middletown, $127,083"
Here is the full news report (Hartford Courant).
"Colt Defense has filed for bankruptcy protection after failing to renegotiate payments to the owners of $250 million in unsecured bonds. The company intends to continue operating through the restructuring, and, in a written statement issued after the filing Sunday, said its vendors and suppliers would be paid all they are owed. The bankruptcy filing proposes to wipe out the bond liability. Colt also said there would be no changes to the terms of the union contract that covers the large majority of its nearly 800 employees. CEO Dennis Veilleux, who took over in October 2013, will remain after the reorganization, the company said. Colt Defense, with its headquarters and largest factory in West Hartford, is the operating company formed by the 2013 merger of Colt Defense LLC and Colt’s Manufacturing Co., which made and marketed non-military guns.
The company has been struggling to pay the interest on the bonds for the better part of a year, borrowing from Morgan Stanley last November in order to make the November $10.9 million interest payment. Colt failed to make an interest payment owed last month of $10.9 million, and the timing of the bankruptcy was determined by that default.
An affidavit in the bankruptcy case says the company had to stretch out payments to its suppliers in order to make the November payment, and as a result, those suppliers have slowed their sales this year, “to manage their credit risk profile,” wrote Keith Maib, a turnaround specialist hired by the company in March. He said the suppliers’ reaction has hurt the company’s ability to produce guns and rifles on schedule. “The company is obligated to the U.S. Government to deliver product at ‘ramped up’ rates by year end,” Maib wrote. “Any further deterioration in the company’s financial situation will put additional stress on the availability of critical raw materials and parts and count result in the loss of significant business from the U.S. Government,” he said.
The bankruptcy filing is the latest in a long history of financial troubles at the company founded in Hartford by Samuel Colt. Sales at Colt slipped in the first three months of 2015 to $50.1 million, down from $63.8 million in the first quarter of 2014. In all of 2014, the company reported $191 million in revenue. U.S. military sales are a small part of the company’s revenues — just 8 percent in 2014, after Colt lost a contract to supply the M-4 carbine. But the 32 percent of revenue that comes from international sales is dependent on U.S. military contracts, Maib said.
The company’s restructuring proposal is that the current majority owners — Sciens Capital Management, a private equity firm — would continue to own the new firm. The ownership, which is structured as a partnership, has made millions of dollars in payouts to its members in recent years, documents show. The company had previously tried to negotiate a partial repayment of those bonds, but the largest bondholders rejected it. The first offer was that the lenders would only get back 31 percent of what they were owed. The large, institutional bondholders countered that they should get back 50 percent of the principal they are owed, and also 40 percent equity in the restructured company. Colt said that would still be too much debt for the company, and suggested they get back 45 percent of what they were owed. The bondholders rejected that offer this month. In its bankruptcy filihng, the company proposes to cut them out entirely. One of the reasons the company rejected the bondholders’ counter-offer was that Colt wanted to end its obligation to file financial reports with the U.S. Securites and Exchange Commission. Colt has struggled to accurately portray its finances; its annual report released in May covered 2013, not 2014; many of its past reports have been revised; and it has admitted its internal controls were lacking. Maib wrote that the company could spend more energy on cost-cutting if it were not spending so much time trying to prepare these reports.
The company no longer has the small manufacturing operation in Florida it announced four years ago. At the end of 2013, its annual report said it had 811 full-time employees, with about 700 in West Hartford, mostly production employees covered by a contract with UAW. The report also said at that time, the average age of the production employees in West Hartford was 51, and about 13 percent were 65 or older. The union employees hired before March 30, 2012, have a traditional pension and post-retirement health benefits; management’s pension was frozen in 2009.
Colt, in its filing, warns that if a team of bondholders takes over Colt, it could jeopardize the stability of the company for two reasons. One, it could take too long to come to an agreement with all creditors, and that would continue the supply chain problems. And two, the private equity firm has owned 30 percent of the West Hartford factory for the last 10 years, after a past landlord wanted to sell to developers. If Sciens retains control of Colt, it will keep manufacturing in West Hartford for the long-term, it said in a press release.
The company suggests it could exit bankruptcy within 90 days. It warns that if this option is not accepted by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, “the only other alternative is a chapter 7 liquidation” of the company. Maib wrote that if a different set of owners wanted to manufacture somewhere else, it “would take a minimum of two or three years.” He said there would be environmental and collective bargaining issues, in addition to a cost of tens of millions of dollar and the normal business risk of relocating complex manufacturing operations.
The largest Connecticut creditors include:
Microbest in Waterbury, $755,172
Wilson Arms Company in Branford, $628,530
Pricewaterhousecoopers in Hartford, $551,653
Superior Plating Co. in Southport, $404,200
Light Metals Coloring in Southington, $360,967
BML Tool and Manufacturing in Monroe, $264,472
Duz Manufacturing in Milford, $217,845
Creed Monarch in New Britain, $185,161
Cantor Colburn in Hartford, $165,478
Bourdon Forge Company in Middletown, $127,083"
So corporations can't be held accountable for poor judgement, planning and operation. I'm sure that has NOTHING to do with it... LOL
The only Colt I own is a 1969 .357 Python. It's the most badass of my wheel guns.
The SR762 is by far my favorite AR style 7.62. Its a hell of a weapon.
Really? Most are private companies, and for good reason. But sales are thru the roof. With the 2-3 Obama scares etc etc firearms have been selling like mad. A half dozen gun shops have opened around me in 3-5 years, and for long periods all of them would have little/no stock.
If you cant make it on your own right now, the management sucks. Every report I have seen says that sales in the last 5-6 years have been record breaking, and all at a time when price was basically as high as you wanted.
According to this article sales have slumped across the industry: http://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...886540-1382-11e5-89f3-61410da94eb1_story.html
I would buy a new production Python in a heartbeat. With this news, python's are even going to go higher in price. Even though the gun has been fully out of production for a decade.
I do own colts, and have nothing but good experiences with them.
Give me a Colt AR or 1911 over the SR variant, and I like Ruger. Thought sold most my rugers and replaced them with Colts.
Colt bring back the DA wheelguns when you get situated!
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