What is happening at Colt? That’s the question on many people’s minds as news of layoffs in the company began to trickle out starting on Tuesday. Rumors of massive layoffs at Colt began with a post at Pistol-Forum by member “misanthropist”, who wrote: Sounds like a big mess down there and a whole lot of pink slips, including my favourite division, the custom shop.
I predicted this in September, 2006; in the original "Black Beauty Is Dead" article I wrote:
Colt!As it turns out, Colt managed to find new financing (see the article for details) and new management and new .... almost everything. They held out for over ten years.
The very name evokes imagery. A new-born stallion racing with the wind, Ferrari's rampant horse icon, and that of the Colt Firearms Company of Hartford, Connecticut!
Well, nobody has read "Black Beauty" for 20 years. Enzo Ferarri is dead, and so is Colt Firearms Company of Hartford, Connecticut.
Now it appears that (for reasons which are not yet clear) Colt finds itself once again between a rock and a hard place.
In the words of Dear Leader: "sad".
We'll probably be reading about the details of the problems which lead to this; fiscal, market share, technology, societal changes ... or some combination of all the above. Will Colt manage to dodge the bullet once again?
For comparison, I reference "Remington Has Been Sold" from 2007.
But as I review my own "arsenal", I realize that I don't have a single firearm with that Prancing Stallion logo, and I haven't for years.
Okay, so it's my fault.
I'm sorry!
