Were Parker shotguns made when ordered?

[Fishtail]

It's not plausible Parker only made money on the higher grade guns.

We all know Parker was not top in class in terms of the commercial side of things....but nonetheless, to suggest a company spent 60+ years losing money on the majority of their production is a bit hard to swallow.

[Dean Romig]

The Charles Parker Co. and Parker Bros. were in the business of manufacturing and manufactured every kind of household goods and industrial implements. I would venture to say that profits from the production of shotguns is not what sustained the company but I, too, can't imagine they would have continued to produce shotguns if it was only a 'break even' proposition on the vast majority of their guns.






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[Bruce Day]

Originally Posted by greg conomos

It's not plausible Parker only made money on the higher grade guns.

We all know Parker was not top in class in terms of the commercial side of things....but nonetheless, to suggest a company spent 60+ years losing money on the majority of their production is a bit hard to swallow.

An interesting opinion, but you might want to look at TPS, pp 158,159:

[Dean Romig]

"Trojan, V, G, and C grades, which constituted the bulk of total production..." ?? C grade was included in the total bulk and not D grade?? I find that hard to fathom.




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[Fishtail]

That's a snapshot from 1937 - not necessarily indicative of the previous 60 years.

Plus.....those of us in the business world who have been involved in buyouts know full well that the new owner is always crestfallen to find out that the company they just bought is not making the money they thought it was when they bought it. Of course, the definition of 'making money' is keenly dependent on one's perspective.

[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by greg conomos

That's a snapshot from 1937 - not necessarily indicative of the previous 60 years.

No, but Remington had owned the Parker Gun since January of '34 and the caption shown from The Parker Story probably referred to Remington's experience of three years of ownership.





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[Kirk Potter]

Did Parker production end because of WWII? Guess losing money is a good reason not to start up production again.

[Dean Romig]

Yes, just about all sporting arms manufacturing ended when we became involved in WWII.

Arms manufacture changed to military arms in support of the war effort.






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[Bruce Day]

Originally Posted by Bruce Day

Interesting. The only light shed on margins I am aware of is the report of the Remington auditor upon Remington's purchase of Parker. That purports to state that Parker lost money on all low grade guns until Grade D, where sales price overtook cost. According to that report, Parker in the 1930's only made money on high grade guns.

Are there other documents ?

Greg, I never said it did. I said the report was directed to the 1930's. What information do you have that sheds light on margins and profitability?

[Robert Delk]

I believe someone from the PGCA ended up with the inter office paper from Remington that I got from the son of an employee many years ago.I recall that there were mentions of profitability and the chance of starting the manufacture of Parkers again. I recall that the dates were 1947-48 and up to 1953. I wish that I had saved it but I wasn't really into Parkers as firearms and just an ephemera collector.Sold it at a gun show in Illinois to a collecter who was sitting at the table of that gunsmith who was a whiz at fixing and upgrading Parkers. They did an article on him in one of the early DGJ's.