Rigby was owned by J. Roberts & Son. Paul Roberts ran the company and, yes, it was doing fine. Paul didn't have any real interest in selling the company, but an American made a perfectly stupid offer and Paul simply couldn't say no, so he sold it in 1997. They thought they could make a lot of money just trading on the name, and have pretty much trashed it.

J. Roberts & Son acquired the rights to the W. J. Jeffery name in 2000, and is now making guns and rifles under that name.