Quote:James May urges nation to 'save Hornby' as shares plunge 62%
Well-known producer of railway sets, Airfix kits and Corgi cars issues third profit warning in five months

However, Hornby has suffered a torrid period in the last few years due to falling sales, problems with suppliers in China, and disruption from upgrading its computer and stock management systems. The Kent-based company warned on Wednesday that its problems had worsened significantly since the start of the year. Sales of Hornby products fell in January in the UK and the company has also discovered that it needs to write £1m from the value of its stock.
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These factors mean that Hornby is now expecting to record an underlying pretax loss of between £5.5m and £6m for its financial year, far larger than expected, and there is a risk that the company will breach banking covenants in March. If it does so, there is a risk that Barclays, its bank, could call in the debt, threatening the company with collapse. Hornby has roughly £9m of net debt, all with Barclays.

Full story: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/feb/10/hornby-warns-it-will-lose-6m-pounds-this-year">http://www.theguardian.com/business/201 ... -this-year</a><!-- m -->

So how, exactly, and why, exactly, is "the nation supposed to save Hornby"? That is incredibly presumptuous of the author. Private enterprise is a risk - always has been and always will be. See any buggy whip companies still in operation? Why weren't those saved? Ridden on any White Star steamships lately? Why not? How about a ticket to Europe on an airship? No?

If there is a reasonable demand, the system will find a way to fill it, but not necessarily the same way all of the time, and certainly not the same company.

Sink or swim is the rule of economics. Somebody in a Third World nation will end up manufatiring the Hornby line of products and life ill go on, just as it has for all the other companies that used to advertise in the modeling magazines.

Hornby isn't the first company to outlive it's "popularity", and go out of business....... probably won't be the last one either.
OO, 1:76 scale is just about half way between HO scale, and S scale.
Hornby models predominantly European prototypes.
I'm not too surprised that in today's economy, their sales are down, they seem to have always been in a "limited use" scale, and prototype.
I still have my "Li' l Joe" B&O 0-4-0, and my "Casey Jones" 4-6-0 by Varney...... yeah, there's a name you don't see much of any more.

It's most likely due to national pride. Lots of UK brands have been lost over the years, but as MM says, it's the way of things.

Mini and Rolls-Royce are owned by BMW. Hoover (UK) is owned by an Italian company. Woolworths is completely gone, and Marks and Spencer has retreated from overseas markets. British Leyland was broken up and the Austin and MG names are owned by the Chinese.

It's just James' appeal to the British public to reclaim some of what once made Britain a manufacturing powerhouse. But like most so-called first world countries, manufacturing is now done elsewhere.

Andrew

PS As far as I know Peco is still headquartered in Beer, Devonshire, England.

MountainMan Wrote:So how, exactly, and why, exactly, is "the nation supposed to save Hornby"? That is incredibly presumptuous of the author.

Presumptuous, maybe but it would appear that you do not realise that Hornby along with Meccano, Airfix, Corgi and Scalextric were for many years British Icons and much desired, and drooled over, not only by young British chaps, but also those of us from the Commonwealth; besides it’s what I’d expect James May as a champion of “Britishness” to do.
Did Hornby trains keep up with the play, as far as their workings go, no!
One of the main reasons why I model the North American prototype is because when I started model railroading, an Athearn BB Geep had 8 wheel pick up, an enclosed motor,and the Athearn drive with flywheels!!!! Hornbys offerings were, and I gather are, still back in the Dark Ages.
Cheers, the Bear.

I've got some thoughts on this topic, being a British 00 modeller... I'm going to respond later tonight when I have more time. :-)

Interesting thread. I’ve been following this online. I’m a British railway modeller who models in both British 00 and N and have several Hornby locos & rolling stock from the 1960s as well as ones made recently. Here are a few of my comments:

— OO is fairly similar to HO. It’s 4mm:1 foot (rather than HO’s 3.5mm). It’s quite comparable to HO… For example, N or O are obviously different from HO but — on the surface — a casual observer could easily think HO & OO were the same scale.
— Hornby products are generally excellent quality and I think offer better value compared to most North American HO suppliers. For example, you could easily buy a finely detailed OO model of a pacific steam loco around $200.00, even less (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://modelrailwayimports.com/products.php?CID=1&BID=8">http://modelrailwayimports.com/products.php?CID=1&BID=8</a><!-- m -->), whereas the North American HO steam models that I’ve seen in hobby shops here in Canada range from $300–$500 or higher.
— in recent years, Hornby has taken over several other modelling companies, such as Humbrol Paint and Rivarossi. So it may not be the Hornby model train brand itself that’s in trouble, it could be caused by slumping sales in the other areas.
— the financial problems may be due to mismanagement caused by the Hornby company, rather than slumping sales in the industry.
— although the usual aging demographics may be influencing the slow sales, I think the hobby is much stronger and more vibrant in the UK than it is in North America. I know there are at least 4 strong monthly British model railway magazines, thick with articles and ads.
— Hornby has already moved most or all of its manufacturing to China since the early-2000s, and shipment/delivery delays have contributed to Hornby’s problems (so overseas manufacturing is part of the problem, not a solution).
— I also read that Hornby had strong sales late last year (when you’d expect them to be high) and have understandably slumped early this year, which is common. Maybe part of the problem is the way statistics are used. Mark Twain once made a sarcastic comment about how statistics can be used to distort truth.

Rob