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London toy fair (hornby)

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Dunluce Castle

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To quote Jamie Callum, pointless nostalgia it may be, but it's clearly tickled a few fancies, given the volume of diverse and varied responses. Paraffin to Gauloises. Who'd a thunk eh?

 

Just so you know Mr. Derg, there's been some intense riveting action completed at House Harkonnen. But more anon. :)

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Whatever about Hornby's financial position they have turned out some outstanding OO gauge steam locos http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/82970-hornbys-best-ever-models/page-29.

 

I think one of the main issues with Hornby is whether to cater for the train set market and the younger modeller or the adult collector. The take over of the Lima/Rivarassi has probably worsened the problem as most of the Continental and American models are quite outdated and inferior to their competitors models.

 

The local model shop dropped Bachmann and Atlas about 4-5 years ago and only stock Hornby primarily for parents and younger modellers expanding on the Christmas train set.

 

Although there is a Britannia, a King Arthur, a T9 and other mouth watering steam locos in the display case these are likely to be long stock or sale and return items as the adult collector is more likely to buy on line or from a box shifter.

 

A parent is unlikely to pay over $300NZ for an Arthur or an O4 they might be happy to pay out $150-200 for the Hornby R2669 Train Pack with the ancient Triang-Hornby diesel shunter and 3 wagons. Much more play value and less likely to be broken than a highly detailed model.

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Is that near Ballybeg?:P Or are they the Harkonnens of dune?

And has"the package" been sent?PIMP

 

Heh! House Harkonnen just sounds so much more Badass than House Ballybeg (and I'm no Feyd-Rautha).

 

Package ready soon, I've been distracted by trying to set up a virtual machine to enable XP mode on a W7 laptop.

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Heh! House Harkonnen just sounds so much more Badass than House Ballybeg (and I'm no Feyd-Rautha).

 

Package ready soon, I've been distracted by trying to set up a virtual machine to enable XP mode on a W7 laptop.

Look, Des I looked up that Harkonnen halabaloo on Wikipedia, so I haven't a feckin clue what feud Ruth is!

I don't pay you for distractions......

 

Lego city eh? I used to have a few KGs of Lego police. I used to think the police station was so cool

And would build one 8 stories high!

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This is taken from another site and explains an interesting angle. This also applies to a lot of slightly older, but still in manufacture Bachmann products

 

 

In 2000 the transfer of Hornby production to China had already taken place.

Their results for 2000 show that gross margin was 35.4%.

 

Now, if it is true (as they would like us to believe) that Chinese manufacturing costs have been the problem, then you might expect this gross margin to decline or at least be hard to maintain.

 

By 2001, however, the gross margin had climbed to 39.9%.

 

Let's run the clock forward a decade:-

 

By 2011, Hornby's gross margin had climbed yet again to 46.2%

 

Perhaps that was an aberration? Let's have a look at their latest 2015 set of accounts:-

 

By 2015 Hornby's gross margin had climbed further to 46.7%

 

That's why you cannot blame China. The manufacturing share of Hornby's costs has declined from 100 - 35.4 = 64.6% to 100 - 46.7 = 53.3%.

 

The impact of this greediness is easily shown by looking at the breakdown of a typical Hornby product bought directly from them.

 

The customer pays £120 for a loco, the taxman takes £20 leaving £100. It costs £53.30 to make it so Hornby are left with £46.70 contribution towards costs and, hopefully profit.

 

Imagine for a minute that Hornby still operated with the year 2000 35.4% margin. The manufacturing cost would still be £53.30 but the margin would only be £29.20 producing a selling price of £82.50. Add tax and the customer pays £99.

 

I would certainly be willing to make more purchases if prices were 20% lower.

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I looked up that Harkonnen halabaloo on Wikipedia, so I haven't a feckin clue what feud Ruth is!

More who Feyd-Rautha was rather than a what. He was the Beast Rabban's utterly twisted and evil nephew and for anyone who watched David Lynch's 1984 version was played by Sting with some....let's say "memorable" costumes.

 

Now back to Hornby, interesting figures there Ed.

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  • 3 months later...

 

Hi Dave, that article was from Feb, have there been any recent significant developments? Understand the CEO quit in Feb, and their bankers had given the company more time. What ever happens to the company, and I hope it can restructure and survive, the brand names will probably never die and be acquired by another interest should the current owners fail to turn things around. Sadly toy trains along with many other ubiquitous toys that helped develop the mind and physical engineering skills of youngsters have fallen out of favour with the market in favour of games and entertainment on small LCD screens and mobile internet.

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A quick look at the Internet shows a slight improvement in share price.

 

The Finance Director has been appointed CEO and they appointed an interim Finance Director to fill his post.

 

James May says save the company - one way to do that is to buy their stuff? However, model railways aren't much of an investment - but if you choose an item which subsequently "in demand" you can always eBay it at a profit!

 

Like Noel, from my great age, I bemoan the tendency of youngsters to have their heads stuck in their mobile phones (attempts to ban them at family meals failed miserably), or their iPads - my 7 year old grandson did, however, leave his alone as we travelled on the narrow gauge in Wales last week - a glimmer of hope.

 

I'm happy to relate that when my younger son helped organise a mass playing of "X Wing" (the board game!) in Birmingham last weekend, there were 200 plus players.

 

 

Leslie

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  • 2 weeks later...

Interesting

Looks like the old Margate factory and interpretive centre have been sold off

I had some hope of the production being returned to Margate sometime in the future, maybe bring the skilled Chinese workers over

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/06/22/hornby-launches-8m-share-placing-to-fuel-turnaround-plan/

Edited by WRENNEIRE
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