Gridiron

Exactly, and they can go further by piggybacking the shipping of Hornby products from China etc with other brands shipping activities potentially further reducing costs. Perhaps also Phoenix have identified another link, that the youth of today big passion is technology and linking the model railway, model car and plastic kits to those popular games could be a money spinner because with your simple table top layout could easily be converted into some virtual reality West Coast Mainline or imaginary HS3 railway.. In my experience Asset Management companies do not tend to be long term investors so bringing in Mr Ashley would seem a logical exercise once the ship had been steadied with his experience in retail and logistics and distribution. One other interesting point to note, is that Phoenix is ultimately controlled by Channon Holding Limited which in turn is controlled a Mr Gary Andrew Scott Channon and a Mrs Sedef Channon. Mr Channon seems have had a very busy career in the past holding officers positions in no less that 353 entities, including a large number of funeral directors and similar industries.

Alternatively, this simple guide in English . https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/united-kingdom_en https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/document/download/f274508d-2a2d-43b6-895e-07baeb2d5987_en?filename=e-commerce-uk-factsheet_en.pdf

It looks that way, the premises are listed with an expected approximate value of just over 1m GBP, but they appear listed for rent, https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/143599421#/?channel=COM_LET

With reports that M B Klein is returning, the same cannot be said about Hattons in the UK. According to Companies House records Christine Hatton ceased to be person with significant control of the patent company The Hatton Model Railway Company Limited, on 29 Jan 2024, whilst the Hattons 2 Limited is about to be voluntary struck off the register in the next two months. Meanwhile Richard has established his latest venture as Medio HQ 2 Limited, curiously listing it's activities as 68209 - Other letting and operating of own or leased real estate.

BBC North West Tonight has just broadcast the interview with Richard and Widnes Model Centre. It will be available on the website for two days. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001wtxm

All becomes clear at 7.30 min in

Absolutely, my guess given the news today is that the trading company Hattons Model Railways Limited will eventually be wound up once all the affairs have been settled. There is no need to keep it open, the trading company is owned by the parent company THE HATTON MODEL RAILWAY COMPANY LIMITED which Companies House records shows also purchased Richards previous two companies. The parent company could also hold the ownership of the US operations but this may only be revealed when the accounts are published later in the year. With the Hattons appearing to have disposed of it's manufacturing side of the business and the owned retail brands either side of the Atlantic closed in theory the parent could also close, but it could also emerge as another entity or partner in a joint venture. It also leaves the question of Hattons 2 Ltd outstanding which has remained dormant since incorporation. I remain in the view that there are more chapters in this book to follow although I suspect they may not involve Hattons in direct retail sakes.

Ok a reasonably short explanation. Today there are three global alliances, or groups of the shipping lines providing services on the main east /west trades globally. On the Asia / Europe trade each of these alliance provide five or six sailings a week from about five or six ports in Asia to about four or five ports in North West Europe, The diversion around the Cape adds about eight to ten days to the voyage depending on on the service speed which can be relatively slow at 13 to 14 knots to save fuel costs. Speeding up to say 18 knots will reduce the transit times to about seven days so initially it has been a balancing act on the westbound voyages to reschedule the port calls to avoid bunching and port congestion, but typical transit times now from Yantian which is usually the last Chinese load port westbound is about 32/33 days to the first discharge NWC port. In theory each alliance therefore needs to find an extra two ships for each weekly service , so at least 20 vessels per alliance depending on the ranges served. Like after the bank 2009 the shipping lines have resorted to all sorts of policies to keep their services sustainable, including slow steaming as I have indicated above, but also blanking sailings on some weeks, like over Chinese New Year or even cancelling some services for a limited period of time. These step the lines argue as necessary because of the slow down in demand and a huge glut of spare capacity in the marketplace, but one the problems it creates is shortages of equipment in some locations so you end up with a huge surplus of empties in the wrong place. During the Covid peak there were times when UK Ports were storing so many empty units that the ports, particularly Felixstowe and Southampton refused to take the empties back. This problem was caused because the ships when they arrived carried substantially more units than normal for discharge and that combined with the Covid working measures meant the berthing windows were insufficient for the ship to exchange the full complement of eastbound units, so the empties got left behind. In order to solve this problem the Chinese government order their factories to churn out huge numbers of new containers which were lapped up by the shipping and container leasing companies which resulted in even more containers being left behind is western ports, in Los Angeles/Long Beach ships were queuing for up to 30 days for a berth to discharge /load during the worst of Covid pandemic because the terminals simply ran out of space to land containers. As volumes have returned to precovid levels the shipping lines have been trying to return as many leased containers back to the leasing companies or sell off older units due for certification so that inventory levels matched the demands of the market place with some additional capacity available to support all the newbuilds due to enter service over the next two to three years. MSC for example has at least a new 15000 plus up to 24000 teu vessel due to enter service every month for the next two or three years. 24000 teu is fast becoming the normal size for vessels on Asia /Europe services, which smaller ships now being cascaded to other trades for example Indian Subcontinent /Middle East/ Europe were the majority of the services are operated outside the global alliances so therefore need each individual line to plug the gaps. It's also important to remember that all the alliances also service the Mediterranean trades to and from Asia, India Subcontinent /Middle trades and East and West Africa often as wayport calls and/or via transhipment via south Europe hubs at Valencia, Algeciras and Tangier requiring even more capacity. Another problem is the lack of rain in Panama, which has resulted in the lakes in the middle of the canal seeing lower water levels in the canal. The Panama Canal authority has been limiting the number of transit over recent months which has lead to congestion for vessel wishing to use the Canal so the lines serving the Asia to US Gulf and East coast ports had rerouted many services via Suez but with the effective closure of the route the lines have had no alternative but reroute these services via the Cape eating up even more capacity. All these demands have forced the lines to rejig many services and provide additional loaders to and from some ports which previously saw direct calls dropping of surplus capacity to the port to sustain the local demand for empty equipment. So give a short answer to your original question, the answer as Eric Morecambe might describe is that the there is no shortage of equipment, it's just that is now no longer in the right place. The shipping lines have now had a month to make the changes so any initial shortages of equipment should largely be resolved in the next two to three weeks and then the situation should start to stabilise and with the shipping lines planning now for a long term disruption it could the present service patterns will remain in place until the end of the year when the next major changes come into effect when Maersk and MSC spilt from their agreement and Maersk are joined by Hapag Lloyd in their new global alliance. This will inevitably result in numerous changes to schedules which are likely to be made more complicated with present disruption.

i think I have had stuff from Modelibahnshop Lippe but before Brexit, but prior to Brexit DHL was the preferred carrier, but there performance like UPS immediately after Brexit was poor, which got even worse when they then subcontracted the delivery to Parcel Force or Royal Mail. The big problem here may be that DHL do not provide PF or RM with an email contact address, perhaps because it might be considered an infringement of privacy rights. As a result, the customer has to wait either try and track the parcel on either site and gain another reference to go on line to make the payment, or wait for the letter to arrive which quotes the number. It can be a very tiresome exercise. Agree, that was my initial reaction, but after also listening to his two interviews and discovering the other companies, my view changed that he could have meant that the current business could not be made to be profitable in the longer term. At this point we should remember that the trading company is wholly owned by a holding company which have Christine and Richard as Directors. THE HATTON MODEL RAILWAY COMPANY LIMITED acquired 100% of the current trading company on the 15 June 2018 and the two previous companies that Richard was listed as a Director and were then liquidated. One can only assume the reason for this move was to acquire any intellectual rights or copyrights that these companies hold which may have well been used by Hattons in their trading company. However, Richard also established Hattons 2 Limited on the 27 March 2015 in which Christine is listed as holding a share between 25% and 49.9% of the business. This company is independent of the holding Hattons entity and appears to have remained dormant at least up to the 31st March 2023. The latest full accounts for the trading company are only available up to 30 Jun 2022 so it s not clear which of the three entities set up the US entity and then liquidated it last year just before the Klein acquisition all of which would have been a substantial hit to the business especially given the subsequent events following the announcement of the UK closing down. It would be logical to assume the holding company funded the US business which would then potentially would have allowed the Hattons trading company to continue and perhaps weather the approaching storm. However, it appears the Directors and Management finally agreed that this was not possible and took the decision to close the business whilst it was still solvent. Assuming this to be the case, the obvious question is what was or is the purpose of Hattons 2 Limited which is resgistered to an address in Chester. The answer is of course we don't know, and we will have to wait to see what happens with both the trading company and the holding company, whose accounts provide an interesting insight into their turnover and customer base. Curiously it seems that Hattons had actually made Brexit a success, doubling their turnover, whilst the rest of the world sales saw a decrease of over 50% between 2021 and 2022 highlighting perhaps the amount of subsidy this portion of the business was taking.

UK and EU VAT registered sellers should be zero rating their supply when supplying a customer outside the UK and EU respectively, as the custom/VAT rules allow this. Private, unregistered sellers should not be charging origin VAT in the first place. If the value of order is below the local customs minima which may or may not include the shipping cost depending on local customs rules, they should be including the local taxes (ie VAT, GST etc.) and customs clearance fee(s). If the value is over the minima the local taxes and clearance fee should not be included by the seller and instead these should be paid locally to by the customer to the service provider.

True perhaps I should have added for the UK domestic market for UK outline models. I'd agree there is an issue with cost of Ebay Global Shipping Program from what I have read, being in the UK I have not had cause to use it myself. However, I do for a relative who models N Gauge Continental and I buy directly from sellers in Europe. One regular seller used offers free UK shipping on orders over EUR300 and event throughs in a free gift so the German VAT is also waived. My orders are all over this limit and are usually despatched the same working day and on most occasions the shipping service is excellent. An order sent last Sunday was acknowledged by 0800hrs UK time Monday morning and by close of business I had an email from UPS with the tracking reference. By 2100hrs I had an email to confirm the parcel had been collected and was on the way to the hub, and delivery to Liverpool was planned for the next day between 1045hrs and 1315hrs. As a failsafe I sent them a copy of the commercial invoice and clearance instructions by email to the UK hub at East Midlands airport. The following morning I had an email notification that the the delivery was due a little later than previously advised pending payment of the outstanding VAT and clearance charge of GBP12.50. This was paid online by 0930hrs on the Tuesday morning and the UPS driver turned up about ten minutes later than previously notified at 1650hrs the same day, just about 23 hours after the parcel was collected for the sellers warehouse near Cologne. I will eventually get an official invoice from UPS in the post which has the UK customs clearance printed on reverse in a week or so time for my records. From a trade point of view Brexit I would whole heartedly agree it was the biggest own goal any UK government could have made, but what I think my seller in Germany shows, is that the red tape can be overcome and the process can be more or less seamless with the correct paperwork and partner infrastructure. For small UK sellers and buyers Brexit has been a nightmare of bureaucracy and here I speak from personal professional experience as effectively trade between UK and the EU has gone back to prior 1993. The only difference between then an now is that all the customs paperwork is done electronically rather than using half a rainforest of paper. For the sellers it's also an opportunity to sell to the rest of the world as the same basic procedure applies as far as UK compliance is concerned, the real challenge is dealing with the overseas customs arrangements if the orders fall below the minimum values were the seller becomes responsible for local taxes and charges and the possible exchange rate risks. This is probably explains why the Ebay Global Shipping program is seen as being expensive for smaller shipments and were the Hattons Trunk system comes into it's own as I suspect they priced the overseas shipping very competitively because of the volume discounts they could negotiate from likes of DHL etc.

And this is why I think we may well see a Hattons 2 but not directly as a retailer, rather more the as the platform provider. By all accounts Christine Hatton has or will retire for the business when the current trading company is wound up leaving Richard Davies as the sole director and thus able to take the entity in a different direction. At 46 years old he is I doubt going to sit back and count his riches, and perhaps more importantly he has an IT background as was responsible for taking the company to a major online trader having previously been involved in a consultancy IT specialising in the retail industry, Owning the platform and then partnering up with a suitable third party fulfilment operation potentially might make a very viable niche platform that could be tailored to other business types were the customer might want the benefit of a trunk system which does appear to separate the platform form the likes of Ebay and Amazon etc.

Unless somebody steps up, Ebay looks to be the winner for the secondhand market. As a regular buyer in recent years on Ebay as well as Hattons and certain other traders it never ceases to amaze me the variety of stock that does appear on Ebay and it seems to that very few retailers could afford to offer the variety and volume of stock the platform stocks and that the beauty for the owners of Ebay. The whole concept it that Ebay does not own the stock so does not have all the supplier issues that a manufacturer or distributor incurs running their business let alone the financial gamble of stocking a huge amount of stock, some of which can be slow sellers. With this in mind an observation, my own preference is 00 gauge so I noted this morning that a simple search of UK stock of 00 gauge stock showed by about 78000 items, by early afternoon it had reached 79000 plus items, whilst in the run up to Xmas the same search reached 100000 items. Ok, let's be fair, there is usually a fair amount of junk items, which would never would have appeared on the Hattons website but presumably must have been included in some secondhand purchases. As a veteran of the original Hattons shop, I can remember seeing the same sort of stuff on offer as a bargain somewhere in the shop, along with huge stocks of three rail Hornby Dublo track that never appeared to go down. Most UK sellers in the secondhand market seem to take a similar view leaving the only source of spares for some items a handful of specialist traders or Ebay,

The problem of manufacturers and distributes overstocking in not unique to the model train or toy industry, it's a global problem that affects most western economies since the pandemic when governments pumped billons of US Dollars, Pounds and Euro's into their domestic markets to keep their countries economies functioning. With so many people working from and some making life changing decisions to their life style manufacturers and distributors naturally wanted to take advantage of this disposable income which could no longer be spent on traditional forms of entertainment and holidays although it was not universal. Some markets, like garden furniture and other relatively low value products became relatively scarce as it was no longer viable to ship these goods when shipping costs for a 40ft containers from China to Europe were approaching USD20000.00 a container, if you could secure the space, over five times the cost prior to Covid outbreak. Desperate, to secure supplies from their Chinese manufacturers many western organisations increased their orders or quantities but with the Chinese still enjoying lockdowns well after the western economies had mainly returned to normal trading patterns there were huge stocks still being shipped throughout 2021 and 2022. As the Covid restrictions were eased Governments and Central Banks started to develop plans to reduce the debt burden brought on by various Covid schemes and curb inflation which had returned to every economy as a result of release of those huge sums of money released into economies to counter the effects of Covid. By this time last year the cost of shipping had reduced dramatically and by the late summer the rates had fallen to below Covid levels largely because volume of orders from China had dropped significantly as manufacturers and distributors began to realise that they had huge stocks of unsold product sitting in warehouses in many western countries, including the UK. Successive monthly rises in interest rates were beginning to reduce consumer spending so it was inevitable that this would ultimately affect sales on the high street and especially in those businesses not involved in essentials. One interesting and often neglected fact is the huge profits made by the shipping companies during the pandemic, which apart in the USA has gone largely unnoticed by the regulators etc. The numbers are mind blowing and whilst the industry does tend to suffer from peaks and troughs the figures for the Covid period are breaktaking. To give one example, MSC which is now the largest containership operator in the world was able to acquire in the last two years over 300 ships in secondhand market to add to their existing fleet, hence why they are now number one. But it does not end there. They also have a order book for new ships equivalent to about the size of the fifth placed carrier Hapag Lloyd and that's in addition to investments in logistics and airfreight were they continue to trade under the subsidiary name. Most of the global carriers have followed a similar policy on newbuilds partly in order to comply with new emission rules and allow older tonnage to be scrapped. As a result there is likely to be over the next couple of years a huge surplus of tonnage which is why when the attacks in the Red Sea started and the ship started to divert via the Cape the shipping lines were able to fill much of the gaps in capacity fairly quickly from idle capacity anchored off China and rejigging some services. Whilst initially rates spiked, there are signs already they are beginning to drop as the supply chain repairs itself and the overall trend over the next couple of years should be more stable as the lessons have been learnt.