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1andrew1

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Everything posted by 1andrew1

  1. Just missing the Azuma...
  2. A YouTuber has already shared a video with a mocked-up Sport Direct wagon and trainer brands applied to the Hornby 0-4-0😆
  3. If the price is right, I'm sure they would sell as that would maximise the return for their investors in the fund. They're a financial investor, it's not like they're a family holding onto the stake for more emotional reasons. And I don't think Hornby has been a great investment for them to date.
  4. Modelleisenbahn GmbH (Roco & Fleischmann) has ported its manufacturing skills over to its factory in Vietnam. However, this doesn't directly benefit Hornby. It's more a case now of the OEMs in Vietnam getting up to speed on model railway manufacture so they can deliver and bid for more work from brands like Hornby than just Playtrains.
  5. So far, Frasers has bought a stake in Hornby and seen the investment rise substantially in value. Not bad for Frasers or the other shareholders, primarily Phoenix. The next step seems to be to try and help continue the share price growth by sharing expertise with Hornby and seeing if there's more areas the two companies can collaborate on. After this, it's all a bit of an unknown. If Frasers think they can run Hornby better by taking control and it's worth their while, then I'm sure Phoenix will be pleased to sell them their controlling stake. But would it really be worth spending Frasers' management time on such a niche, low margin business? Perhaps Frasers see a Wonderworks or a Warlord retail opportunity they can roll out to reinvigorate Game? With traditional computer games sold by Game moving to online downloads, it does seem to be moving towards being a more traditional games retailer by necessity.
  6. I think it's relatively few manufacturers who can do without China as it's become a centre of expertise for the industry. Playtrains are made in Vietnam so another benefit of that range is to test supply chains from another country. Vietnam is certainly picking up other work that used to go China so that's a possible new location if there is a factory there that can go beyond Playtrains level.
  7. Showing today as 1%. It's interesting to see the stakes Frasers holds in other companies. It doesn't always acquire full ownership. ASOS 20.00% Boohoo 22.08% Castelnau 1.59% Currys 6.59% Hornby 8.94% Hugo Boss 0.99% Mulberry 36.82% N Brown 20.02% Northern Bear 0.43% https://uk.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/FRASERS-GROUP-PLC-9590226/company/
  8. Alternatively, push TT train sets cheaply through Frasers and Game. That way, future modellers are in a scale dominated by Hornby rather than selling OO train sets where Hornby's market share for OO is a lot lower. If a train set buyer wanted to expand their set, sticking with the same gauge is highly probable. Right now, TT is Hornby except for a few Peco wagons. The same is not true for OO where the train set owner's next purchase could come from Dapol, Bachmann and many more manufacturers. Both Frasers and Hornby would conceivably gain from such an arrangement.
  9. Apparently, the share price rose 7% on the announcement before falling back. I wasn't a fan of Ashley over his ownership of Newcastle but he has invested in the high street at a time when other retailers have gone online or closed down altogether. The traditional opportunities to asset-strip Hornby are limited as a lot of this has already been done. Move to a cheaper part of the country. Done. Sell and lease back your HQ. Done. Offshore manufacturing. Done. Offshore distribution. Done. What opportunities are left? Maybe the big opportunity is to focus on Warlord Games and introduce specialist Warlord areas into Game and Frasers. Sell Oxford Diecast back to the founder and decide on the other brands once their performance is better understood.
  10. It will be interested to see if WonderWorks is rolled out in conjunction with Frasers Group. With space in shopping centres and a move to leisure provision in them, there could be an opportunity but I think it will be limited to a handful of big UK cities.
  11. I think a lot of your hypothesis makes sense. Small point of accuracy - Blacks went into administration and was acquired by JD Sports. Sports Direct did have a 30% stake in Blacks but failed to acquire the company.
  12. Fraser Group's 8.9% Hornby stake is substantial but Hornby is currently well and truly controlled by Phoenix who own a whopping 73.4% of the company. It could be that Ashley is a bit bored having handed over managing Frasers Group to his son-in-law, and he certainly doesn't need the money!
  13. In this video at 13:47, an Airfix retailer who is a critical friend of Hornby Hobbies describes how the company is difficult to order from with no online portal. This would seem a priority for the new management to tackle.
  14. This could be good news for improving Hornby's systems and logistics. https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/Hornby/news/rns/story/wv4d40w
  15. Rumours always float around and can be circular in nature and shared in good faith. In this instance, the facts don't seem to bear out the rumour. Hattons' total costs in y/e June 2013 were £8.5m. It ended the year with stocks of just under £2.6m and started the year with stocks of just over £2.6m. (Similar figures apply to y/e June 2012 and y/e June 2014). Hattons announced its closure in January 2024 and Tiering ended in November 2023. Plenty of time to decide not to close the business at that stage. After all, Hattons didn't seem to have any plans for who would purchase its moulds or brand name in January when it announced its closure. I doubt few think Hornby can do no harm commercially. I think many are aware it's a hard business to make money in, as the history of European and US brands and most recently Hattons bears testimony to.
  16. I assume they're talking about third-party brands like Hornby and Dapol here. If you've purchased a Hattons-branded product from Hattons then I think you've hit a brick wall. Current mould owners Accurascale or Rails may be able to sell you a spare part.
  17. I'm not sure there's any actual evidence that Hattons saved Hornby from bankruptcy. If there was, we would have seen it reported and Hornby would have had to disclose it. We know that Hattons disposed of the Hornby Dublo stock when Lines Brothers acquired Meccano and there are strong indications that Hattons may have acquired large stocks of slow-selling lines from various manufacturers at advantageous prices. But neither of these equates to saving Hornby from bankruptcy. Hattons' decision to shut up shop in an orderly fashion was taken after Hornby's unpopular Tier system was abolished. We don't know if Hattons felt it had permanently lost a base of customers because of this or that most had returned.
  18. Did Hornby sell them the stock? I thought the Corgi Model Club just licensed the brand and the designs from Hornby and did their own sourcing. From their website "Hornby have given us the exclusive rights to re-produce some of the rarest and sought after models from their 1960’s catalogues."
  19. And let's not forget that the original Hornby brand owner diversified into model cars and trains from its primary business of Meccano.
  20. From Hornby's website https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/Hornby/news/rns/story/rn44ojx
  21. Interestingly, the Corgi Model Club also distributes Dinky Toys although most stocks seem to be exhausted. https://corgimodelclub.com/pages/dinky001
  22. Likely a coincidence, but the front web page for Corgi Premiums now looks like this. Sofa.com is a Frasers brand.
  23. Another update to the ModelTrainStuff.com webpage, below (The Facebook page hasn't been updated suggesting the new owners of the website don't have access to it yet.)
  24. Mike Ashley has stepped back from managing Frasers but he's the company's biggest investor. Whilst he sounds a pain to be in charge of a football club, Frasers has rescued many high street businesses that might have closed if he hadn't acquired them eg Sofa.com, Game, Gieves & Hawkes and Evans.
  25. Autumn 2024 release so not manufactured yet. The track colour has also changed from red to grey. I think if a production slot had been committed, they would not have announced the range was being discontinued until after the last shipment. I think it's possible they've had a change of heart.
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