Hornby's financial updates to the Stock Market

[Ozexpatriate]

... celebrating the capture, torture and execution of Catholic would-be assassins is irrelevant in the 21st century and will eventually become a Hate Crime. 

One hopes that the capture, torture and execution of any religious affiliation would be a hate crime already.

 

Most US box marts (even smaller ones that focus on their pharmacy business) will have a section dedicated to seasonal items.  The entire stock for that section will be replaced according to the season. The US seasonal shopping calendar is roughly:

 

Month .................. Merchandise ............. Greeting cards / seasonal decor

 

January ................ After Christmas sales ... nothing in particular 

February ............... St Valentine's Day ...... St. Valentine's Day

March .................. Easter .................. St. Patrick's Day, Easter / spring

April .................. Easter (depending) ...... Graduation / spring

May and June ........... Summer .................. Graduation

July and August ........ Back to school .......... nothing in particular

September and October .. Halloween ............... Halloween / fall

November ............... Christmas ............... Thanksgiving 

December ............... Christmas ............... Christmas

 

"Back to school" includes football items.

 

There are product-specific promotions. Like televisions in January (before the SuperBowl), mattresses in February (for Presidents' Day?) and laptop computers (during 'back to school'). Then there are weird booze holidays - St. Patrick's day and Cinco de Mayo.

 

Peak (volume) sales for 'candy' are for Halloween. Premium chocolates sell more in February and novelty items sell for Christmas.

[dibber25]

So this has something to do with Hornby's profit warning? (CJL)

[Ozexpatriate]

So this has something to do with Hornby's profit warning? (CJL)

Not that I can tell, but it's more fun that reporting that all of the board of directors was reelected and all the of the resolutions proposed by the board - mostly in terms of issuing new stock to raise working capital - were approved by the shareholders.

 

Good news for the company of course.

Edited September 27, 2016 by Ozexpatriate

[autocoach]

To get back to the topic and irritate nearly everyone on this forum:

 

To get back on the track of a highly profitable business, Hornby should abandon the British model train market and instead concentrate its design and production staff on it's international Rivarossi/Hornby America brand. European sales and US/Canadian sales will more than make up for the finicky Brits. Airfix and Scalextric should be continued along with an new set of IPhone air battle and race driving apps as physical reality is phased out and we move on to the virtual world  Go where the money is.

 

In this new US HO emphasis, I am particularly requesting an HO Southern Pacific C-9 2-8-0 with variety of tenders (whale-back, square and Vanderbilt) along with a reworking of the current short passenger cars into accurate Harriman coaches.

 

All new locomotives or other powered stock should have blue tooth controllers and dead rail power to eliminate all need for wiring. Lets get ahead of the curve.

 

Edited September 27, 2016 by autocoach

[Ozexpatriate]

Scalextric should be continued along with an new set of IPhone race driving apps as physical reality is phased out and we move on to the virtual world  Go where the money is.

They did exactly that. There seemed to be some smoke over how much they might have had to pay for software and system development costs but the specifics were not clearly reported.

Edited September 27, 2016 by Ozexpatriate

[BG John]

To quickly get back off topic before a war starts:

As for the Acrid Smoke Festival, its being displaced by Halloween, probably on the grounds that celebrating the capture, torture and execution of Catholic would-be assassins is irrelevant in the 21st century and will eventually become a Hate Crime.  Personally, I deplore the banning of hand-held fireworks, rip-raps and aeroplanes.  Health and Safety?  Pah!

I thought it was celebrating the only man who entered Parliament with honest intentions!

[Guest Midland Mole]

Hornby should abandon the British model train market and instead concentrate its design and production staff on it's international Rivarossi/Hornby America brand.

 

[Hroth]

One hopes that the capture, torture and execution of any religious affiliation would be a hate crime already.

 

But not in the 17th century!

However, its not beyond the realms of possibility that celebrating it 400 years-odd later might become one.....

[jjb1970]

On the subject of Hornby International, I see some similar issues in the seeming overlap of ranges seen with the OO ranges. In theory Rivarossi is their high end Italian range and Lima is a budget entry level range. Rivarossi do have some very high end models and Lima offer some very cheap entry level models for the train set and super budget segment (and some of those cheap models are actually not bad). However the Rivarossi ETR480 is a model along the lines of the OO Pendolino and is painfully out of place in the Rivarossi range, it is a painful comparison to compare it with the superb ETR401/450 models in the Rivarossi range. At the other end the Lima Expert range has some nice models. Their ETR610 is not the best model in the world but it is an excellent model for the price. The Lima Expert E.636 is something else, as whereas the ETR610 is a very good budget model as per the newer Railroad tooling,the E636 is an excellent model full stop. If you put it alongside the more expensive ACME E636 it doesn't give anything away really and personally I think it is a better model than the Roco E636. To me it seemsbizarre that the ETR480 carries Rivarossi branding when the E636 carries Lima branding.

[Hroth]

It all boils down to brand awareness and wanting to keep buyers of one particular brand within the fold, even if logic suggests that one moves from one brand to another to get higher "quality". A situation thats worsened when the different brands are all part of the same group.  So unless Lima offers a progression from their very basic train set models, through the middle ground to high end prototype fidelity then customers will switch to Rivarossi and their balance sheet will suffer.

 

Hornby has a similar problem with the Railroad range that covers "GWR" 101 tank locos in dodgy liveries, through decent models of the GWR Hall, to Crosti-boilered 9Fs. Then there's price overlaps between similar types of loco in the Railroad and main ranges...

 

All the Hornby railway brands need to sort out their stratification policies so the consumer doesn't get confused.  How they do that is another can of worms entirely!

Edited September 27, 2016 by Hroth

[rembrow]

During a conversation I had with my local shop owner this morning, he told me he'd had a visit/meeting with Hornby's CEO, Steve Cooke, who visited his shop about a week ago following discussions with the Hornby rep. He spent half a day discussing issues about Hornby's relationship with this retailer and was given both good and poor impressions of what had occurred in the trading relationship. He took copious notes and seemed genuinely to want feedback. This does seem a positive move to actually reach out to the trade for feedback and ideas and at such a high level. I assume other retailers are involved in these one to ones

[Guest Midland Mole]

During a conversation I had with my local shop owner this morning, he told me he'd had a visit/meeting with Hornby's CEO, Steve Cooke, who visited his shop about a week ago following discussions with the Hornby rep. He spent half a day discussing issues about Hornby's relationship with this retailer and was given both good and poor impressions of what had occurred in the trading relationship. He took copious notes and seemed genuinely to want feedback. This does seem a positive move to actually reach out to the trade for feedback and ideas and at such a high level. I assume other retailers are involved in these one to ones

 

I heard exactly the same from the Hornby rep when he visited the shop I work in. I think this new CEO could be the one to turn things around.

- Alex

Edited October 2, 2016 by Midland Mole

[Kelly]

During a conversation I had with my local shop owner this morning, he told me he'd had a visit/meeting with Hornby's CEO, Steve Cooke, who visited his shop about a week ago following discussions with the Hornby rep. He spent half a day discussing issues about Hornby's relationship with this retailer and was given both good and poor impressions of what had occurred in the trading relationship. He took copious notes and seemed genuinely to want feedback. This does seem a positive move to actually reach out to the trade for feedback and ideas and at such a high level. I assume other retailers are involved in these one to ones

 

 

I heard exactly the same from the Hornby rep when he visited the shop I work in. I think this new CEO could be the one to turn things around.

 

Certainly sounds the right direction for them to go in. Hopefully it will bear fruit further down the line and things will improve at Hornby and we can all benefit.

[Classsix T]

It certainly sounds as if Mr. Cooke has good intentions of mending relationships with the retailers which is to be applauded.

 

An olive branch is all well and good however, but I hope he admitted on behalf of the Company mistakes had been made, otherwise it can be perceived as a hollow gesture. But I surmise without evidence. Thanx to rembrow and MM for the update.

 

C6T.

[Vistisen]

Wouldn't that be a blue box?

 

Quite. Look at Hatton's project status page. People who then claim that Hornby takes longer to deliver than Bachmann have a Trump like relationship to the truth.

[Ian Hargrave]

Quite. Look at Hatton's project status page. People who then claim that Hornby takes longer to deliver than Bachmann have a Trump like relationship to the truth.

Who then might they be ? I do believe it is "perceived wisdom " that such claims belong in the archives.Is it not time that this forum moved away from the tiresome eternal struggle between Reds and Blues and stayed on the original topic.....which is,I do believe,on the subject of Hornby and the weary old chestnut of profitability.....is there any more mileage in this....maybe time to put it at rest ?

[Ozexpatriate]

... the subject of Hornby and the weary old chestnut of profitability.....is there any more mileage in this....maybe time to put it at rest ?

There certainly is mileage in it.  The proper time is that specified by Hornby:

 

More detail will be disclosed on the progress being made when the Group announces its interim results for the half year to 30 September in mid-November.

So in about a month and a half from now.

[New Haven Neil]

Lets hope this CEO stops his company from underselling dealers by dumping 'fire sale' stock to a chosen few then......  #not holding breath# ......

[Ian Hargrave]

There certainly is mileage in it.  The proper time is that specified by Hornby: So in about a month and a half from now.[/quo

There certainly is mileage in it.  The proper time is that specified by Hornby: So in about a month and a half from now.

 

Quite frankly this has become wearisome and nothing expressed either now or in the future will add to our enlightenment.I think we've run our course on this topic.

[Ozexpatriate]

Quite frankly this has become wearisome and nothing expressed either now or in the future will add to our enlightenment.I think we've run our course on this topic.

You are of course free to stop wearying yourself by reading it.

 

I remain interested to see if the turnaround plan is working and look forward to hear what Hornby management has to say.

 

Should we close this thread, no doubt a new one will appear in mid-November whether the news is good or bad.

Edited September 28, 2016 by Ozexpatriate

[Ian Hargrave]

You are of course free to stop wearying yourself by reading it.I remain interested to see if the turnaround plan is working and look forward to hear what Hornby management has to say.Should we close this thread, no doubt a new one will appear in mid-November whether the news is good or bad.

Then each to his own...

[Coryton]

It certainly sounds as if Mr. Cooke has good intentions of mending relationships with the retailers which is to be applauded.

 

An olive branch is all well and good however, but I hope he admitted on behalf of the Company mistakes had been made, otherwise it can be perceived as a hollow gesture. But I surmise without evidence. Thanx to rembrow and MM for the update.

 

C6T.

 

I don't think I've seen this before on the Hornby web site:

 

"We're sorry, the website has sold out of this item and we're not expecting any more stock.

Your local model retailer may still have this item - search for your local stockist here.

Alternatively, search the website for similar items."

[Andy Y]

It certainly sounds as if Mr. Cooke has good intentions of mending relationships with the retailers which is to be applauded.

 

An olive branch is all well and good however, but I hope he admitted on behalf of the Company mistakes had been made, otherwise it can be perceived as a hollow gesture.

 

There are several indications that people in key positions are now seeing where things have gone wrong and are now acting upon them. The signs are positive at the moment that Hornby can move toward better relationships with the hobby and their customers. They've had several sets of eyes and ears on the job.

[locoholic]

Over the last year I reckon that for every £1 I spent on a model train in a blue box, I've spent £10 on ones in red boxes, so I like to think I've done my bit to restore Hornby to profitability.

[Vistisen]

Over the last year I reckon that for every £1 I spent on a model train in a blue box, I've spent £10 on ones in red boxes, so I like to think I've done my bit to restore Hornby to profitability.

 

Only if they earn money on each box (or at least more of them than those they lose money on). When I worked in the retail world (shudders) I always used to have problems explaining to my boss that standing OUTSIDE the shop to sell loss leading special offers defeats the object of having them! My ‘career’ ended shortly after I suggested that I might just as well stand out there throwing money at passing customers. Funnily enough HIS career ended less than a month after mine when the branch went bust.