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Where are the Hornby models?


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They may not have a choice considering the amount of complaints about lack of products in the stores it must be knocking them for six with their cash flow and no shareholder will tolerate that for long, lets hope not.

 

Don't forget that Hornby Group has nowadays a much wider product base that Hornby Railways and provided sales of things like Airfix hold up their cash flow doesn't suffer too much.  the only result really is a distortion of their individual sector figures (e.g. 'UK train sales down') which in reality can probably owe as much to lack of new product to sell as it does to a shortage of buyers.

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Yeah the 1st and 2nd MK3s for the western HST came out last year. I bought them and then I hoped to get the HST to go with. Waiting for the Buffet and TGS as well. It's just a gong show to me at this point. If I can buy them when they are released I will. If not C'est La Vie.  Hopefully someone else will step in a produce them. 

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Where would we be without Hattons?   Hornby themselves are very quiet about projected deliveries?  I use the term 'projected' rather than 'anticipated' deliveries because of the favoured style of courier delivery these days.

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I'm getting extremely frustrated with Hornby. Absolutely awful performance recently. I really feel for the model shop and how on earth they are surviving without the supply of new models. A few sentinels arrived, they are like hens teeth. We just keep getting dates slipping back and back. When are they going to get a grip and get it sorted. The demand is here for new models, start to supply. I dont understand how they can stay in business with constant failure to sell models? If I was a shareholder I would be asking serious questions about the businesses performance.

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I'm getting extremely frustrated with Hornby. Absolutely awful performance recently. I really feel for the model shop and how on earth they are surviving without the supply of new models. A few sentinels arrived, they are like hens teeth. We just keep getting dates slipping back and back. When are they going to get a grip and get it sorted. The demand is here for new models, start to supply. I dont understand how they can stay in business with constant failure to sell models? If I was a shareholder I would be asking serious questions about the businesses performance.

By contrast, rush models out, or not so much rush, but clearly work to get models out before the year's end, and have production and quality control errors slip in (e.g. Great Gathering models).

What do we, the customer want - models to time, or models to quality? Yes ideally both, but if its one or the other, I'd rather wait to part with my money.

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By contrast, rush models out, or not so much rush, but clearly work to get models out before the year's end, and have production and quality control errors slip in (e.g. Great Gathering models).

What do we, the customer want - models to time, or models to quality? Yes ideally both, but if its one or the other, I'd rather wait to part with my money.

If thier projects are sufficently resourced with skilled and competent persons, managed in a professional maner, quality should never be an issue. If you announce 10 new models then you make sure you have the resource to achieve delivery in reasonable timescale to the quality standard. The fact is models announced 2 years ago still have never reached the shelves of our local modelshops. Thats not because they are not rushing the models but nobody to actually produce. They really need to resolve there production issues and get a production partner that can actually deliver, also with quality levels achived.

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If thier projects are sufficently resourced with skilled and competent persons, managed in a professional maner, quality should never be an issue. If you announce 10 new models then you make sure you have the resource to achieve delivery in reasonable timescale to the quality standard. The fact is models announced 2 years ago still have never reached the shelves of our local modelshops. Thats not because they are not rushing the models but nobody to actually produce. They really need to resolve there production issues and get a production partner that can actually deliver, also with quality levels achived.

Whereas I have huge sympathy with the sentiments you are expressing,manufacturing in China.....as is well-documented on this forum....is in a state of flux and getting a grip on it is like wrestling with a bar of soap.Agreed Hornby do not help themselves with an unrealistic spin on both production and delivery but even Bachmann who have a tighter control on production are having great difficulties at present.It's just that they seem to have more self control over their public utterances and tend to sing from the same hymn sheet.

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.....They really need to resolve there production issues and get a production partner that can actually deliver, also with quality levels achived.

 

That's what we are told they've been trying to do.

Unfortunately for Hornby, they've been struggling, along with some two or three dozen other model brands, to obtain suitable production capacity.

I would hazard a guess that most of the other half dozen or so well known Chinese model railway manufacturers, must be completely booked out.

 

It isn't just Hornby who have had to deal with these issues; however some of the American companies who have been in a similar predicament, regards production, have been a little more more forthcoming and open about their problems.

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hornby aren't the only ones not delivering. I've been waiting for Graham Farish products for months now and ....nothing. My ScotRail class 47 and DBSO, Class 37 Railfreight not a dickie bird. With the exhibition season starting with the ModelRail Scotland show in Glasgow in a nine day's time there might be little new UK outline stock on offer.

 

Rather disappointing all round I'd say. Come on guys "digital extractum"!!. :(

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digitus extractum would be something Professor Flitwick might say.

 

Try rather convello digitum

 

Thanks, Michael, for bringing a little erudition to the forum, though I can't resist borrowing and adapting from mathematics to linguistics a line from Sally in "Peanuts"

 

"That's Latin!! You're trying to teach us Latin! We'll never understand Latin! We'll go crazy!"

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Nil locus libero MMXIV Hornbytat  comitatus et tempus constantus perforatum .

 

(No chance of deliveries of 2014 Hornby trains on time as long as I have a hole in my ****)

 

I've just about given up on Hornby, sorry, nice knowing you when you cared for the customer.

 

Brit 15

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Thanks, Michael, for bringing a little erudition to the forum, 

Actually I'm not really a Latin pupil, let alone a Latin master, and I don't know if the tense or conjugation was even correct.

 

I didn't have a chance to take Latin at my school, (to my parents dismay), just a little schoolboy French in years 8 - 10.

 

Developing some rudimentary skills in Latin is something that I should apply myself to but sadly haven't done anything but dabble with online resources.

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  • 1 month later...
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Was just browsing Hattons site and was shocked to see that they only have 3 BNIB Hornby DC locos in stock and only a handful of each! Some of the preorders are selling out too.

How very sad this situation has become!

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Hornby closes their books at the end of this month. Unless their actual results are very divergent from the expectations they set in their January 24, interim statement, I wouldn't anticipate a summary of results for a few months. (Last year it was June.)

 

I don't get the impression from discussion here that sales in the last quarter were particularly strong. These would be very dependent on what they were able to deliver and while there were a couple of models delivered that presumably sold very well (like the Duke of Gloucester, P2, etc) I didn't sense a lot else.

 

If there is bad news it will travel quickly and if their 2013/2014 financial year was worse than they have telegraphed, we could anticipate something relatively shortly after the beginning of April.

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Hornby closes their books at the end of this month. Unless their actual results are very divergent from the expectations they set in their January 24, interim statement, I wouldn't anticipate a summary of results for a few months. (Last year it was June.)

 

I don't get the impression from discussion here that sales in the last quarter were particularly strong. These would be very dependent on what they were able to deliver and while there were a couple of models delivered that presumably sold very well (like the Duke of Gloucester, P2, etc) I didn't sense a lot else.

 

If there is bad news it will travel quickly and if their 2013/2014 financial year was worse than they have telegraphed, we could anticipate something relatively shortly after the beginning of April.

No doubt that they have generally had stuff that has been selling (the P2 is not here yet but you never know) but the question is what sort of quantities they have ben able to get into the marketplace and how many sales have they lost to other goodies such as Rob and his Garratt.  I suspect Bachmann, if not others, might have done rather well from getting some attractive models to market at the same time that Hornby hasn't been able to get them there or not get them there in ideal quantities.

 

They also face another potential problem now with failure to sort the situation on their new Ts & Cs where they still seem to have been unable to produce written reassurances to matters raised by retailers.  If, for some reason, they decide not to sell to those who haven't signed they might find themselves with another problem - very much, it would seem, of their own making and one which they should really have sorted by now.

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(the P2 is not here yet but you never know)

Thanks Mike, I guess I got ahead of myself on the P2. I've not been paying close attention to it.

 

Based on their earlier guidance we can fully expect this to have been a very challenging year for Hornby financially and it doesn't yet feel like they have turned the corner in terms of product quality, product availability, timely product delivery and relationships with either their resellers or their end customers.

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