Simon Kohler to retire from Hornby

[Pmorgancym]

On 22/06/2023 at 12:38, AY Mod said:

 

He's a Kent too.

Whilst I whole heartedly agree, can't help but feel mere mortals would have got a kicking for posting that :)

[87004]

On 22/06/2023 at 13:23, Ron Ron Ron said:

Will they be doing that pointy, pink Ann Summers thing in 3 scales?

 

Oh

OOhh

and….

OOoooohhhhh !

 

 

.

 

Small, Medium and Liar? 

[ruggedpeak]

Montana Hoeren has announced her departure from Hornby a few hours ago on LinkedIn

 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/montana-hoeren-36712ba3_for-the-last-8-years-ive-had-the-honour-activity-7084279634220969985-iOpJ/

 

Edited July 11, 2023 by ruggedpeak

[Rich_F]

Most of the management folk & employees they prominently featured in "Hornby: A Model World" won't even be there so soon after it was televised at this rate! 

[Jenny Emily]

Wow. It seems it is all change at Hornby. 

[Legend]

41 minutes ago, ruggedpeak said:

Montana Hoeren has announced her departure from Hornby a few hours ago on LinkedIn

 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/montana-hoeren-36712ba3_for-the-last-8-years-ive-had-the-honour-activity-7084279634220969985-iOpJ/

 

 That’s a real shame . I thought Montana breathed some new life into Hornby with Playtrains etc . Wishing her all the best for the future . I’m sure she’ll be successful in whatever she does 

[JohnR]

1 hour ago, ruggedpeak said:

Montana Hoeren has announced her departure from Hornby a few hours ago on LinkedIn

 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/montana-hoeren-36712ba3_for-the-last-8-years-ive-had-the-honour-activity-7084279634220969985-iOpJ/

 

 

Such a shame, as I think she has done really well as Head of Brand. 

 

I wonder if she has decided to leave after not getting promotion?

[The Stationmaster]

44 minutes ago, Legend said:

 That’s a real shame . I thought Montana breathed some new life into Hornby with Playtrains etc . Wishing her all the best for the future . I’m sure she’ll be successful in whatever she does 

Agree - she seemed to really have some buzz about her and get on with the job.  I suspect a potentiall problem was that someone else was busily trying to manage the model railway brand at teh same time so she might never have got the chance to show her full potential.

 

Overall the nature of the company will no doubt be changing particularly with an increasing emphasus on sales (and presumably an effort to actually sell things/make things that will sell) so some people will inevitably look for opportunities elsewhere while others are being 'eased out'.  Such things tend to happen when there is a change at the top and on the basis if company performance alone it was onevitable that the arrival of a new CEO, with his own ideas, was going to lead to changes in the organisation.  And that invariably means consequential personnel changes.  Let's face it - when any of us take over an organisation we will always look very carefully at where we want the emphasis to lie and look at staffing through our own eyes and objectives instead of those of our predecessor.

[woodenhead]

17 minutes ago, JohnR said:

 

Such a shame, as I think she has done really well as Head of Brand. 

 

I wonder if she has decided to leave after not getting promotion?

She could also have been asked to leave on favourable terms.

 

It is fairly standard practice, resign and get x or be made redundant and get a smaller amount, the other benefit of the former is you get to announce you are leaving. 

 

Just like Simon 'retired'.

[ruggedpeak]

My concern at this point is that those who had the genuine enthusiasm for the brand and hobby are leaving, for whatever reasons, to possibly be replaced to with career sales and marketing people who know little or nothing about the hobbies involved.

 

The previous management did that. I still have the Hornby branded T shirt and playing cards from that era!!

 

We shall see what happens.

Edited July 11, 2023 by ruggedpeak

[GWR-fan]

What is it that they say about rats and ships?

[HExpressD]

4 minutes ago, ruggedpeak said:

My concern at this point is that those who had the genuine enthusiasm for the brand and hobby are leaving, for whatever reasons, to possibly be replaced to with career sales and marketing people who know little or nothing about the hobbies involved.

That is to assume that the inbound, hitherto now unidentified people, aren't interested in model railways, and that other people working at Hornby in more behind the scenes roles aren't passionate about the brand and products.

[AY Mod]

12 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

She could also have been asked to leave on favourable terms.

 

It is fairly standard practice, resign and get x or be made redundant and get a smaller amount, the other benefit of the former is you get to announce you are leaving. 

 

That may be a stretch; it sounds like, through choice, she's moved to pastures new. Good luck to her; she's been an asset to the business and would have been a great public face for the business into the future.

[The Stationmaster]

23 minutes ago, JohnR said:

 

Such a shame, as I think she has done really well as Head of Brand. 

 

I wonder if she has decided to leave after not getting promotion?

I think the chances of her, or indeed anyone, getting SK's job are irrelevant.  Simple reason - the job will vanish in its present form and the senior post emphasis will move to sales.  That strikes me as a very sensiblemovea as Hornby's sales growth overall has not kept pace with inflation over the past six years.

 

Personally I could see a continuing role for n brand managers but I might be wrong on that.  However they s have to be the people who know the market for their brand and be responsible for its profitability so they become very much a brand business manager as well as a marketing manager.   Montana's skills appear to be in rather different direction judging by her cv so she might be looking for that sort of opportunity?  We simply don't know why she is going but it has the appearance of being very much her decision;  I wish her well and it's a shame to see her leave Hornby

[ruggedpeak]

1 minute ago, HExpressD said:

That is to assume that the inbound, hitherto now unidentified people, aren't interested in model railways, and that other people working at Hornby in more behind the scenes roles aren't passionate about the brand and products.

To quote myself "to possibly be replaced" and "We shall see what happens."

 

Passionate people behind the scenes tend not to be able to express that passion if management and the external facing elements do not share that passion. We can only hope that this does not occur.

 

 

[woodenhead]

Just now, AY Mod said:

 

That may be a stretch; it sounds like, through choice, she's moved to pastures new. Good luck to her; she's been an asset to the business and would have been a great public face for the business into the future.

Ask me how I know this is a popular practice amongst companies?  HR love it, management love it and employees get to create their own narrative but we all know what happened.

 

I am not saying it has to Montana, but we also shouldn't just think she decided to leave, her comments are open ended and LinkedIn isn't a Hornby communication channel so she would be free to say where she is going if she was leaving for another position elsewhere.

[The Stationmaster]

17 minutes ago, ruggedpeak said:

My concern at this point is that those who had the genuine enthusiasm for the brand and hobby are leaving, for whatever reasons, to possibly be replaced to with career sales and marketing people who know little or nothing about the hobbies involved.

 

The previous management did that. I still have the Hornby branded T shirt and playing cards from that era!!

 

We shall see what happens.

However the senior management (and I don't include Montana in that) decided last year to spend c.£5 million on stock for the pre Christmas sales peak which didn;t sell and is now chewing up warehouse costs and interest on the money borrowed to pay for it as well as making a nasty hole in the accounts and bottom line.   Enthusiasm for a brand is one thing,  Buying in stock in that sort of quantity that doesn't sell when it's supposed to is rather more important to the profitability (or lack of) and survival of a business than bucketsful of enthusiasm.

 

Enthusiasm alone doesn't necessarily make a good business manager.  I loved all of my final 'big railway' jobs and was enthusiastic about them and delivering what we were required to deliver on time and to a high standard to benefit our ultimate paying customers or passengers.  But that enthusiasm didn't stop me from taking £1 million out of my costs in one budget year in order to do things more efficiently.

[Michael Hodgson]

10 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

 

That may be a stretch; it sounds like, through choice, she's moved to pastures new. Good luck to her; she's been an asset to the business and would have been a great public face for the business into the future.

Perhaps, but "moving on" can mean anything and it's a little unusual to announce one's departure without also giving some indication of future plans - whether that's joining another company, raising a family or taking a year off to go pony-trekking or whatever (she's clearly too young to be following Mr Kohler into retirement).

Although it would be rather tactless to mention the name of a new employer if they happened to be a competitor,

 

21 minutes ago, GWR-fan said:

What is it that they say about rats and ships?

 

Of course if you had formed a negative opinion of either the new management or the way things are going it might be better to jump before you're pushed.

[ruggedpeak]

 

16 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

Enthusiasm alone doesn't necessarily make a good business manager.  I loved all of my final 'big railway' jobs and was enthusiastic about them and delivering what we were required to deliver on time and to a high standard to benefit our ultimate paying customers or passengers.  But that enthusiasm didn't stop me from taking £1 million out of my costs in one budget year in order to do things more efficiently.

Agree that enthusiasm alone won't make a business, but running a hobby business does IMHO absolutely require enthusiam and passion in addition to sound business skills, in a way that other business sectors may not.

 

If you can't convey enthusiam and passion to customers they will take their discretionary spend elsewhere. The previous management did not have enthusiam and passion and also managed to fill up new warehouses with stock that resulted in endless fire sales despite them coming from various "consumer" backgrounds. All the new entrants to the hobby who are carving chunks out of Hornby's market share have brought oodles of passion with them. Would they be doing so well if they were just very efficient but bland and lacking in enthusiasm? The war gaming market is hugely about these things, and Games Workshop in particular have created a global business combining enthusiasm and passion in store along side top notch business skills

[adb968008]

3 hours ago, ruggedpeak said:

Montana Hoeren has announced her departure from Hornby a few hours ago on LinkedIn

 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/montana-hoeren-36712ba3_for-the-last-8-years-ive-had-the-honour-activity-7084279634220969985-iOpJ/

 

I wish her all the best, having spoke to her a few times, each occasion I spoke, I left believing she would do better in her career else where than at Hornby, she was capable of much bigger things. (Not to down play her or Hornby).

 

I wouldnt be surprised (and it would be nice) if her next role was a promotion elsewhere in the Phoenix group as shes a strong asset.

 

 

 

Edited July 11, 2023 by adb968008

[Guest]

4 hours ago, GWR-fan said:

What is it that they say about rats and ships?

If Hornby go under then it will be bad news for the rest for the hobby so I wouldn't get too gleeful if I were you.

 

Anyway, very sad to learn about Montana leaving, I had some hope that she would take over Simon after he had stepped down. 

[adb968008]

5 hours ago, GWR-fan said:

What is it that they say about rats and ships?

Certainly the numbers dont look good, but we dont know the apetite of the main shareholders.

 

That they just supported Hornby buying another business is hardly a sign of “giving Hornby up as a bad job” anytime soon.

 

Change is coming for sure, but buying a business is a confidence sign from owning shareholder mangement. Often such changes do lead on to employee changes by their own choice or the company… its like plants shedding leaves and growing new shoots.

Edited July 11, 2023 by adb968008

[woodenhead]

1 minute ago, adb968008 said:

Certainly the numbers dont look good, but we dont know the apetite of the main shareholders.

 

That they just supported Hornby buying another business is hardly a sign of “giving Hornby up as a bad job” anytime soon.

 

Change is coming for sure, but buying a business is a confidence sign from management. Often such changes do lead on to employee changes by their own choice or other.

Investment companies take chances, just as easily as they can add to the portfolio they can divest of them.

 

It's a gaming company so quite different than Airfix, Scalelextric or model trains but is in a similar sector of toys for teens upwards.

[PeterStiles]

33 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

sector of toys for teens upwards.

Lol.

 

Historical Wargaming is like model railways - people come to it after Playing with similar things in their youth. 

 

By that I mean that they are all old fogies too. The Spring Chickens play Warhammer...

[wairoa]

Montana and Simon both gone. I wonder who else will be leaving?