Simon Kohler to retire from Hornby

[adb968008]

1 hour ago, Phil Parker said:

 

Even if they hadn't produced Steampunk and the Lego-like toys, the time saved wouldn't have allowed them to fill all the gaps in the market to keep your list of competitors out. Only TT:120 has needed any significant investment, and that's been a long-term project. Besides, part of Hornby's DNA is they are a toy company, and not just a model one. They also produce a full range, not something anyone on your list can do.

Agreed, but I did also say Pricing as well a technical gaps.

 

If certain modern image pricing on older toolings such as 31,50,56,60 had not risen so far, so fast, it may have lead others to think differently before offering a newer tooling at lower price points than Hornbys current offerings ?

 

Price can be a weapon, 2018 and the class 66’s demonstrates that.

As competitors to Hornby you dont just commit 6 figures against duplicating the industry mammoths range who has form for getting competitive unless the risk was felt to be benign.

 

I’m surprised Hornby simply folded to competition on much of the modern image range, perhaps they believe brand loyalty will beat the competition on a tooling 20 years older and £30 more ?

 

Eitherway, 6 years later they only have monopoly on the 67,87,91 and 800, only the 91 was announced post 2017, and forthcoming 755. Yet modellers can enjoy new toolings of 02,12,20,24,25,31,37,45,47,50,55,56,59,60,87,91,92, 104 announced or delivered since then, which suggests the market was leaning one way and Hornby in another…

 

A2/1, W1, P2, Turbomotive arent toys, but also feel niche to me, time will tell if they are one hit wonders or 5 decade plus sound tooling investments. 

I will say resurrecting Dublo was a high point, as was Rocket. Theres plenty more they can do to innovate and to grow, so hopefully the future may see new ideas.

 

fwiw..i’m against duplication myself.. so I was leaning different to everyone, ive no real dog in the fight, just saying what i’m seeing.

Edited June 5, 2023 by adb968008

[Edwardian]

1 hour ago, Phil Parker said:

 

An interesting item in the display case...

 

I'm sure they made sure that had the licence to make that.

[adb968008]

One gap I do see forming is Simon being the focal point, everyone knows him. So he is the goto man for customers and trade a like.. Replacing him with policy and call centres isnt going to maintain rapport and goodwill.. forget the marketing acumen, brand he brought to the job. I understand Hornby doesnt have reps any more either.

This to me is an area of urgent concern, as I see no retail or customer advocate internally as heir apparent.
 

Simons strength here was anyone could approach him, and his product or company knowledge would get you through whatever blockage there was.

 

Next time a pre production model comes out with 72A as shedcode for a J15, or you want to suggest that making Electrostar is a good idea, or you want to find a part for your R3115 made by Sanda kan, not Refined Industries…

i’m sure retailers have been able to unblock and get straight to the point when needed to also.

 

So when his email bounces back, who you gonna call … the call centre, Mike, Montana, Tim, or will you just leave it, ebay it etc ?

 

Imo They need someone knowledgeable, approachable who can handle the questions and the catch alls, who can recognise potential and who can also redirect and guide internally. No help desk software will do that.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 5, 2023 by adb968008

[Flying Pig]

12 minutes ago, adb968008 said:

Imo They need someone knowledgeable, approachable

 

...and HM7000-compatible (unlike SK who may even be analogue).

[Legend]

10 minutes ago, Flying Pig said:

 

...and HM7000-compatible (unlike SK who may even be analogue).

aye but it was supposed to work on analogue too ! 

[The Johnster]

4 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

You lost me there, I don't speak LNER.

 

I  suspect that, in so very many ways, I am not Hornby's target audience. 

 

The LNER used an alphabetic classification for it's locos by wheel arrangement; luckily it only ever had 26 different arrangements!  A was pacific, B was 4-6-0, and so on.  W was for 4-6-4, only one loco, the Hush-Hush, which was rebuilt as a A4 lookalike (60)700.  It ran in this form on ECML expresses until withdrawl, 1958 IIRC.

[Bucoops]

4 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

You lost me there, I don't speak LNER.

 

I  suspect that, in so very many ways, I am not Hornby's target audience. 

 

It's the galloping sausage. Now you are fluent in LNER 😉

[Edwardian]

I think what I'm getting is that Hornby make Pacifics, and things that look like streamlined Pacifics. Other than that, originality is and variety is sporadic!

[Flying Pig]

2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

I think what I'm getting is that Hornby make Pacifics, and things that look like streamlined Pacifics. Other than that, originality is and variety is sporadic!

 

I guess Hornby probably don't make the kind of locos you are interested in for the most part, which probably means you don't pay them much attention, but they have made quite a decent range of non-Pacifics over the years.  I think they can fairly be credited with starting the current flowering of industrial types with their various Sentinels, Pecketts and Rustons, for example. 

Edited June 5, 2023 by Flying Pig

[OFFTHE RAILS]

On 30/05/2023 at 11:55, Edwardian said:

 

Well, as the song says ....

 

 

Great song but what an awful version!  The original was recorded by The Crickets post Buddy Holly’s death  in 1960 and the song was written by the lead guitarist Sonny Curtis who had been in Buddy’s band on his first big company recordings in 1956. That was the best version [IMO] - the Clash had only heard the 1966 US hit revival of the song by the Bobby Fuller Four (also a great version) but the punk band only managed to turn it into a grungy mess (again IMO)

[The Johnster]

Covers better than the originals are rare, but the Joe Cocker 'With A Little Help From My Friends' is definitive (that scream!!!), and I rather like Johnny Cash's 'Hurt'.  But, yes, the Clash were capable of much better than this, and at the risk of being contraversial in the conviction that quality is not necessarily reflected in popularity, Tina Turner's 'Proud Mary' rather missed the point of the song, the slightly stretched rythym that evoked that of the sternwheeler's steam engine, the 'Proud Mary' of the song.  And what was the point of Madonna's 'American Pie'; she sounds as if she's reading the words off a song sheet without any comprehension of what the song is about or why it was written! 

 

And nobody, repeat nobody, does 'Halellujia' as good as Leonard.  Nobody.

[Phil Parker]

Someone at Hornby is taking notes. Look out for next year's set with The Clash exploding wagon pulled by Smokey Joe Strummer. 

[jjb1970]

Simon was never going to be around forever, no more than any of us will be, so hopefully Hornby have thought about life after Simon. Then again, despite obligatory references to succession planning I find most organizations rely more on luck than planning when it comes to major personnel changes.

 

Something I would say is I think the next person with his responsibilities does it their own way and brings their own stamp, rather than trying to be a Simon mini-me. Simon had his own style and was a very recognisable personality. Love him or not like him he left his mark and had a very distinct presence in the hobby. You can't try and copy that, every time I've seen a person try and pick up from such a strong presence and attempt to replicate that style it's been a disaster. It's time for change and for someone to have a new look, whatever that new look might be.

 

On Hornby, they've had their ups and downs, sometimes it felt like there have been a lot more downs than ups but when they get it right they still make some wonderful models. On innovation I think their real move has been the launch of British outline TT120. That strikes me as a hail mary pass, if it works they could do extremely well, if it doesn't then they'll be in a pickle. I really hope it works, not just for Hornby's sake but I think it is an excellent scale and it give people a scale which is matched to gauge in British outline RTR for those who see that as a big issue. If I was starting out I'd be very tempted but I already have a lot of (admittedly non-British outline) N so I'll stick with that for smaller stuff.

[The Stationmaster]

23 hours ago, adb968008 said:

One gap I do see forming is Simon being the focal point, everyone knows him. So he is the goto man for customers and trade a like.. Replacing him with policy and call centres isnt going to maintain rapport and goodwill.. forget the marketing acumen, brand he brought to the job. I understand Hornby doesnt have reps any more either.

This to me is an area of urgent concern, as I see no retail or customer advocate internally as heir apparent.
 

Simons strength here was anyone could approach him, and his product or company knowledge would get you through whatever blockage there was.

 

Next time a pre production model comes out with 72A as shedcode for a J15, or you want to suggest that making Electrostar is a good idea, or you want to find a part for your R3115 made by Sanda kan, not Refined Industries…

i’m sure retailers have been able to unblock and get straight to the point when needed to also.

 

So when his email bounces back, who you gonna call … the call centre, Mike, Montana, Tim, or will you just leave it, ebay it etc ?

 

Imo They need someone knowledgeable, approachable who can handle the questions and the catch alls, who can recognise potential and who can also redirect and guide internally. No help desk software will do that.

 

 

 

 

 

As a point of correction Hornby does still have reps although they are much fewer in number and they're now called something like 'Account Executives' and I don't know if they cover every Hornby retailer,.  But, so I understand, they are as good as the reps used to be in unblocking and sorting supply problems when a retailer gets them involved.  And   - so I understand - they have nothing to do with allocating shops to whatever level they happen to be given in the Tier 'System'.

 

SK has been very much the public face of Hornby but until his most recent post he doesn't seem to have been one of the ultimate decision makers nor was he first choice of at least one former retailer I knew as the best contact for getting orders sorted and allegedly 'out of stock' items found in the warehouse and supplied ready for retail sale.

 

And of course when it comes down to it managerial skills and market knowledge in running any business will ultimately reflect in the numbers going into the accounts and ending up in the bottom line.   Which might perhaps be more important in some companies than having 'the right person' as the public face of a company.

[AY Mod]

18 hours ago, OFFTHE RAILS said:

Great song but what an awful version!

 

You won't like this either but, IMO, it edges The Clash.

 

 

 

There's appropriate elements to another of their greats.

 

 

 

 

[PaulRhB]

On 05/06/2023 at 13:11, Phil Parker said:

 

An interesting item in the display case...

Especially as it’s a Bachmann product! 

[woodenhead]

13 minutes ago, PaulRhB said:

Especially as it’s a Bachmann product! 

It's in a glass case, it's his in case of emergency project - break glass and it emits the Bach signal where he will be whisked off to Barwell.

[Steadfast]

1 hour ago, AY Mod said:

You won't like this either but, IMO, it edges The Clash.

 

 

 

Brilliant. Love a bit of Green Day, I'd never heard that before. Thanks for the education! 

 

Jo

[Vistisen]

8 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

Simon was never going to be around forever, no more than any of us will be, so hopefully Hornby have thought about life after Simon. Then again, despite obligatory references to succession planning I find most organizations rely more on luck than planning when it comes to major personnel changes.

 

 

There have been a few comments (and a couple of sentences from his interview that is linked to earlier in the thread), that point towards the timing coming as a bit of a surprise for Simon. In which case, if the 'powers that be' have not thought sucession planing through, then they only have themselves to blame.

[woodenhead]

37 minutes ago, Vistisen said:

There have been a few comments (and a couple of sentences from his interview that is linked to earlier in the thread), that point towards the timing coming as a bit of a surprise for Simon. In which case, if the 'powers that be' have not thought sucession planing through, then they only have themselves to blame.

Given his age I feel this is more about risk management than succession planning.

 

None of us will live forever, and the older you get the more likely you are to befall a critical illness - he might be good at his job but the risk of losing him to illness or death will have sharpened minds with the new management.

[Bucoops]

2 hours ago, AY Mod said:

 

You won't like this either but, IMO, it edges The Clash.

 

 

 

There's appropriate elements to another of their greats.

 

 

 

 

 

Nowt wrong with a bit of Green Day, Had American Idiot on earlier :)

[RAF96]

On 05/06/2023 at 15:35, Legend said:

aye but it was supposed to work on analogue too ! 

It does work on analogue if you read the famous manual, just not in the way the nay-sayers interpreted it would at the launch. You set CV12 to DC and enable DC running in CV29 and it will work the motor same as any DCC fitted loco will run if CV29 is set to DC running, and just like them it may not run very well.

Edited June 6, 2023 by RAF96

[spamcan61]

1 hour ago, RAF96 said:

It does work on analogue if you read the famous manual, just not in the way the nay-sayers interpreted it would at the launch. 

Not the nay-sayers, Hornby's own publicity material specifically shows the "train set controller at full whack" approach - from page 1 of the relevant thread here:-

 

[jjb1970]

3 hours ago, Vistisen said:

There have been a few comments (and a couple of sentences from his interview that is linked to earlier in the thread), that point towards the timing coming as a bit of a surprise for Simon. In which case, if the 'powers that be' have not thought sucession planing through, then they only have themselves to blame.

 

Succession planning is not just about people retiring or leaving by mutual agreement at a planned date. People can get new jobs, throw a tantrum, be fired, get hit by a bus or leave for any number of other reasons. As Woodenhead infers, it's also about business continuity and risk management to have plans in place for key staff leaving or going absent. So either way Hornby should have been prepared. Whether they were or not is another story, but I wouldn't single Hornby out for criticism if they have been cought out as most organizations I've worked for or with have been terrible at it.

[Legend]

38 minutes ago, spamcan61 said:

Not the nay-sayers, Hornby's own publicity material specifically shows the "train set controller at full whack" approach - from page 1 of the relevant thread here:-

 

Quite right Spamcan . Not so much nay sayers as no testers , at least for this aspect 

Edited June 6, 2023 by Legend