Update from Hornby with regard to Oxford Rail.

[CUCKOO LINE]

I think you will find he still has significant power. He is Chairman and oversees the implementation of strategy and direction. Executive means they are responsible for the nitty gritty day to day running but they are responsible to the board and operate within the boundaries set by the board.

[The Stationmaster]

12 hours ago, CUCKOO LINE said:

I think you will find he still has significant power. He is Chairman and oversees the implementation of strategy and direction. Executive means they are responsible for the nitty gritty day to day running but they are responsible to the board and operate within the boundaries set by the board.

He is Non-Executive Chairman - in other words he has no longer has direct responsibility for the running of the company.   But he chairs the the board of Directors which can no doubt make strategic decisions and decide on matters of overall policy where these are not delegated to the Chief Executive.  

 

As things stand at present the new CEO is making various strategic decisions and senior personnel changes including the departure of the two senior managers (called Directors but not board members) who were appointed by Lyndon Davies.  One of those who has now left previously - prior to his arrival at Hornby - managed Oxford Rail for Lyndon Davies.  

 

Oxford Diecast and Oxford Rail are - as has been mentioned above - wholly owned by Hornby but are not listed by the company as separate operating subsidiaries however Oxford Diecast submitted separate accounts last year and Oliver Raeburn was appointed as a Director this year joining Lyndon Davies and Kirsty Gould.  Presumably  this year it is now included in Hornby's overall accounts but it appears not to be managed as a separate brand and thus the same goes for Oxford Rail  (the same applies applies to H&M of course which is also wholly owned by Hornby but does not have separate accounts and is not a separate part of the brand structure).

 

So presumably someone somewhere within Hornby manages Oxford Rail and logically (to me at any rate) it would be managed from within the model railway brand management.

 

[Bucoops]

We had a NED for a while when our previous MD sold the company to the other directors. He became more of a figurehead before he finally left.

[cctransuk]

38 minutes ago, The Stationmaster said:

He is Non-Executive Chairman - in other words he has no longer has direct responsibility for the running of the company.   But he chairs the the board of Directors which can no doubt make strategic decisions and decide on matters of overall policy where these are not delegated to the Chief Executive.  

 

As things stand at present the new CEO is making various strategic decisions and senior personnel changes including the departure of the two senior managers (called Directors but not board members) who were appointed by Lyndon Davies.  One of those who has now left previously - prior to his arrival at Hornby - managed Oxford Rail for Lyndon Davies.  

 

Oxford Diecast and Oxford Rail are - as has been mentioned above - wholly owned by Hornby but are not listed by the company as separate operating subsidiaries however Oxford Diecast submitted separate accounts last year and Oliver Raeburn was appointed as a Director this year joining Lyndon Davies and Kirsty Gould.  Presumably  this year it is now included in Hornby's overall accounts but it appears not to be managed as a separate brand and thus the same goes for Oxford Rail  (the same applies applies to H&M of course which is also wholly owned by Hornby but does not have separate accounts and is not a separate part of the brand structure).

 

So presumably someone somewhere within Hornby manages Oxford Rail and logically (to me at any rate) it would be managed from within the model railway brand management.

 

 

It sounds like Hornby is currently spending more time on company politics, and less on developing, producing and selling product!

 

John Isherwood.

[Black 5 Bear]

On 03/08/2023 at 12:27, phil-b259 said:

What models did you have on order?

Two of the CS 15t cranes.

Edited August 6, 2023 by Black 5 Bear

[melmerby]

3 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Presumably  this year it is now included in Hornby's overall accounts

As it stands with Oxford Diecast as a PLC with it's own listed share capital (albeit all owned by Hornby) I would assume that Hornby's reward is just share dividends.

It is still legally a seperate company with it's own management, although some hold posts in both PLCs (it's not a Hornby brand) and Hornby could at anytime sell some or all of their shares to anyone on the stock market.

 

 

[Tim Dubya]

Maybe Hornby are letting the (rail) brand die?

Bound to be some sort of official announcement soon I guess 🤷

[Baldy]

3 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

He is Non-Executive Chairman - in other words he has no longer has direct responsibility for the running of the company.   But he chairs the the board of Directors which can no doubt make strategic decisions and decide on matters of overall policy where these are not delegated to the Chief Executive.  

 

As things stand at present the new CEO is making various strategic decisions and senior personnel changes including the departure of the two senior managers (called Directors but not board members) who were appointed by Lyndon Davies.  One of those who has now left previously - prior to his arrival at Hornby - managed Oxford Rail for Lyndon Davies.  

 

Oxford Diecast and Oxford Rail are - as has been mentioned above - wholly owned by Hornby but are not listed by the company as separate operating subsidiaries however Oxford Diecast submitted separate accounts last year and Oliver Raeburn was appointed as a Director this year joining Lyndon Davies and Kirsty Gould.  Presumably  this year it is now included in Hornby's overall accounts but it appears not to be managed as a separate brand and thus the same goes for Oxford Rail  (the same applies applies to H&M of course which is also wholly owned by Hornby but does not have separate accounts and is not a separate part of the brand structure).

 

So presumably someone somewhere within Hornby manages Oxford Rail and logically (to me at any rate) it would be managed from within the model railway brand management.

 

Note 11 of accounts has Oxford Diecast as a trading sub. 

[Covkid]

Question - much of OR's product range can be considered "standalone" from Hornby, but how about the Mk3 coaches ?  Has there even been "dual marketing" for Hornby and Oxford Rail products such as OR Mk3s and Hornby HST power cars ? 

[Legend]

1 hour ago, Tim Dubya said:

Maybe Hornby are letting the (rail) brand die?

Bound to be some sort of official announcement soon I guess 🤷

 I bet no announcement , but it just will die . Reason being they were producing locos and bringing them to the market at lower cost than Hornby .  The J27 ( I think that’s correct) will probably re emerge as a Hornby loco .  Not sure what will happen with the cranes . They’ve been a long time coming 

[Mike Buckner]

Doesn't look as though the various members of the Hornby company are travelling on the same train.

[Dunsignalling]

There never seems to have been any real crossover between Hornby and Oxford.

 

Yes, Oxford did produce variants of some of their diecast vehicles for Hornby to market as "Skaleautos" but that was before the companies came together. The only other (somewhat tenuous) link seems to be the retooling of the brake gear on some older Hornby wagons, which shows signs of Oxford design influence.

 

Oxford still seems to be structured as an independent operation within the group, and I think we should expect any news as to the emergence (or not) of previously announced products from them rather than Hornby HQ.   

 

John

Edited August 6, 2023 by Dunsignalling

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, Dunsignalling said:

There never seems to have been any real crossover between Hornby and Oxford.

Apart from the "Bundles" which mix together Oxford & Hornby catalogue items. IMHO some odd marriages!

https://www.oxforddiecast.co.uk/collections/oxford-rail/products/gwr-locomotive-r3534-and-assortmen-of-vehicles

https://www.oxforddiecast.co.uk/collections/oxford-rail/products/or76bundle05

 

[Tim Dubya]

They could always flog the toolings to EFE... 

[Dunsignalling]

58 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Apart from the "Bundles" which mix together Oxford & Hornby catalogue items. IMHO some odd marriages!

https://www.oxforddiecast.co.uk/collections/oxford-rail/products/gwr-locomotive-r3534-and-assortmen-of-vehicles

https://www.oxforddiecast.co.uk/collections/oxford-rail/products/or76bundle05

 

 

Thanks, I hadn't run across those. Have they been doing it long?

 

 

[melmerby]

4 minutes ago, Dunsignalling said:

 

Thanks, I hadn't run across those. Have they been doing it long?

 

 

A fair while, possibly(?) shortly after Hornby got involved.

They do bundles with their own locos & coaches but some with a Hornby item.

 

Not sure who would want brake vans with a King😃

[Tim Dubya]

5 hours ago, Tim Dubya said:

Maybe Hornby are letting the (rail) brand die?

Bound to be some sort of official announcement soon I guess 🤷

 

30 minutes ago, Tim Dubya said:

They could always flog the toolings to EFE... 

 

Joking aside... I mean, it would be a legal way of eliminating a competitor, no matter how minor it was 😉.

 

Only they knows 🤔

[Butler Henderson]

At least the Oxford bundles include models that reasonably can be used together as party of a wider collection of models. A Hornby bundle is a random assortment of models from different eras.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

5 hours ago, Covkid said:

Question - much of OR's product range can be considered "standalone" from Hornby, but how about the Mk3 coaches ?  ...

Hornby have a track record, in blending toolings from other operations into their range: currently in the range former product from Airfix GMR via Mainline and Dapol, Dapol and Lima, not unlikely that OR's rail product will eventually fare the same. The wagons offer opportunities such as fake PO liveries on LNER 6 plank general merchandise opens, and the N7 and J27 integrate very neatly. If the OR mk3 offer a lower cost than the Hornby tooling, may find a slot in Railroad?

[frobisher]

9 hours ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

If the OR mk3 offer a lower cost than the Hornby tooling, may find a slot in Railroad?

 

Doubtful.  We know (ex-employee testimony at AS...) that Hornby actively looked at repurposing the Oxford MK3s when they developed the sliding door HST carriages, and there were "issues" (beyond the shape and scale issues) so those ended up completely new tooling.  As  it stands, Hornby have a much better aligned for Railroading product in their 90's MK3 which will be a lot cheaper to produce.

[No Decorum]

20 hours ago, cctransuk said:

 

It sounds like Hornby is currently spending more time on company politics, and less on developing, producing and selling product!

 

John Isherwood.

Yes, it’s an old, old story. Tinkering with systems and coming up with “bright new ideas” instead of tackling the real problem of poor QC. A lot more of “do what you’re doing but do it well”.

[russ p]

There's a lot of models they announced that never appeared like the 35t tank

[Steamport Southport]

On 06/08/2023 at 20:27, melmerby said:

A fair while, possibly(?) shortly after Hornby got involved.

They do bundles with their own locos & coaches but some with a Hornby item.

 

Not sure who would want brake vans with a King😃

 

Quick and easy way to build up stock if you are on a budget. I don't think anyone has suggested they form a train.

 

But ISTR I have been behind a King pulling a brake van at Hereford (or was it Tyseley), I've certainly been behind an A3 pulling a pair at Dinting. Big locos pulling brake vans was a common occurrence at Steam Centres in the 1970s and 1980s.

 

 

Jason

[Bucoops]

When the Kings were being hauled to scrappies - would there have been a brake van? If so, ideal!

[NZRedBaron]

There's also always the option of the 'running in turns'; I remember seeing a picture in a book once, of a double-chimney 'King' in BR livery pulling a two-coach local stopper, as it was fresh from an overhaul.