How big is the hobby in the UK? An interesting statistic

[BachelorBoy]

Given that the biggest sellers of model railways in the UK, Hornby and Bachmann, import pretty much all of their products from China, then if I thought if could find figures for the UK, this would give a pretty good idea of sales in the UK.

 

So this is what I found on the HMRC's UK Trade Info website

 

So here are the figures for the UK for 2022.

 

 

But ... as you can see, the definition is not exclusively for models of trains. I presume "reduced-size 'scale' model assembly kits" are basically the type of thing made by Airfix and Tamiya, which rather muddies the waters..

 

Still, I hope you find it interesting.

 

Are there any people with better knowledge of international trade statistics who can provide more info, please?

 

BB

 

 

 

[kevinlms]

Don't forget that Peco make most of their stuff in the UK.

[cmtrain]

Don't think that will work? if x manufacturer with a UK warehouse receives a shipment of its latest locomotive, would that be at cost price?

 

As mentioned above not all are imported to the UK and there are more than just the 2 big players.

 

You may be better off looking at revenue accounts for the all the big manufacturers.

[Jeremy Cumberland]

7 minutes ago, cmtrain said:

Don't think that will work? if x manufacturer with a UK warehouse receives a shipment of its latest locomotive, would that be at cost price?

Sort of. It is the invoice value.

 

Looking at imports, if a UK manufacturer owns a factory in another country, then it will be cost price. If a UK manufacturer outsources its production to a company based in another country, then it will be the sale price the other company charges the UK manufacturer. If a UK retailer imports foreign-manufactured items, it will be the wholesale price that the UK retailer pays. If a UK consumer buys an item directly from a foreign manufacturer or retailer, it will be the retail price.

 

The large value of exports suggests that there is considerable UK production of model railway items and scale kits, and of course anything produced in the UK and sold in the UK won't be listed at all.

[MarkSG]

It's the import value rather than the retail value, certainly. But it's still a useful data point.

 

As far as revenues are concerned, Hornby had £55.1m in revenue in the financial year ending 2023, Bachmann had £17.9m in the year ending 2022 and Pritchard Patent Product Co (Peco) had revenue of £7.8m in the year ending 2022. All the other manufacturers are too small to meet the requirements for detailed reporting.

 

Hornby, Bachmann and Peco all do things other than model railways, of course, although Hornby's proportion of non-railway product is probably bigger.

[jjb1970]

Some indicators might include magazine circulation figures and social media followers. Not sure what the figures are for the main magazines, do they still print the ABC figures in the corporate and staff info bit? For social media you can see subscriber and video viewing figures on platforms like YouTube and TikTok. Those figures also have issues in that for social media especially there will be crossover between modellers and other forms of train enthusiasm,  and some may just enjoy certain presenters as entertainment.

[BachelorBoy]

18 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

Some indicators might include magazine circulation figures and social media followers. Not sure what the figures are for the main magazines, do they still print the ABC figures in the corporate and staff info bit? For social media you can see subscriber and video viewing figures on platforms like YouTube and TikTok. Those figures also have issues in that for social media especially there will be crossover between modellers and other forms of train enthusiasm,  and some may just enjoy certain presenters as entertainment.

 

the only model railway-related ABC pages I could find

 

 

Edited January 22 by BachelorBoy
added second graphic

[jjb1970]

The inversion in the ratio of single issue buyers to subscribers between RM and Model Rail is interesting, I wouldn't have expected that.

[Willie Whizz]

All you need to know then is how many modellers usually buy one magazine a month, how many two or more, and (importantly) how many buy none at all because they either see no value or only use  Internet websites these days …

 

It’s not easy, this kind of thing!

[JohnR]

3 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

The inversion in the ratio of single issue buyers to subscribers between RM and Model Rail is interesting, I wouldn't have expected that.

 

Model Rail figures

 

Hornby Magazine figures

 

[F-UnitMad]

I live in the UK, but model mostly American 2-rail O Scale, & a bit of UK O as well.

 

Good luck fitting me in to the Mainstream statistics.... 🙄😝😁

[BachelorBoy]

 

45 minutes ago, MarkSG said:

As far as revenues are concerned, Hornby had £55.1m in revenue in the financial year ending 2023, Bachmann had £17.9m in the year ending 2022 and Pritchard Patent Product Co (Peco) had revenue of £7.8m in the year ending 2022. All the other manufacturers are too small to meet the requirements for detailed reporting.

 

 

Peco's finances are pretty impressive.

 

Sales of £7.8m ... profits after tax of £4.7m

 

Meanwhile, Hornby: sales of £55.1m ... losses of £5.9m

 

 

[JohnR]

17 minutes ago, BachelorBoy said:

 

 

Peco's finances are pretty impressive.

 

Sales of £7.8m ... profits after tax of £4.7m

 

Meanwhile, Hornby: sales of £55.1m ... losses of £5.9m

 

 

 

Bear in mind a chunk of Peco's sales are through Pecorama, a tourist attraction where the margins are very high (and yet they still provide really good value for money)

[MarkSG]

I suspect that a lot of people still buy Railway Modeller at the newsagents, because it's still a standard title at the likes of WH Smith. And Hornby Magazine is pitched more strongly at casual modellers and readers, and has name recognition, which probably generates more impulse sales. 

[Izzy]

Interesting the subscriptions for all the mags shown is roughly the same. I wonder where BRM stands in this, or such as the MRJ. Also what % are digital rather than paper. It’s interesting to me in the sense there is now no local newsagents in my area, the last closed in late 2023, and none of the smaller size local supermarkets stock any modelling mags at all, Tesco/Coop/Sainsbury/Aldi/M&S,  10 miles or more to the nearest that does. I often wonder what impact this might have on the hobby in generating new interest.

[BachelorBoy]

40 minutes ago, Izzy said:

Interesting the subscriptions for all the mags shown is roughly the same. I wonder where BRM stands in this, or such as the MRJ. Also what % are digital rather than paper. It’s interesting to me in the sense there is now no local newsagents in my area, the last closed in late 2023, and none of the smaller size local supermarkets stock any modelling mags at all, Tesco/Coop/Sainsbury/Aldi/M&S,  10 miles or more to the nearest that does. I often wonder what impact this might have on the hobby in generating new interest.

 

This is from the UK Press Gazette in Feb last year, for 2022. Nice to see a few railway titles in the top 26. 

 

 

 

 

[JohnR]

Surprised the digital subs for RM are so low - you get the 75 year back catalogue!

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Surprised that "The Railway Magazine" doesn't feature in the top 25. Yachting/boating seems to be very popular...

[Oldddudders]

I happened to have the December 1961 RM to hand, and it shows the latest ABC figure as 53,277. I believe the mag market was then smaller, the chief competitors being Model Railway News and Model Railway Constructor. The format of neither appealed to me half as much as RM. These days I see more similarities among the mags offered than real differences. 

[JohnR]

1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

I happened to have the December 1961 RM to hand, and it shows the latest ABC figure as 53,277. I believe the mag market was then smaller, the chief competitors being Model Railway News and Model Railway Constructor. The format of neither appealed to me half as much as RM. These days I see more similarities among the mags offered than real differences. 

 

According to @dibber25 on another thread, the circulation of the constructor was c 40k in the 60s, and 20k when it closed in 1987

[MarkSG]

2 hours ago, JohnR said:

Surprised the digital subs for RM are so low - you get the 75 year back catalogue!

 

Given that RM is the oldest of the current magazines, I suspect that a larger proportion of its reach comprises long-standing readers who see no reason to switch from the way they've always purchased it. The fact that it's still the one which you can guarantee to be in any decent sized newsagent is probably related to that. 

 

I would also expect that Model Rail benefits from being part of the Bauer stable and their ability to cross-promote other titles. The latest email missive from them includes an advert for a "January sale" of magazine subscriptions starting at 99p, and when I click on it I end up at a page with variouss different titles available. One of those is the most popular fully paid magazine in that list (Empire), so if Empire readers are in turn being shown Model Rail and Rail as suggestions then it doesn't need a particularly large proportion of them to be interested in railways for that to have a useful effect.

[AndrueC]

2 hours ago, JohnR said:

Surprised the digital subs for RM are so low - you get the 75 year back catalogue!

I've never looked at any of that though. No interest frankly. When the new edition comes out I scan through it but frankly I consider the most value of my subscription is not having adverts on this website. From my perspective reading anything sequentially other than a novel is 'old fashioned'. I'd read RM a bit more thoroughly if the digital reader rendered it more like a web page but that incurs additional editorial expense that I wouldn't expect for the current subscription.

 

This isn't a dig at RM it's just not how I want to consume 'written media'. At age 57 I didn't grow up with the World Wide Web but as a computer programmer I did watch it evolve and embraced it. I haven't read a newspaper or watched the news on TV for decades for similar reasons. I expect to be able to jump around, following links to additional information and compare and contrasting different sources.

 

But it takes all sorts. I even know a couple of guys who subscribe to golfing magazines and that makes no sense to me. They repeat information freely available on the web and what's the point reading about how to do a physical activity?

 

🙂

Edited January 22 by AndrueC

[Nearholmer]

2 hours ago, AndrueC said:

From my perspective reading anything sequentially other than a novel is 'old fashioned'.

Hmmm …… there has to be a bit of deliberate sequentiality in reading, otherwise it’s just a random string of words, but I think I know what you mean: cover-to-cover, taking articles in the order that they are presented.

 

Does anyone read magazines like that? There’s certainly no good reason to, and I personally don’t. In a month, I probably read most of the articles in RM, but the order in which I read them is based entirely on my whims, not the batting order the editor decided.
 

Personally, I actually find it far, far easier to scan/flick-through a physical magazine than a digital one, but that’s definitely a personal thing.

 

More broadly: how big is this hobby? Not very, I think, in comparison with several others, notably those that involve some sort of physical exercise, sport, or watching others play sport. It’s pretty niche.

 

 

 

Edited January 22 by Nearholmer

[F-UnitMad]

2 hours ago, AndrueC said:

what's the point reading about how to do a physical activity?

That could equally be asked of railway modelling though. Unless someone is just an armchair modeller. 😁

[Nearholmer]

You can even get magazines about that.