LaGrange Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 Friday the 13th! Perhaps they shouldn't have announced a #13 Camaro for Scalextric, but here is the rest of the Hornby news. Originally posted on slotforum.com Reuters reports: Pretax profit at Hornby halved in the first six months, mainly due to foreign exchange losses, and the British toy maker said it was on target for a 20-percent fall in annual earnings to 5 million pounds. Chief Executive Frank Martin said he expected a better second half in line with forecasts and a stronger Christmas than last year, with full-year revenue up about 10 percent. Sales of the Scalextric Brawn Formula One team of new world champion Jenson Button should do well and a Corgi model of a red London bus used in the handover from China to Britain for the 2012 Olympic Games would be a hit, he said. Martin said sales were robust for items priced under 50 pounds and over 250 pounds. Hornby - famous for toy trains, Airfix models and Corgi toy cars - made an underlying pretax profit of 1 million pounds ($1.66 million) in the six months to Sept. 30, down from 2 million in the same period last year. Turnover for the first half was up 5 percent at 25.5 million pounds and net debt fell to 14.7 million pounds from 17.1 million a year ago. Martin said that margins should improve in the spring due to forward currency purchases but the company said it would not pay an interim dividend, which was 2.7 pence a year before. Source: Reuters Also, in an effort to put out a positive message:Hornby Plc, the U.K. maker of model trains, said sales of its Airfix model kits doubled after a British Broadcasting Corp. television program featured a life- size model of a Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft. Sales for Airfix model kits in the week following the program??™s broadcast on Oct. 27 doubled to as much as 200,000 pounds ($333,000), Chief Executive Officer Frank Martin said in a phone interview today. Source: Bloomberg And another positive message: Hornby set for F1 boost. JENSON Button's Formula One world title win is expected to deliver Hornby with a pre-Christmas boost, the Scalextric and model toy maker said today. Hornby, which holds the exclusive worldwide licence for slot racing products featuring the Brawn team and Jenson Button, is looking for a "significant" surge in demand for Scalextric and Micro Scalextric when the first products featuring the driver arrive in time for Christmas. The Airfix and Corgi group also cheered the recent resolution of supply chain issues in time for the festive season as it reported a five per cent increase in interim sales to ??25.5m. Source: Yorkshire Post (I couldnt find a more suitable section to place this, mods feel free to move) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennyboy Posted November 13, 2009 Share Posted November 13, 2009 "Martin said sales were robust for items priced under 50 pounds and over 250 pounds." So presumably that means that sales of the most profitable items i.e. locomotives were not so robust? Now that's what I call putting a positive spin on something! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigwelsh Posted November 14, 2009 Share Posted November 14, 2009 The under ??50 thing is interesting as its also the figure being touted as the maximum for toys/games this xmas. Hopefully James May's later shows will help sales of the more expensive sets though. I didn't think Hornby sold much at over ??250... Its not too bad results considering where the economy has been. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 7013 Posted November 15, 2009 RMweb Premium Share Posted November 15, 2009 Hornby had better be quick in getting the Jenson Button/Brawn set out because it looks as if he may sign for Maclaren (bloody fool) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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