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Hornby Profit Warning


melmerby

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Modelzone Glasgow had some Scalextric sets and very deep discounts - £50 off in some cases. Speaking to the guy on the till they just hadn't sold. No sign of Hornby discounting yet other than the Maunsells they've had at £22 for ages and still not moving. Probably not such a high demand for them up here in heucter-cheucter land

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Another point is that Hornby often don't seem to finish the job properly. They've brought out excellent new HST power cars, but these are accompanied by the same old tired Mk3s. Also, the power cars now come without any coaches as part of the set - compared to, say, Bachmann's Voyager this doesn't look particularly good value.

 

I agree with the point about liveries. This year they are bringing out an 87 in the obscure GBRF livery. Is there really the demand for this? Personally I'd like a Virgin one to go with the DVT they released fairly recently - I have a Lima Virgin one, but the shade of red doesn't match the DVT and I'd certainly be interested in an 87 which did match, and which had the various other improvements Hornby have introduced to the Lima model. It seems an odd decision to produce an obscure livery when they haven't produced one of the most popular liveries for that loco; one which the whole class carried for a number of years.

I would agree with all of the above.

 

Then there is also the matter of the mis-match ex Virgin Mk3's they are bringing out this year which I have previously commented upon on the Hornby 2012 thread.

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Guest Belgian

On MRExpress today Simon Kohler admits Hornby don't always get it right by saying they got it wrong with the Blue and Grey Gresley Buffet.

 

JE

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On MRExpress today Simon Kohler admits Hornby don't always get it right by saying they got it wrong with the Blue and Grey Gresley Buffet.

 

JE

 

Getting it wrong on what is possibly the most expensive coach in the range would seem to me to be the own goal of the century.

Bernard

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Concerning the BR Blue/Grey Buffet Car, unfortunately because of the low number required, the cost of this particular coach has attracted a greater manufacturing cost which in turn reflects in the eventual retail price. On reflection, perhaps, producing this model was not one of our wisest decisions.

 

They (presumably/hopefully?) knew the body was wrong for that livery, they knew it would cost a lot and that it wouldnt have a huge market, and they still did it. Not a lot more to say, is there.

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They (presumably/hopefully?) knew the body was wrong for that livery, they knew it would cost a lot and that it wouldnt have a huge market, and they still did it. Not a lot more to say, is there.

Little bit harsh! As long as they sell the volume they planned, which Simon admits was not expected to be high, then no harm done. I'd rather they tried than become ultra cautious and only marketed those items that will sell in high volumes.

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Little bit harsh! As long as they sell the volume they planned, which Simon admits was not expected to be high, then no harm done. I'd rather they tried than become ultra cautious and only marketed those items that will sell in high volumes.

 

Harsh? Possibly so. But then I'd disagree quite strongly that there's no harm done - what about retailers who are left with these on their shelves because potential buyers have wised up to the inaccuracies in the model?

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Harsh? Possibly so. But then I'd disagree quite strongly that there's no harm done - what about retailers who are left with these on their shelves because potential buyers have wised up to the inaccuracies in the model?

Exactly so - a vehicle with an RRP of £54, or thereabouts, sitting on the shelf is hardly likely to enthuse a retailer to lash out on more stock if he thinks that it too won't shift. Definitely a serious own goal although perhaps one which might have been slightly mitigated if it had been in the market at around £20-25?

I don't doubt that there are folk around who are prepared and able to pay for quality coaching stock (in fact I saw somebody spend about £400 on Hornby coaches the other day, including Gresleys - but not in blue & grey) but folk will not take kindly to being sold a pup for 50 quid especially when it needs another tenner spent on Plasticard to have a go at trying to put it right.

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On the subject of Star Wars Scalextric I wandered into this today. The article came with the following commentary:

Because a little Star Wars licensing goes a long way for selling products *eying novelty Darth Vader head shaped mouse pad*, here are two new slot-car tracks being released by slot-car manufacturer Scalextric. Ever wanted to recreate the Battle of Endor or Death Star Attack in the f***ing saddest way possible? You're in luck!

The forum/comments section at the bottom - from people who just might be some of the most likely people to buy something like this are interesting.

 

The first comment I saw echoed my thoughts when I first looked up the Star Wars stuff on the Scalextric website - "Where are the pod racers?".

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Re the bun truck.

Cost has nothing to do with price in the real world.

The two figures should be decided by totally different departments within the business.

The days of fixed margins should have beeen left long in the past.

If they were to add a pound to the price of each coach not too many sales would be lost and the bun truck could be offered at a much more realistic price.

That would eliminate some of the problems that other posters have brought up.

Simples.

The quote from SK does betray a rather old fashioned amateurish approach to the business methods of the company.

Harsh?

Most certainly.

Fortunately other manufacturers do understand the difference and the need to adjust margins to suit the market.

Bernard

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They (presumably/hopefully?) knew the body was wrong for that livery, they knew it would cost a lot and that it wouldnt have a huge market, and they still did it. Not a lot more to say, is there.

 

They did know well before, I,and probably others told them so ...even worse is the fact that in the 2004 (I think I have the year right) Hornby catalogue,there is a photo of the real coach in question, so no excuses for not knowing !!!

 

Regards Trevor .. :sungum:

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  • 7 months later...

In 2009 I wrote:

 

If they don’t deliver in the next 2 years, will the board or management have the good grace to fall on their swords? They have been rewarded well enough in the good times. Some say they were too eager to embark on the acquisition trail, shifted production to China without managing it properly and when it inevitably gave them problems they didn’t resolve the supply chain issues quickly enough.

 

I wonder if.....

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Hornby are not the only company to have difficulties with their Chinese suppliers, is there a model company that doesn't have this problem? Whilst far from perfect Hornby have brought some superb models to the market, and as has been noted the people complaining about them doing some obscure releases would probably be the loudest voices complaining if they only released mainstream liveries and never took a risk. I think we should all show a bit of respect to Hornby, Bachmann, Dapol, Heljan etc for the quantum leap in the quality of British outline models since the late 90's, who can remember when British modelers were offered utter trash so far behind the levels of detail and quality of even second tier European and American models that it wasn't funny? And the release programs that gave us a handful of new models a year? You knowall of that is not that long ago, less than 20 years.

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Hornby are not the only company to have difficulties with their Chinese suppliers, is there a model company that doesn't have this problem?

Lots of model railway companies are struggling with supply chain issues in China. After their terrific California Zephyr coaches I was eager to purchase the SP Daylight set promised by Broadway Limited/Paragon years ago. So far only the observation car has been produced.

 

Back in spring of this year I met with a representative of the company at a trade show and he explained that he had to change manufacturers to continue supply. Things seem to be looking up for Broadway Limited Imports, if their website is anything to go by. They are publishing a web-page with availability. It would be nice to see others do this.

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Back in spring of this year I met with a representative of the company at a trade show and he explained that he had to change manufacturers to continue supply. Things seem to be looking up for Broadway Limited Imports, if their website is anything to go by. They are publishing a web-page with availability. It would be nice to see others do this.

What an excellent idea - while it doesn't (for obvious reasons) recognise that a retailer might have sold out it does show that there is still retail stock in Broadway's system as well as giving other information. Thus rather more sophisticated than Bachmann's approach and a long way ahead of Hornby - perhaps again showing the latter another area where they need to improve their game.

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