SKYTREX - former ownership

[Barnaby]

FOUND THIS ON THE HEADER PAGE OF THEIR WEB SITE.

N J Edwards and T Courtman were appointed Joint Administrators of the Company on 31 July 2013 to manage the affairs business and property of the company.

Does it mean they are going into liquidation as all stock has been set to read "OUT OF STOCK" so as to be ready for a sell off.

 

 

Regards
 

[loickebros]

FOUND THIS ON THE HEADER PAGE OF THEIR WEB SITE.

 

N J Edwards and T Courtman were appointed Joint Administrators of the Company on 31 July 2013 to manage the affairs business and property of the company.

 

Does it mean they are going into liquidation as all stock has been set to read "OUT OF STOCK" so as to be ready for a sell off.

 

 

Regards

 

No they are in administration not liquidation which means the administrators will look at and run the operation to see if it can be saved if not then they will put it into liquidation.

At least the administrators have had the sense to keep the website open not like with modelzone where they shut it closing the avenue of any online sales!!!

[HSB]

They have announced that they are going to hold a clearance sale so maybe a chance for a few bargains shortly. I must say I have always considered their stuff rather overpriced for the quality offered.

[Barnaby]

Hello Loickebros.

Yes I understand the differences but they have listed the whole site as out of stock so even though the web page is open nothing is for sale.  It is said to be all going up for sale shortly, that sounds much more like a closing down sale than anything else.

 

Regards

[cromptonnut]

Well isn't that just typical.  I give up on modelling 7mm - and miss out on a load of forthcoming Skytrex bargains, and return to 4mm modelling, having missed out on all the bargains at Modelzone.

 

I suppose my wallet is safe though.

[jamie92208]

That's a blow for me.  I'd just ordered a signal box for my layout for pick up and payment at telford and they were going to put a couple of extra pieces in so that I could build it with the steps at the opposite end to suit my prototype.

 

 

Jamie

[Mike]

The administrators have written to some trade members to see if they wish to buy any part of the business, this was posted on GOG forum by invertrain.

[81A Oldoak]

Attached is the Skytrex Ltd report and accounts for 31 August 2012 that I have downloaded from Companies House for the princely sum of £1. Equity shareholders' funds were negative £2.3 million in 2012 and negative £2.3 million in 2011.  Creditors due in 12 months were £2.8 million and current assets £1.5 million.   99.8% of current assets was stock. Cash was £100 (sic). 2011 balance sheet was broadly the same.  Long term creditors are another £2.1 million and fixed assets £1.1 million of which 69% are intangible. This is publicly available information.  

Skytrex Ltd CRA 31 Aug 2012.pdf

[peter220950]

That's a blow for me. I'd just ordered a signal box for my layout for pick up and payment at telford and they were going to put a couple of extra pieces in so that I could build it with the steps at the opposite end to suit my prototype.

 

 

Jamie

What was the box Jamie? I have some spare bits for the LNWR box. - and access to a new kit if it's any use?

[daifly]

 but they have listed the whole site as out of stock so even though the web page is open nothing is for sale.  It is said to be all going up for sale shortly, that sounds much more like a closing down sale than anything else.

 

Regards

Surely, the administrators would rather sell the company, or parts thereof, along with stock. To flood a relatively small 7mm market with a sale of stock at a knock-down price would make the company much less attractive to a potential purchaser.

 

Dave

[jamie92208]

What was the box Jamie? I have some spare bits for the LNWR box. - and access to a new kit if it's any use?

It's the MR type 2b that was featured in the Gazzette   It's exactly right for Lancaster South on my Green Ayre layout.  I've only ever found one photo of the box (whiuch went in 1933) and it had it's back to the river with the stairs at the east (Right Hand end) as you look at it from the front.

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

I've just had a look at the website and there is a messgae from the administrators asking for customers to register their email address for a forthcoming clearance sale.

 

Jamie

[BrushType4]

Surely, the administrators would rather sell the company, or parts thereof, along with stock. To flood a relatively small 7mm market with a sale of stock at a knock-down price would make the company much less attractive to a potential purchaser.

 

Dave

With 99.8% of the assets in stock holding, the first thing they should do is sell the stock! If there is a viable business at the end is another thing...

 

It's a shame, but I don't understand why they ploughed on in resin locomotives for example when the quality to cost they achieved was nowhere near it should have been in 7mm in this day and age.

[BrushType4]

I've just looked through these accounts posted by Chris.

 

The company was Insolvent over a year ago and as such has presumably filed another set of accounts since??

For me the surprising matter is why the accountants didn't put in a 'going concern note' in the accounts last year. As they didn't it means (on paper at least) they didn't believe it was a going concern.

We don't know how the business has traded in the last 12 months but as far as we can see there is no business. All the value is in stock that I suspect is over valued.

 

Not a good story at all and near zero chance of being a business that will survive administration.

[Geoff Endacott]

Would anyone like a trade stand at Trainwest 2014? I have a feeling that Skytrex might not be coming.

 

Geoff Endacott

[darren01]

Hi

Well there go my bottle kilms i wanted, I hope to be able to get them ,but by the look of this they will not be around!.

Darren01

[bbishop]

The accountants were merely employed to prepare a set of accounts.  The director stated that the company was exempt from audit.

 

Bill

[BrushType4]

The accountants were merely employed to prepare a set of accounts.  The director stated that the company was exempt from audit.

 

Bill

That just means that the business is under the statutory limits for an audit. I would still expect the accountants to have entered a note of going concern on a such a bad set of accounts if they believed it was.

[BrushType4]

Well isn't that just typical.  I give up on modelling 7mm - and miss out on a load of forthcoming Skytrex bargains, and return to 4mm modelling, having missed out on all the bargains at Modelzone.

 

I suppose my wallet is safe though.

Have you given up on your 7mm layout then? I thought you'd started it?

[black and decker boy]

I've just looked through these accounts posted by Chris.

 

The company was Insolvent over a year ago and as such has presumably filed another set of accounts since??

For me the surprising matter is why the accountants didn't put in a 'going concern note' in the accounts last year. As they didn't it means (on paper at least) they didn't believe it was a going concern.

We don't know how the business has traded in the last 12 months but as far as we can see there is no business. All the value is in stock that I suspect is over valued.

 

Not a good story at all and near zero chance of being a business that will survive administration.

 

Do we know if Skytrex had other business streams as well as resin casting model railways. The turnover and stock costs look way OTT for simply model railways as a cottage industry supplier.

[cromptonnut]

Their website indicates that they do railways, planes, military figures and vehicles, decals and ships.  I've had a number of their railway items but none of their other stuff.

[asmay2002]

They were in military modelling for many years before going into railways.  It could be that it was the Railways that took them under.

[81A Oldoak]

It is worth remembering that Skytrex had a big presence in the wargaming sector. Indeed, I first encountered the firm in the 1970s when as a teenager I went through an adolescent phase of wargaming. At some stage Skytrex decided to sell its military modelling interests and concentrate on model railways as this undated notice on the Skytrex shows http://www.skytrex.com/146/Red-Eagle-1-144th-WWI/  (Red Eagle 1:144 WW1 aviation and 1:1200 Napoleonic Naval has already been sold). The accounts I posted are a year old so we don't know what has happened since, but I suspect that the intangible assets of more than £700K shown at 31 August 2012 were goodwill and have been written off, which would further increase the deficit. Nevertheless, this is very sad for the our hobby. 

[Obi-Jiff Kenobi]

As an occasional purchaser of their non-railway models, and being on their email list, I've had several emails from them over the past months announcing the offering for sale to other businesses of their non-railway range, Skytrex themselves intending to slim the business down to purely railway. They obviously believed it was either the most profitable, or at least the most interesting to the proprietors, side of the business.

[Fat Controller]

As an occasional purchaser of their non-railway models, and being on their email list, I've had several emails from them over the past months announcing the offering for sale to other businesses of their non-railway range, Skytrex themselves intending to slim the business down to purely railway. They obviously believed it was either the most profitable, or at least the most interesting to the proprietors, side of the business.

I can imagine that the wargaming side has been hit very heavily by the growth of more-and-more sophisticated computer games, such that no-one needs physical models to represent their forces anymore.