Andy Y Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 APPOINTMENT OF NEW CHIEF EXECUTIVE Hornby Plc, the international models and collectibles group, today announces that Richard Ames has been appointed as Chief Executive. He will join the group in April. Richard has a wealth of experience of leading fast moving consumer facing businesses. His most recent role was as a main Board Director at Ladbrokes plc, where latterly he was Managing Director of its Product Division. He joined Ladbrokes in 2005 and had run the UK and Ireland Retail operations where he was responsible for managing a successful retail turnaround strategy. Earlier in his career he worked at Dixons Stores Group Plc as Marketing Director, Essentials and prior to this he was the Purchasing Director in its Domestic Appliances operations. He also helped to lead the consumer electronics divisions at Asda Wal-Mart and he started his career at Philips Consumer Electronics. With Richard joining Hornby, Roger Canham, the Chairman, will resume his non-Executive role. Roger Canham, Chairman said, “ I am delighted that Richard is joining Hornby. He has a wealth of experience of leading consumer facing businesses. I was impressed with his track record of implementing successful marketing strategies and managing complex supply chains. Finally, I am pleased that he has a genuine passion and enthusiasm for the Hornby business and I am confident that Hornby is in good hands as we move forward.” Richard Ames, the new Chief Executive commented, “This is a fantastic opportunity to lead one of the UK’s best loved companies. Hornby has built a superb collection of brands, that have tremendous potential both in the UK and overseas markets. “I am personally very excited to be joining the company. Looking forward, I am confident that Hornby has an excellent platform from which it can build the scale and reach of its business and that the future for the group and our shareholders is very good.” Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium New Haven Neil Posted February 13, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 13, 2014 Taking a gamble on him......? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pebbles Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Wouldn't bet on it! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJM Dave Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Very interesting..... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9436936/Ladbrokes-fires-digital-director-Richard-Ames-over-botched-strategy.html And.... http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bdcd3f36-da46-11e1-b03b-00144feab49a.html#axzz2tEOGYdIY Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xerces Fobe2 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Very interesting..... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9436936/Ladbrokes-fires-digital-director-Richard-Ames-over-botched-strategy.html And.... http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bdcd3f36-da46-11e1-b03b-00144feab49a.html#axzz2tEOGYdIY Safe bet or risky gamble? XF Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bmthtrains - David Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Interesting. How being fired for a disastrous online system launch that nearly sunk the company can later be described as a successful retail turnaround strategy is beyond me... We don't know the whole story though obviously, so good luck to him at Hornby. Who did he replace though? David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pointstaken Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 He replaced the previous CEO = as is pointed out, Roger Canham is resuming as a non-executive. Dennis Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluebottle Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Executive this, executive that - is he a Gresley man or a Thompson man? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danemouth Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Executive this, executive that - is he a Gresley man or a Thompson man? Gordon Nah, with a bit of luck he will be a Collett man :) :yes: Dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenton Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Do we really care what he is as long as he can get the models delivered to the market on time? Hopefully he has learned a great deal from past experience and can put Hornby back on the rails rather than implementing previous history on another market sector. Good luck. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimbus Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Executive this, executive that - is he a Gresley man or a Thompson man? "The Racehorse Collection - Pre-order now to qualify for your FREE presentation packing crate!" The Nim Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluebottle Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Gordon Nah, with a bit of luck he will be a Collett man :) :yes: Dave Maybe - afraid I don't know a great deal about the occidental religion. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fenman Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Interesting. How being fired for a disastrous online system launch that nearly sunk the company can later be described as a successful retail turnaround strategy is beyond me... Whatever it's described as, I want senior managers to have made some mistakes in their careers; if they haven't, it probably means they haven't taken enough risks nor learned properly how to manage them. In fact, I don't trust any senior manager who hasn't got at least one or two decent-sized mistakes behind them. Although hopefully not ones which have destroyed the company... Speaking personally, some of my strongest learning experiences have come from my own screw-ups and near-misses. Good luck to him. Paul Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.A.C Martin Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Nobody, I hope, expects perfection from anyone in their career. To err is human. However I cannot help but feel that an appointment of someone in this vein looks increasingly like desperate moves by Hornby. It's not a new CEO that is needed but a firm direction and more to the point, manufacturing capacity and regularity that sees red boxes on shelves throughout the year and not in dribs and drabs and in increasingly smaller batch sizes. However, knowing little of the man in question, I say good luck to him and hope that he fares well in his new position. To the benefit of all of us railway modellers, one hopes. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Ian Hargrave Posted February 13, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 13, 2014 'A wealth of experience' Maybe.Knowledge of this specific market ? Well,does this actually matter? Let's hope he is attuned to our ...admittedly eccentric.....needs and can move and shake the company's supply difficulties and bring the piggies to market. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pebbles Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Hornby's problem is one of manufacturing not marketing, it's name alone sells. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
robmcg Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Hornby's problem is one of manufacturing not marketing, it's name alone sells. But it certainly needs some good thinking and management of the sales process! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rammstein2609 Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Knowledge of this specific market ? Well,does this actually matter? Sometimes it's a good thing to bring in a 'fresh pair of eyes'. He may be able to bring ideas to the table which haven't even been considered/tried in this industry yet. Sometimes it's good to think outside the (red & yellow) box Cheers Martin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pebbles Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 A new game called "Hunt the Hornby Models" probably a scratch card. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Ian Hargrave Posted February 13, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 13, 2014 Hornby's problem is one of manufacturing not marketing, it's name alone sells. I think you miss the point.I am talking about bringing their products to the point of sale.....getting their goods from drawing board onto the market place which obviously involves the manufacturing process...amongst others.I did not mean the literal term 'marketing' as per Hornby's own departmental strategy and there are some who would now question the assumption that its name alone sells Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted February 13, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 13, 2014 I wonder what time of day this was announced - the shares dropped several pence earlier today although they recovered (but are still on a largely declining path at present. i reckon the first stock market 'test' will come in the next couple of days. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Kazmierczak Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 Wonder what his Cantonese or Mardarin is like? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Y Posted February 13, 2014 Author Share Posted February 13, 2014 I wonder what time of day this was announced - the shares dropped several pence earlier today although they recovered (but are still on a largely declining path at present. i reckon the first stock market 'test' will come in the next couple of days. It was around 10.00 this morning but unfortunately I couldn't cut and paste from the PDF on the road today. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Ian Hargrave Posted February 13, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 13, 2014 Curious that a new CEO is put in place concurrently with Hornby's decision to opt out of their prestigious Roadshow signature marketing presence.Coincidence or bad timing? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted February 13, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 13, 2014 It was around 10.00 this morning but unfortunately I couldn't cut and paste from the PDF on the road today. Thanks Andy - the share price started dropping at 10.30 but only due to a small sale, there was a bigger sale at 11.30 which pushed the price down to 3p below the day's opening then another couple of biggish trades in the afternoon balanced back by a larger trade just before the close getting the price back to where it had started. It would be illuminating to know who was buying Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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