antrobuscp

Hornby website this morning:

"Visit you local model shop. Find yours today"

 

"As an ongoing continued effort to support the independent trade, the [above] will be displayed on the website for the next 48 hours." [Hornby e-mail received this morning].

 

Yes, we had a busy day today. A couple of Heljan 'O' gauge locos can have a major effect on our daily takings!

Why only the next 48 hours?

On the mixed subjects of Hornby, the retail trade, children coming into the hobby - I went to Hattons place at Widnes for the first time on Saturday - much easier and quicker for me than Smithdown Road. Very small temporary sales area which was filled when I arrived with 3 staff and a family with a youngster looking to his first model layout. One of the staff in particular was dealing with them, advising on the wiring, the precise track pieces required(they were setting up on a track mat), and making sure it all came together. Advice was offered and taken, and the goods were produced and tried in place. All as it should be, from a so called "box shifter", and Hornby should know better than to seem to be trying to sabotage their retailers. This is not the only way into the hobby, but it sure is one of them.

Colin

Picked up the early BR liveried 30584 from Hattons this morning. I have to say I'm very happy with the loco - a little stiff straight out of the box, but running nicely now, no issues with track holding or tight clearances above the front bogie.

Colin

I for one will have to forgo DJH locos because of the coreless motors, unless there is a drop-in older type available.

 

Stewart

I use old H & M Walkabout controllers, which I believe are of the feedback type, as my preferred option. I do have alternatives, but will only buy DJM locos when there is no alternative model as I so much prefer to use the Walkabouts.

Just to be clear, I've never said that availability of CKD  models should be made to lower production/packaging cost thus achieving cost savings for the end purchaser. It was so that those of us that like to tinker/alter/improve/model would have an easier time.

P

Apologies. My comments were intended to be general although I can see my use of the word "you" would have made it appear to be specific. Cost saving was in my head, though, because the subject of CKD models usually comes up in that context, and this has been a thread partly about financial matters, and latterly business software and its implementation.

i can certainly see the appeal where the purchaser currently has to disassemble a model to make modifications/improvements or to model a variant of the type.

 I was shot down in flames by a good few when I suggested that in another thread.

 

P

CKD Kits - One of the points made against this suggestion has always been that it would not save as much as you think because the parts, at least in some cases, would have to be separately packed/protected, someone has to make sure that all necessary parts are included in the correct numbers, etc., thereby making the labour cost saving much less than might be thought. There is also the cost of producing assembly instructions and stocking parts that might be broken or disappear during assembly.

Looks like the early BR black ones are in at Hattons

"Oxford Rail OR76AR002 Adams Radial 4-4-2T 30584 in BR early black is now in stock and ready to purchase Oxford Rail OR76AR002 Adams Radial 4-4-2T 30584 in BR early black is now in stock and ready to purchase "

Colin

High quality Hornby CKD kits for the 21st Century - overcomes the high cost of assembly.

I wonder what their definition of sales are?

 

If it is based on orders, then the 2016 range was annouced earlier this year before Warley, yeah sure this will have a big impact on December (being more) and January (being less) with others waiting for the toy fair (no doubt so that they can leap on the battery powered virgin sets and Downtown abbey!).

 

However - in Hornby's case - orders mean little when it comes to paying bank loans, after all most will take the best part of a year to fulfil , so it's cash flow that counts. You can have a dull January taking orders but still have plenty of money coming in.

According to the "Revenue Recognition" accounting policy, sales are recognised when the goods are despatched to customers, be they the retail trade or end consumers in the case of direct sales. This applies across the group. The policy also refers to a provision for sales returns which, and I am guessing here, would likely be based upon past experience.

 I hate this idea that "bean counting" is an isolated profession. Financial people are not daft. As well as accountancy I think you'll find they have a basic idea of portfolio management, manufacturing, marketing and even sales. To be successful in their role they need an understanding of their business.

"Bean counters" though are, as often as not, NOT the ultimate decision makers. They provide information, offer recommendations, alternatives, etc., but others make any decisions based on that information together with advice and information from many other sources.

As to the apparently sudden turn around in Hornby's fortunes, I wonder if they were expecting a number of models to appear before their year end, that will not now do so.  The late arrivals of the TTT releases for Christmas suggest that delays are back (if they ever left).  If Hornby have a number of releases that they hoped would reach the shops before year end, that have now missed the Chinese New Year cut - and will not now be shipped for several weeks and so arrive in the 2016/2017 financial year, then they will have already paid substantial amounts for models, that will not now arrive in time to generate the cash to allow them to meet their governance commitments (pay their loans in normal speak).

This could certainly be a significant part of the reason for the sudden change. The serious model railway market could be used in some respects as a management tool to smooth cash flow over the year when other channels of sales are quiet - provided deliveries can be relied upon. Past experience suggests that such a level of control over production does not, and likely won't, exist. Yet another problem requiring active management. Therefore, the need for additional working capital to cover the uncertainties should be built in to forward planning, and should not really come "out of the blue", and should not, on its own, cause the change in fortunes.

Like everything else there's good and bad. In favour of Ames he has sorted out their manufacturing supply problem which is something Frank Martin failed to do for 6 years! He has also given the development team their head and let them get on with things. Bringing in a modern ERP system seemed sensible, especially if more and more sales are direct. Sounds like it may have been poorly executed. But , who knows, it may be in the execution of the new system they actually found that stock was overstated in previous system. Remember we are talking not just Hornby here, but Rivarossi, Jouef, Airfix, corgi etc. While not convinced at the time, I also think attempts to communicate direct to customer have been generally successful.

 

On the downside clearly are relations with retailers. The loss of stock is really almost indefensible in this day and age . I think the Finance Officer is also relatively new so it may be that it was his new regime that unearthed the issue. We just need to wait to find out.

 

It maybe that some heads will be demanded by shareholders , and the bank will want a say to protect their investment, but I think they need to keep heads down, deliver new products promised, have a robust system of financial control , then hopefully they will come out of this . Good luck to them all. Particularly at the moment I think the British hobby , at least, needs Hornby

I agree with all the above, the only thing I would add, and it may not be inconsistent with what you have said, is that the deterioration in the company's position seems to be relatively sudden against a previous background of improving results and the anticipated further improvements. I think if I were the lender I would need to be satisfied - and I'm sure the questions will be asked - as to how, why, and when the stock write off and the worsening results were deemed necessary or became evident respectively. Depending upon the responses, management's apparent control, or lack thereof, of the business will indicate the appropriate course of action. This could largely be the new management unearthing previous problems and clearing the decks, or it could be their own forecasts and planning falling apart. Time will tell.

I think their standard £4 postage is cheaper than either the petrol or the train/bus/taxi fares.

Agreed, I collect so as to avoid potential damage in the post, and just to look at what's on display.

Colin

I was a bit surprised at the apparent suddenness of the move out of Smithdown Road. I do recall someone on here suggesting this, maybe 9 - 18 months ago, but it seemed to go very quiet. I regularly visited the shop to "collect", but was thinking of stopping as the part of the drive off the motorway was becoming a bit tedious at times, and was the relatively costly part of the drive. The Hub will be an easier drive I suspect from North Merseyside.

I can understand the common sense of settling on one site. Even when my office was on 2 floors in the same building, a move to one floor saved a lot of time. Unfortunately, those using public transport will find access harder and Hattons may lose a little trade from those using the busy local shopping streets just up the road - Christmas trade?

Colin

I wish we could go back to the choosing of when to download and install them!

 

It will be less of an issue for me in the future, but at the moment this is a major reason why I'm reluctant to move to Win10. Tuesday's Win7 update caused Outlook to crash repeatedly after installation. It didn't take a great effort to sort it out, but had it been forced on me at a time I couldn't control, it could have caused serious problems for me. I understand that the November Win10 upgrade increases the ability to defer updates, particularly for business users.

Huge set of updates for anyone with Office 2010 this week

Win 10, Office 2010 x 3, IE Flash Player, Access 2010, Project 2010, Visio 2010, Word 2010, InfoPath 2010, Publisher 2010, Excel 2010, OneNote 2010, Malicious Software Removal Tool

If you are using Win Vista/7/8/8.1 there is an issue with Outlook crashing whilst viewing HTML email. Removing KB3097877 should solve the problem.

News item on BBC - different sort of washout.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-34499664

Colin

I ordered one of these back in July 2010. Yes, I'm disappointed it's not yet arrived, but I think Kernow have kept us informed of the particular reasons for the delay and, so far as they can, of the reasons for changing their chosen manufacturer. They have done all they could to keep us updated on progress, and if anyone's reputation is damaged, I don't really think it is Kernow's or DJM's.

Colin

The sky from Gunwalloe Dollar Cove, Cornwall, on Monday evening. Poldark being filmed there as I'm posting this.

My computers are on 40 and it claims to be the latest version and hasn't updated for a while.

 

Keith

I've been travelling today, hence delay in posting. I think I'd become confused with the Chrome updates. The machine I'm on is at #45. As to Firefox this machine is updating 40.0.02>03 as I type. The updates I was referring to with Firefox were 39>40 and the "point" updates thereafter. These updates were on WinXP, 7, and 8.

Colin

I've found Firefox to be less stable since the flurry of version updates over the last 6 months. I've held the version I'm using at the moment at 39. Other machines have gone up to 43, I think, and incompatibilities seem to have been introduced with some banking websites - I now use Chrome for these - and Rapport.

Colin

From Vista onwards, Windows employs program caching, using memory that is available and not required for anything else.  First time you load a program it has to get it off the hard drive, but when you close the program it leaves in the memory cache. Provided the memory is not needed for anything else in the meantime, when you start the program the next time, Windows retrieves the program modules from the cache rather than accessing them on the disk.  This is why the second load is often a lot quicker.

I don't know for sure, but I think there may be a "stub" for LO which can be loaded at startup, in order to speed later loading. I haven't noticed that option with OO. I realise about the caching, but it was just a simple comparison done twice after seeing the earlier comment. As I said, unscientific.

Colin

I've used OpenOffice for many years, usually for word processing. I have used the spreadsheet, but certain formatting, tab colours and the like, seems to be lost on a save to Excel format, so I've stuck with Excel for compatibility with others.

One trait I've noticed is that OO is slower to start for the first time each day I use it - I don't need it every day. Because of the comments about LO above, I've installed it for trial purposes. I've just started both word processors, twice. On the first occasion the timing seemed to be similar between the 2 programs. but OO was noticeably quicker to start on the second occasion, by about 40% I think. Only a "count test" not a timed scientific test.

LO looks better, but both seem to work equally well for the limited work I do with it. I originally started with StarOffice. I used it to convert and reformat text output from DOS programs which didn't seem(I may be wrong) to be readily possible in Word at that time.

Colin

Why not install Libre Office?  in a word, Outlook. My wife has a huge file structure within Outlook to manage her hobbies and interests.

 

All I need to know is has anyone successfully upgraded to windowws 10 and retained Office 2003 including Outlook. If the answer is no then I may have no option but to either upgrade or stick with Windows 7.

That would be my reason for not throwing away the MS product as well. I've used OpenOffice for years and have just taken a look at LibreOffice. The joint ancestry is obvious, but LibreOffice looks more modern and Excel compatibility seems better from a quick look at one of my spreadsheets in the program. I may switch for all my personal stuff once I retire. I didn't like Thunderbird and settled on Outlook. A similar application in Open/LibreOffice would probably swing me totally away from MS Office. Can't help with the question about Office 2003 - yet - Next year I may have the same decision to face myself.

Colin

I must admit that for a while I used Google almost exclusively. I found, however, that the other search engines often pull details of smaller websites. Google, perhaps not surprisingly as it's presumably responding to overall usage statistics, leans towards the bigger more commercial and web aware businesses. Sometimes the other search engines pull out interesting alternatives. If I'm looking for something not quite mainstream, I'll run the search on 2 or 3 other search engines.

I've just done a check search on duckduckgo on something that interests me, and the results were very largely different to Google - which is useful to know.

Colin