Gridiron

Up until about 35 years ago the Chinese industry would usually sell on CIF/Prepaid terms and buy on FOB/Collect terms so that they could dictate the routing and thus support the Chinese State carriers in a country were strict exchange control was enforced. This started to change when China opened up to foreign entities and containerisation which brought with it many foreign flag carriers and western companies wanting to control the shipping arrangements. Today there is a healthy mix of prepaid and collect business the latter of which can be controlled by foreign entities but all customs work usually has to be completed by an authorised Chinese entity. Manufacturers are not usually allowed to hold foreign exchange, ie strict exchange control remains, so this means that foreign currency must be converted by a local authorised bank before it appears on the manufacturers bank statement, a process which can be bureaucratic and take an extra few days. Generally speaking independent Chinese manufacturers will negotiate deals which include a deposit portion with the balance being due on completion of delivery from their warehouse or from the port of shipment if shipping is being controlled by the overseas buyer. The deals for any tooling etc would likely be kept as separate transactions and again likely to include a prepayment element again with the balance being due once the customer is happy with finished samples and possibly payable prior to production commencing. It should also be noted that the overseas buyer will often employ a third party to physically inspect the manufacturing materials and site to ensure quality control is maintained during production, all of which adds more costs to the finished articles.

This is a very valid point as I would suspect that Hornby is sourcing it's products from many suppliers in China rather than a single manufacturing facility and then having to combine them into full container loads to reduce the shipping costs. This would suggest the Hornby would be be buying on exworks or FAS their nominated warehouse. Depending on how the shipping is then organised it's likely that some sort of priority system would need to be in place so that higher valued items such as locomotives are loaded first whilst lower valued item might be held for the next container. Given the most economical shipping solution for these sort of products would be 40ft high cube containers it's then a question of how often they load bearing in mind that there are then about six sailing a week from Chinese main ports to the UK . Prior to the diversions via the Cape the fastest transit time port to port would have been about 24/25 days which now would have increased to around to 36 days from Yantian to Felixstowe. If you add on up to at least a week at either end to allow for container to be loaded and delivered to the terminal prior to shipment, and then to be offloaded, cleared and delivered before the stock can be taken into the Hornby UK warehouse. Assuming Hornby would have to pay the supplier for the stock purchased on exworks terms prior to the pick up from the factory ,that would mean that those Hornby would potentially have to fund the purchase for the best part of eight weeks at least assuming every order was shipped out every week. All this assumes no delays, like blank sailings such as was the case prior to November 2023, space shortages leading to containers being rolled to a later vessel, or shipped on a slower service, and the effects of Chinese New Year which can lead to all the foregoing delays and significant increases in freight costs. All the above issues potentially require huge amounts of management time and/or expense unless the right systems are in place and the shipping from China is arranged with a trusted and reliable partner which may explain why Mike Ashley has been brought in as a consultant. The minimum seven or eight week lapse between taking charge or owning the stock and having it delivered into the UK warehouse stock records, also comes at a huge cost in interest costs, something which obviously is not incurred when the terms are DDP excluding VAT and the supplier becomes responsible for delivering the stock to the Hornby warehouse.

Exactly, and they can go further by piggybacking the shipping of Hornby products from China etc with other brands shipping activities potentially further reducing costs. Perhaps also Phoenix have identified another link, that the youth of today big passion is technology and linking the model railway, model car and plastic kits to those popular games could be a money spinner because with your simple table top layout could easily be converted into some virtual reality West Coast Mainline or imaginary HS3 railway.. In my experience Asset Management companies do not tend to be long term investors so bringing in Mr Ashley would seem a logical exercise once the ship had been steadied with his experience in retail and logistics and distribution. One other interesting point to note, is that Phoenix is ultimately controlled by Channon Holding Limited which in turn is controlled a Mr Gary Andrew Scott Channon and a Mrs Sedef Channon. Mr Channon seems have had a very busy career in the past holding officers positions in no less that 353 entities, including a large number of funeral directors and similar industries.

Alternatively, this simple guide in English . https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/united-kingdom_en https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/document/download/f274508d-2a2d-43b6-895e-07baeb2d5987_en?filename=e-commerce-uk-factsheet_en.pdf

It looks that way, the premises are listed with an expected approximate value of just over 1m GBP, but they appear listed for rent, https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/143599421#/?channel=COM_LET

With reports that M B Klein is returning, the same cannot be said about Hattons in the UK. According to Companies House records Christine Hatton ceased to be person with significant control of the patent company The Hatton Model Railway Company Limited, on 29 Jan 2024, whilst the Hattons 2 Limited is about to be voluntary struck off the register in the next two months. Meanwhile Richard has established his latest venture as Medio HQ 2 Limited, curiously listing it's activities as 68209 - Other letting and operating of own or leased real estate.

BBC North West Tonight has just broadcast the interview with Richard and Widnes Model Centre. It will be available on the website for two days. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001wtxm

All becomes clear at 7.30 min in

Absolutely, my guess given the news today is that the trading company Hattons Model Railways Limited will eventually be wound up once all the affairs have been settled. There is no need to keep it open, the trading company is owned by the parent company THE HATTON MODEL RAILWAY COMPANY LIMITED which Companies House records shows also purchased Richards previous two companies. The parent company could also hold the ownership of the US operations but this may only be revealed when the accounts are published later in the year. With the Hattons appearing to have disposed of it's manufacturing side of the business and the owned retail brands either side of the Atlantic closed in theory the parent could also close, but it could also emerge as another entity or partner in a joint venture. It also leaves the question of Hattons 2 Ltd outstanding which has remained dormant since incorporation. I remain in the view that there are more chapters in this book to follow although I suspect they may not involve Hattons in direct retail sakes.

Ok a reasonably short explanation. Today there are three global alliances, or groups of the shipping lines providing services on the main east /west trades globally. On the Asia / Europe trade each of these alliance provide five or six sailings a week from about five or six ports in Asia to about four or five ports in North West Europe, The diversion around the Cape adds about eight to ten days to the voyage depending on on the service speed which can be relatively slow at 13 to 14 knots to save fuel costs. Speeding up to say 18 knots will reduce the transit times to about seven days so initially it has been a balancing act on the westbound voyages to reschedule the port calls to avoid bunching and port congestion, but typical transit times now from Yantian which is usually the last Chinese load port westbound is about 32/33 days to the first discharge NWC port. In theory each alliance therefore needs to find an extra two ships for each weekly service , so at least 20 vessels per alliance depending on the ranges served. Like after the bank 2009 the shipping lines have resorted to all sorts of policies to keep their services sustainable, including slow steaming as I have indicated above, but also blanking sailings on some weeks, like over Chinese New Year or even cancelling some services for a limited period of time. These step the lines argue as necessary because of the slow down in demand and a huge glut of spare capacity in the marketplace, but one the problems it creates is shortages of equipment in some locations so you end up with a huge surplus of empties in the wrong place. During the Covid peak there were times when UK Ports were storing so many empty units that the ports, particularly Felixstowe and Southampton refused to take the empties back. This problem was caused because the ships when they arrived carried substantially more units than normal for discharge and that combined with the Covid working measures meant the berthing windows were insufficient for the ship to exchange the full complement of eastbound units, so the empties got left behind. In order to solve this problem the Chinese government order their factories to churn out huge numbers of new containers which were lapped up by the shipping and container leasing companies which resulted in even more containers being left behind is western ports, in Los Angeles/Long Beach ships were queuing for up to 30 days for a berth to discharge /load during the worst of Covid pandemic because the terminals simply ran out of space to land containers. As volumes have returned to precovid levels the shipping lines have been trying to return as many leased containers back to the leasing companies or sell off older units due for certification so that inventory levels matched the demands of the market place with some additional capacity available to support all the newbuilds due to enter service over the next two to three years. MSC for example has at least a new 15000 plus up to 24000 teu vessel due to enter service every month for the next two or three years. 24000 teu is fast becoming the normal size for vessels on Asia /Europe services, which smaller ships now being cascaded to other trades for example Indian Subcontinent /Middle East/ Europe were the majority of the services are operated outside the global alliances so therefore need each individual line to plug the gaps. It's also important to remember that all the alliances also service the Mediterranean trades to and from Asia, India Subcontinent /Middle trades and East and West Africa often as wayport calls and/or via transhipment via south Europe hubs at Valencia, Algeciras and Tangier requiring even more capacity. Another problem is the lack of rain in Panama, which has resulted in the lakes in the middle of the canal seeing lower water levels in the canal. The Panama Canal authority has been limiting the number of transit over recent months which has lead to congestion for vessel wishing to use the Canal so the lines serving the Asia to US Gulf and East coast ports had rerouted many services via Suez but with the effective closure of the route the lines have had no alternative but reroute these services via the Cape eating up even more capacity. All these demands have forced the lines to rejig many services and provide additional loaders to and from some ports which previously saw direct calls dropping of surplus capacity to the port to sustain the local demand for empty equipment. So give a short answer to your original question, the answer as Eric Morecambe might describe is that the there is no shortage of equipment, it's just that is now no longer in the right place. The shipping lines have now had a month to make the changes so any initial shortages of equipment should largely be resolved in the next two to three weeks and then the situation should start to stabilise and with the shipping lines planning now for a long term disruption it could the present service patterns will remain in place until the end of the year when the next major changes come into effect when Maersk and MSC spilt from their agreement and Maersk are joined by Hapag Lloyd in their new global alliance. This will inevitably result in numerous changes to schedules which are likely to be made more complicated with present disruption.

i think I have had stuff from Modelibahnshop Lippe but before Brexit, but prior to Brexit DHL was the preferred carrier, but there performance like UPS immediately after Brexit was poor, which got even worse when they then subcontracted the delivery to Parcel Force or Royal Mail. The big problem here may be that DHL do not provide PF or RM with an email contact address, perhaps because it might be considered an infringement of privacy rights. As a result, the customer has to wait either try and track the parcel on either site and gain another reference to go on line to make the payment, or wait for the letter to arrive which quotes the number. It can be a very tiresome exercise. Agree, that was my initial reaction, but after also listening to his two interviews and discovering the other companies, my view changed that he could have meant that the current business could not be made to be profitable in the longer term. At this point we should remember that the trading company is wholly owned by a holding company which have Christine and Richard as Directors. THE HATTON MODEL RAILWAY COMPANY LIMITED acquired 100% of the current trading company on the 15 June 2018 and the two previous companies that Richard was listed as a Director and were then liquidated. One can only assume the reason for this move was to acquire any intellectual rights or copyrights that these companies hold which may have well been used by Hattons in their trading company. However, Richard also established Hattons 2 Limited on the 27 March 2015 in which Christine is listed as holding a share between 25% and 49.9% of the business. This company is independent of the holding Hattons entity and appears to have remained dormant at least up to the 31st March 2023. The latest full accounts for the trading company are only available up to 30 Jun 2022 so it s not clear which of the three entities set up the US entity and then liquidated it last year just before the Klein acquisition all of which would have been a substantial hit to the business especially given the subsequent events following the announcement of the UK closing down. It would be logical to assume the holding company funded the US business which would then potentially would have allowed the Hattons trading company to continue and perhaps weather the approaching storm. However, it appears the Directors and Management finally agreed that this was not possible and took the decision to close the business whilst it was still solvent. Assuming this to be the case, the obvious question is what was or is the purpose of Hattons 2 Limited which is resgistered to an address in Chester. The answer is of course we don't know, and we will have to wait to see what happens with both the trading company and the holding company, whose accounts provide an interesting insight into their turnover and customer base. Curiously it seems that Hattons had actually made Brexit a success, doubling their turnover, whilst the rest of the world sales saw a decrease of over 50% between 2021 and 2022 highlighting perhaps the amount of subsidy this portion of the business was taking.

UK and EU VAT registered sellers should be zero rating their supply when supplying a customer outside the UK and EU respectively, as the custom/VAT rules allow this. Private, unregistered sellers should not be charging origin VAT in the first place. If the value of order is below the local customs minima which may or may not include the shipping cost depending on local customs rules, they should be including the local taxes (ie VAT, GST etc.) and customs clearance fee(s). If the value is over the minima the local taxes and clearance fee should not be included by the seller and instead these should be paid locally to by the customer to the service provider.

True perhaps I should have added for the UK domestic market for UK outline models. I'd agree there is an issue with cost of Ebay Global Shipping Program from what I have read, being in the UK I have not had cause to use it myself. However, I do for a relative who models N Gauge Continental and I buy directly from sellers in Europe. One regular seller used offers free UK shipping on orders over EUR300 and event throughs in a free gift so the German VAT is also waived. My orders are all over this limit and are usually despatched the same working day and on most occasions the shipping service is excellent. An order sent last Sunday was acknowledged by 0800hrs UK time Monday morning and by close of business I had an email from UPS with the tracking reference. By 2100hrs I had an email to confirm the parcel had been collected and was on the way to the hub, and delivery to Liverpool was planned for the next day between 1045hrs and 1315hrs. As a failsafe I sent them a copy of the commercial invoice and clearance instructions by email to the UK hub at East Midlands airport. The following morning I had an email notification that the the delivery was due a little later than previously advised pending payment of the outstanding VAT and clearance charge of GBP12.50. This was paid online by 0930hrs on the Tuesday morning and the UPS driver turned up about ten minutes later than previously notified at 1650hrs the same day, just about 23 hours after the parcel was collected for the sellers warehouse near Cologne. I will eventually get an official invoice from UPS in the post which has the UK customs clearance printed on reverse in a week or so time for my records. From a trade point of view Brexit I would whole heartedly agree it was the biggest own goal any UK government could have made, but what I think my seller in Germany shows, is that the red tape can be overcome and the process can be more or less seamless with the correct paperwork and partner infrastructure. For small UK sellers and buyers Brexit has been a nightmare of bureaucracy and here I speak from personal professional experience as effectively trade between UK and the EU has gone back to prior 1993. The only difference between then an now is that all the customs paperwork is done electronically rather than using half a rainforest of paper. For the sellers it's also an opportunity to sell to the rest of the world as the same basic procedure applies as far as UK compliance is concerned, the real challenge is dealing with the overseas customs arrangements if the orders fall below the minimum values were the seller becomes responsible for local taxes and charges and the possible exchange rate risks. This is probably explains why the Ebay Global Shipping program is seen as being expensive for smaller shipments and were the Hattons Trunk system comes into it's own as I suspect they priced the overseas shipping very competitively because of the volume discounts they could negotiate from likes of DHL etc.

And this is why I think we may well see a Hattons 2 but not directly as a retailer, rather more the as the platform provider. By all accounts Christine Hatton has or will retire for the business when the current trading company is wound up leaving Richard Davies as the sole director and thus able to take the entity in a different direction. At 46 years old he is I doubt going to sit back and count his riches, and perhaps more importantly he has an IT background as was responsible for taking the company to a major online trader having previously been involved in a consultancy IT specialising in the retail industry, Owning the platform and then partnering up with a suitable third party fulfilment operation potentially might make a very viable niche platform that could be tailored to other business types were the customer might want the benefit of a trunk system which does appear to separate the platform form the likes of Ebay and Amazon etc.

Unless somebody steps up, Ebay looks to be the winner for the secondhand market. As a regular buyer in recent years on Ebay as well as Hattons and certain other traders it never ceases to amaze me the variety of stock that does appear on Ebay and it seems to that very few retailers could afford to offer the variety and volume of stock the platform stocks and that the beauty for the owners of Ebay. The whole concept it that Ebay does not own the stock so does not have all the supplier issues that a manufacturer or distributor incurs running their business let alone the financial gamble of stocking a huge amount of stock, some of which can be slow sellers. With this in mind an observation, my own preference is 00 gauge so I noted this morning that a simple search of UK stock of 00 gauge stock showed by about 78000 items, by early afternoon it had reached 79000 plus items, whilst in the run up to Xmas the same search reached 100000 items. Ok, let's be fair, there is usually a fair amount of junk items, which would never would have appeared on the Hattons website but presumably must have been included in some secondhand purchases. As a veteran of the original Hattons shop, I can remember seeing the same sort of stuff on offer as a bargain somewhere in the shop, along with huge stocks of three rail Hornby Dublo track that never appeared to go down. Most UK sellers in the secondhand market seem to take a similar view leaving the only source of spares for some items a handful of specialist traders or Ebay,

The problem of manufacturers and distributes overstocking in not unique to the model train or toy industry, it's a global problem that affects most western economies since the pandemic when governments pumped billons of US Dollars, Pounds and Euro's into their domestic markets to keep their countries economies functioning. With so many people working from and some making life changing decisions to their life style manufacturers and distributors naturally wanted to take advantage of this disposable income which could no longer be spent on traditional forms of entertainment and holidays although it was not universal. Some markets, like garden furniture and other relatively low value products became relatively scarce as it was no longer viable to ship these goods when shipping costs for a 40ft containers from China to Europe were approaching USD20000.00 a container, if you could secure the space, over five times the cost prior to Covid outbreak. Desperate, to secure supplies from their Chinese manufacturers many western organisations increased their orders or quantities but with the Chinese still enjoying lockdowns well after the western economies had mainly returned to normal trading patterns there were huge stocks still being shipped throughout 2021 and 2022. As the Covid restrictions were eased Governments and Central Banks started to develop plans to reduce the debt burden brought on by various Covid schemes and curb inflation which had returned to every economy as a result of release of those huge sums of money released into economies to counter the effects of Covid. By this time last year the cost of shipping had reduced dramatically and by the late summer the rates had fallen to below Covid levels largely because volume of orders from China had dropped significantly as manufacturers and distributors began to realise that they had huge stocks of unsold product sitting in warehouses in many western countries, including the UK. Successive monthly rises in interest rates were beginning to reduce consumer spending so it was inevitable that this would ultimately affect sales on the high street and especially in those businesses not involved in essentials. One interesting and often neglected fact is the huge profits made by the shipping companies during the pandemic, which apart in the USA has gone largely unnoticed by the regulators etc. The numbers are mind blowing and whilst the industry does tend to suffer from peaks and troughs the figures for the Covid period are breaktaking. To give one example, MSC which is now the largest containership operator in the world was able to acquire in the last two years over 300 ships in secondhand market to add to their existing fleet, hence why they are now number one. But it does not end there. They also have a order book for new ships equivalent to about the size of the fifth placed carrier Hapag Lloyd and that's in addition to investments in logistics and airfreight were they continue to trade under the subsidiary name. Most of the global carriers have followed a similar policy on newbuilds partly in order to comply with new emission rules and allow older tonnage to be scrapped. As a result there is likely to be over the next couple of years a huge surplus of tonnage which is why when the attacks in the Red Sea started and the ship started to divert via the Cape the shipping lines were able to fill much of the gaps in capacity fairly quickly from idle capacity anchored off China and rejigging some services. Whilst initially rates spiked, there are signs already they are beginning to drop as the supply chain repairs itself and the overall trend over the next couple of years should be more stable as the lessons have been learnt.

This opportunity has already been taken by the likes of Amazon albeit it probably does not cater for the more serious trade I suspect it may satisfy first time buyers looking for a train set for little Tommy's Birthday or Christmas present. This brings me back to the concept of having a dedicated platform for the hobby with the ability to hold stock in several locations around the world on behalf of the major suppliers as well as smaller nationally based suppliers and retailers. Like Ebay the site could have an auction option for preowned items, or a buy now option, but have the ability to trunk for items purchased from the same country if the stock is held is in the platforms fulfilment warehouse. For example Hornby could have all it's UK stock and brands delivered to the warehouse, with each retailer given an allocation of the stock as now and a balance of unsold items. The retailers then can opt to hold some stock on their premises or hold the stock in the warehouse. Like Ebay and Amazon the site would provide sellers shops on the platform, or alternatively orders could be packed and labelled at the fulfilment warehouse by a simple electronic link from sellers website. Private sellers of preowned items, could use the platform like Ebay to sell their items or have the option of having it processed through the warehouse which then would allow trunking. It would be a massive job to set up, but with much of the website part technology already in place and proven, the big task would be gaining the support of the sellers and perhaps a suitable fulfilment party.

The legislation requires the distributor to check the product carries the "CE" labelling and that the necessary certifications and assessments have been completed by the supplier which potentially would require Hattons to hold and maintain this information for every product line they exported to the EU. CE marking - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). That's some interesting numbers but I am guessing they are based on a full entity registration? Under normal circumstances in the EU, when the import declaration is presented the consumer would be deemed the buyer and thus the importer of record (IOR) and the process would be completed as a private sale, ie a trader without an EORI number (European Organisation Registration Identifier) which is separate from a VAT registration. EU customs rules require the declarant (typically a courier or customs broker) to declare the type of representation, either direct or indirect. Direct representation would involve the IOR providing an instruction to the declarant and would be legally liable for any duty or VAT as well as other EU regulations and would normally be resident in the EU. Under indirect representation the declarant assumes liability for the duty/vat and EU regulations usually on behalf of a third party such as overseas shipper, such as Hattons. Couriers usually operate under simplified customs procedures but the liability remains, and thus the risk which is then reflected in the cost to party it is working for, ie Hattons in the EU States were Hattons are registered for VAT. The Eori registration is also separate to the local equivalent of Companies House registration in the UK where the Eori number and VAT number are basically the same, albeit for former has three extra digits usually 000. In the UK and EU the accounting of the VAT on the customs declaration is achieved by the declarant stating the VAT number and in the EU a method of payment as VAT is liable at the time of import. Couriers and customs brokers usually are prohibited from using their EORI or VAT number for this purpose as they are not the owner of the goods, so one alternative available to Hattons would be to employ an intermediary known as a fiscal representative to act of their behalf. The fiscal representative could hold VAT registrations in multiple EU states enabling them to arrange all the EU tax affairs of Hattons including reclaiming that Import VAT and payment of taxes on profits etc, for an agreed fee. Whilst the present EU customs rules have been in place since 2016 the EU rules on online and distance selling in the EU changed in 2021 so with the additional administration caused by Brexit, it's easy to see how the costs increased steadily in recent years. With other countries now beginning to implement similar rules it's perhaps understandable why Hattons reached the conclusion that their retail model was unsustainable especially if it was also having to fund it's purchases some of which had been on the website for many years. I did notice one item in the sale that I think was taken into stock over ten years ago.

I don't think the problem was the courier or postage costs which would have been easily fixed by simply increasing the charge in their software to reflect the actual cost plus a margin to cover the packing and in the case of overseas shipments compliance. In fact in the Hattons statement on their website they inform "Increased cost of compliance has become a large factor. Brexit, GST and other operational costs of running an international business have all increased dramatically over the past few years." This compliance issue could have a massive impact on the business, take for example the issue of the GST. In another thread Hattons to charge local taxes on overseas purchases there is a quote for Tom at Hattons from November/December last year as follows. "There appears to be a slight misunderstanding regarding when GST should and should not be charged. For orders under $1000, the merchant is responsible for collecting GST and paying it to the Australian Government. For orders over $1000, the merchant is NOT required to collect the GST as this will be done at the border. https://www.ato.gov.au/businesses-and-organisations/international-tax-for-business/gst-on-imported-goods-and-services/gst-on-low-value-imported-goods We have been required to collect GST since 2018 and have effectively subsidised customers up to this point as we have not been charging it, this is no longer sustainable for us to do so." This statement admits that for five years they have subsidised the GST which is 10% of the value on all orders up to A$ 1000.00 (about GBP500.00) shipped to Australia alone. But it does not end there. I am assuming from the comments expressed in this thread and elsewhere the majority of these orders were sent by a courier service which means each shipment would attract a clearance charge and a fee for paying the GST, so that 10% is now suddenly edging up to a considerably higher percentage of the value of the sale. The Hattons closure statement also refers to Brexit, and here it's worth looking at their website page for EU customers which explains how the system operates, https://www.hattons.co.uk/list/eventdetails?eventid=113 Thus in Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland (Republic of), Italy, Netherlands (Holland) and Spain (mainland) they went to the expense of registering an entity to pay the VAT on the import shipments to these countries allowing them to recover the VAT in full irrespective of the value of the order. However, for all the remaining EU countries the buyer was responsible for the local clearance and VAT when the value is over EUR150.00 with the VAT being refunded by Hattons presumably the day after despatch. The problem for Hattons would be keeping up to date with all these global customs regulations which is very often not just a question of paying the VAT or GST and clearance fees, but also ensuring the goods comply with local labelling regulations which products intended for the UK market may not carry. Then there is all the additional administration in providing the the necessary paperwork and data for the UK export declaration and the destination country declaration, plus the additional management of the accounting of the invoices being received from the courier companies possibly weeks after the shipment was despatched. If thirty percent of their business was to overseas customers even a small number of despatches every day would likely require extra resource which is going to add to the overheads with the inevitable result of affecting the bottom line. .

Hattons - Marketplace? I was in the store last year and asked about it's return after there was a short period when it appeared albeit in some form of test mode. I asked the question about why it had not returned, and the answer I got was that they were concerned they never received the value for the items they put on there. Now if you remove for need for the pay for the items in the first place and then have a simple auction site it might work if you can attract the numbers, effectively the retailer becomes a fulfilment provider. In order to attract other traders the platform could not be a manufacturer or retailer to avoid any perceived areas of conflict and gain the support of the bigger retailers. There could be big savings for the retailers, as they could have their stock delivered from manufacturing to a central warehouse, and have the platform perform the pick and pack operation as normal from the own websites. Alternatively, those visiting the platform could have the option to buy from multiple on line retailers and using the trunk system despatch orders as and when they wish. The retailers and manufacturers benefit as they no longer have the pick and pack expenses whilst the smaller ones don't even have the issue of paying for a sophisticated website as a simple link would take they buyer to the Hattons platform. Whatever happens it's not going to happen from the present site as it's up for let, However, one option could be to move to a site within the Liverpool Freeport zone, which could then offer cash flow savings as those goods imported into the UK would only be liable for import VAT upon their sale to the home market. Effectively Hattons Marketplace would become a Hattons Amazon with trunk options and all the other features liked by so many readers.

Kerbside pickup is only available for pickup until Sunday 11th February 2024.

Whatever happens it looks like any Hattons 2 will not be trading from the present site as this morning their is a big For Let sign on the gate..

Whose is going to get the last Hattons bag....?

One mystery is solved. Where did all the all the buses and coaches go? Well Hattons donated them to North West Vehicle Restoration Trust https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10220225977434356&set=g.231144026939003