Drifter

Whisper it gently, but apparently the Hornby Tier System has been scrapped. 
Can anyone confirm or deny? Asking for a friend!

16 hours ago, AGR Model Store said:

We are excited to announce a new partnership between ourselves and Accurascale, This collaboration allows us to offer our customers a unique opportunity to explore and experience a wide range of high-quality products firsthand.

 

Through this partnership, we have created a space within our store where we can proudly showcase samples from our manufacturing partner's exceptional collection. By having these samples readily available, we aim to provide our customers with a comprehensive understanding of the craftsmanship and design that goes into each product.

 

We believe that this partnership will greatly enhance the shopping experience for our customers, as they can now witness the exceptional quality and variety of choices our manufacturing partner offers. From furniture to electronics, clothing to appliances, we are confident that our joint effort will impress customers and make their decision-making process more informed and enjoyable.

 

AGR is committed to excellence and continually strives to present the best and most innovative products to our customers. By joining forces with Accurascale, we are expanding our offerings and ensuring that our customers have access to a diverse selection of high-quality goods.

 

We would like to express our gratitude to Accurascale for their trust and support in establishing this collaborative venture. Together, we are dedicated to providing an outstanding retail experience, where customers can truly see, touch, and experience the remarkable products available on the market.

 

We invite our customers to visit our store and explore the mesmerizing array of samples from our manufacturing partner's collection. Our friendly and knowledgeable staff will be delighted to assist and guide you through this unique shopping experience. Together, let us embark on a journey of discovery and find the perfect products that exceed your expectations.

 

Samples viewing available till 19th September 

 

You’re going to need a bigger cabinet to display the furniture, electronics, clothing and appliances. Accurascale exclusive dining tables? Might want to check what you’ve written. Copy and paste from another site?

1 hour ago, HExpressD said:

Bloody hell the blokes only been there for 5 minutes.

 

The level people are willing to dive into the personal lives of people at a company they are customers of is mindblowing to me, and in this hobby at least seems to be exclusive to Hornby for some reason.

You haven’t read that the way is was meant. He has been chosen maybe due to his skill set and a way of different thinking?

I don’t know what the cost of such a venture would be. Presumably Legoland is successful, so why not a Hornby theme park on some scale?

Seaside holiday area attraction. Even steal the name, Hornby, A Model World. Retail Outlet, themed rides, miniature village, cafes, railway layouts. Seems to work for PECO. Not talking Alton Towers scale.

As for delving into people’s backgrounds? Anyone on LinkedIn will see alerts for industry news. Shareholders would be foolish not to check. Incidentally, the entry on Linkedin is his own posting. Not someone’s opinion.
 

20 hours ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

If it's the right person, there's a new name is now up in lights.

Chief Marketing Officer - previously Global Marketing Director for Lego.

 

Alex Mawer ?

 

 

. 

I was very impressed until l read his profile. 
 

Not decrying his new role but might we now see a Hornby Theme Park? 1:1 tilting APT, Ghost Train, Scalextric merry go round, the list is endless. 

I wish him well.

7 hours ago, ERIC ALLTORQUE said:

Could you not use private message on here to Stephen or Fran as the pigeon must have called for a Mc D.

That had been done earlier in the week and a reply had been received to contact Accurascale direct. As it states on certainly Fran’s profile, they don’t monitor PM’s please email us direct. That didn’t seem to be working.

26 minutes ago, McC said:

trade@accurascale.co.uk or live chat on any of our websites or the listed SMS and DM functions in your login area for trade partners. 

Hi Stephen been using all of them. Have sent Fran a PM. 
That’s why l posted on here hoping you would see the post.

Hi, for the attention of @Accurascale. I think there is a problem with your email systems. I have tried and aware of a retailer that has tried but had no reply.

7 minutes ago, cessna152towser said:

@McC I phoned my retailer as soon as I read this and the lady I spoke to confirmed they have still not received any of the large logo Accurascale 37s yet.  She promised to take the matter up with Accurascale.

As with tlm my retailer is in the North East.   North East of Scotland in my case, wonder if we are speaking of the same retailer.

( @tlm My handle cessna152towser originated when I first joined the internet 20 years ago at which time I was taking flying lessons on a Cessna 152 G-BTDW.)

@McC a retailer l was speaking to has tried all methods of contacting you and has had no reply. He is trying to sort out his 37’s. 

That's the newish shop. This is the proper one.

@charliepetty. Hope you didn’t post them, Hattons left Liverpool quite some years ago. 

Reading the latest posts would suggest this falls into the Companies Act 1985. Either a Registered company or Sole Trader carrying on a Fraudulent business. Maximum imprisonment, 15 years. 
Small Claims is a Civil Court, this guy needs sorting out not a County Court Judgement.

1 hour ago, Gatesheadgeek said:

 

They had plenty of designers featured in the television series and given that retirement ages are known well in advance, succession planning will have been in place for years. In recent episodes of their You Tube videos they had two or three designers prominent who had been there  many years as well as the younger designers. 

Tim Mulhall is the Chief Operations Officer, difficult to plan for someone to retire when they  are 54. 

So who actually is left at Hornby with Tim Mulhall due to retire in the next month or so?

17 minutes ago, Ouroborus said:

 

Well, its like this.  You order a model train from Hattons.  It comes in the post but the packaging is open.  Everything looks in place, but can you be sure until you've gone through everything you're expecting?  And when you have, has it been pinched, lost or never packed in the first place?

Think we can safely presume that Hornby’s delivery would have been in a bigger box! If Hornby had been missing the detailing pack on a loco, don’t think the Police would be investigating! 

l have had sight of the Hornby email and it is the same as the OP’s. 

This type of crime happens on a regular basis.

Waiting for the Conspiracy Theory that this year is the 60th Anniversary of the Great Train Robbery. Wonder who will be the first to post that a Tier 2 Retailer has more than ten in stock?
 

Let’s just all keep a  wary eye in the marketplace. We are more likely than anyone or any organisation to spot the unusual..

On 25/07/2022 at 23:58, 64F said:

 

I have received an extremely comprehensive and apologetic response to my email to Hornby, which I think does them great credit especially given the tone of my email to them.   It doesn't explain what I should be doing about my pre-orders but there is probably no simple answer to that if there is not enough stock to go around.  Personally I've not yet had notice of any of my own pre-orders being cancelled (touch wood) so I'm going to cross my fingers.  I'm not sure that I follow their explanation of why Hornby Direct are still able to accept pre-orders when shops have had their orders reduced, unless they mean that Hornby Direct has had its sales quota cut too but because they charge full price they had so few pre-orders for it that they still have some free stock(?).  In any event, having shared my sarcastic email here I think I owe Hornby their response:

 

"Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in replying, this is due to annual leave being the time of the year. 

 

Last February and after an internal appraisal of orders received for the new 2022 product range our retailers were notified that some of their orders had to be reduced, mainly because the demands received for specific items were in excess of the production numbers we had placed with our manufacturers. Making the decision to reduce the orders that had been placed by our customers was not something that Hornby wanted to do but due to what can only be classed as human error allocations of several key products had been exceeded.

 

For those at Hornby who have to make such difficult decisions as reducing orders is not an easy one but there is no point in maintaining an illusion if at the end of the day orders cannot be met. 

 

As an aside it is worth pointing out that the current manufacturing situation in China is not as straightforward as it once was mainly due to the issues caused by China’s handling of Covids. ie, they close whole areas down in a bid to control the spread of the illness.  This action creates many problems for the manufacturers in meeting deadlines, therefore it is not possible to ask them to just add another 1000 or 2000 to a particular production run as they simply do not have that flexibility in manufacturing time. If we insist on an increase then another scheduled product would have to be delayed and not just by a few days! It is worth noting that we place orders with our suppliers many months ahead and even before the new range is announced.

 

Returning to these latest adjustments. The management of the company was under the impression that the revised order quantities as a whole had been conveyed to our retailers in February but apparently that was not the case. It does now seem that our retailers were only told half the story and that all the reductions which had been agreed in February had not been actioned.

 

Recently, Hornby has restructured its Sales division and it was the new sales manager who when analysing the order/delivery situation for the rest of the year discovered that many of the reductions had not been made and to make things even worse it was found that some products that should have been adjusted in February had been missed. Why these potential adjustments had not been picked up sooner is difficult to explain as the person responsible is no longer with the company. Of course it is easy to blame those who cannot defend themselves however, the fact remains that not all reductions had been actioned in February but were left until half way through the year has quite rightly caused a great deal of anger and annoyance with both our retailers and their respective customers.

 

This situation is both embarrassing to Hornby and extremely annoying for our customers.  For this we can only apologise and state that steps have been taken so that this does not happen again, which can sound like empty words but where 2023 is concerned a huge amount of time and planning has been spent so that what our customers order in January 2023 will be what you receive.

 

One final point.  Much has been made about Hornby’s Online service. Hornby has had such a service for well over 20 years and that particular sales avenue is and has been a legitimate route to market for that length of time and like other customers they are allotted a sales quota.  As Hornby Online do not discount it is not unreasonable to note that they have free stock available on their website while others who do offer a discount do not.

 

Hopefully the above goes some way to explain the current order adjustments. It is not in Hornby’s interest to upset its retailers and indeed their customers but I believe we need to be frank and honest rather than allowing those having placed orders living under the false hope that what the requested will arrive."

 

 

You would have thought that Hornby would have sent a similar email explanation to their retailers? My LMS hasn’t received anything.

4 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

But across their various brands that isn't the case.  Their own figures show that direct sales of model railway items (as a percentage of total sales for a particular brand) are way behind some of their other brands.  The model railway range is probably a good deal wider and  larger than some of their other brands but they are clearly able to handle noticeable percentages of sales via a direct route.

 

The chart below shows Hornby's own figures for their various routes to retail sale for a succession of similar half year periods - with in H1 2021 Corgi selling more than twice as big a percentage via direct sales as Hornby.   So they aren't exactly inexperienced in selling direct which suggests that they at least have suitable software in place to handle direct sales even if the scale of the operation might not be up to handling greater quantities (which it might well be for all we know?).

 

You will see that after a not unexpected increase in 202 the growth of that year was not sustained in the model railway or Humbrol areas while all the others continued to grow or at least not slip back.

 

 

Source - Hornby Half Year Report 30.11.21 Published on the Stock Exchange RNS news section

Direct Premiums? Amazon? Anyone shed any light?
 

So Hornby had a bit an improvement in 2020 and 2021 with their Direct Sales. My LMS was shut for very large periods during this time. A lot of us were confined to our homes and no choice but to use web sales to keep us occupied as we were denied the ability to visit non essential shops. 
 

Sales manager being made the scapegoat, who was supervising him? The Buck stops at the Top. 
If Hornby oversold did they cut their allocation to Direct Sales or did the scapegoat get that right?

l find the email from Hornby leaves an even nastier taste.
 

l wonder if any Hornby retailers have had this explanation sent to them as to why their allocations were cut?

Well, that didn’t go well. My LMS has only been allocated one 37. Presumably a lot were sold at DEMU. I was after a DCC Ready. Didn’t get any of that model.

1 hour ago, romley midland said:

Whilst it’s a little irrelevant for anything that’s sold out direct with Acurrascale, it is cheaper to buy direct isn’t it, so that would be my preference and surely the same for most people if price is the main consideration, as some on here would have you believe. As a consumer it’s hard to resist the cash back, credits, discounts on multiple purchases etc. which Acurascale offer and which presumably, independent retailers cannot match.

Absolutely, but Accurascale are supported by their stockists. If Accurascale are sold out, you may find a LMS has the model available to purchase. After all the discount on a sold out model is err nothing.

Of course if you want to run your model you will need all the little bits that Accurascale don’t sell, available from your LMS, posted to you or available for collection and see in your hand to inspect and see running.  From the likes of C and M Models of Carlisle. 
 

l am sure Accurascale would agree or they wouldn’t have allowed stockists for their products?

2 hours ago, rob D2 said:

i thought with SK at the helm the days of "design stupid " and direct selling had been consigned to the bin , along with that set of suits .

 

Now i'm kinda getting a ... feeling

 

 

SK? If you are referring to Simon Kohler, as he isn’t a Board Member, not sure what he can do. 

1 hour ago, sawyermodels said:

I see on Instagram today, Hornby are promoting the Beatles Singles from Liverpool Train Pack (class 73 & 2 coaches) saying pre order via them or retailers. As they are still taking pre orders so have stock unsold, I'd like them to give back to me the ones they've cut from my allocation, (we're now getting just 1!) We've had to let several customers down this week having been told we are now only getting 1. This item was only announced in January 2022, Hornby had decided what our allocation was when the order form was sent out, yet they now are taking all but 1 off us. Being in Greater Manchester and about 40 minutes from Liverpool we have many customers who are Beatles fans. Not a good way to run a business. To say we are a bit miffed is an understatement. 

When did they inform you? Was it Yesterday? Can you get any from other retailers, if you ask for Help? Then may you will get by with A Little Help From My Friends.

Write to Hornby and Ask Me Why? They may send you down a Long And Winding Road. I suspect they will say that you Should Have Known Better. 
If you don’t get any reply email them Eight Days a Week. Keep going even if you have to Twist and Shout.

l have a feeling they may treat you like a Fool On The Hill, but if you do get a good response you can say I Feel Fine and can tell Hornby that you really did Please Please Me.

At least the weather’s good, Here Comes the Sun. 
In My Life, never known such a Misery, it’s a Magical Mystery Tour for retailers and they may start a Revolution in order to Get Back.

1 hour ago, SamThomas said:

Please tell me that's not a wind up & provide a link - I just have to have one of those.

2 hours ago, Pandora said:

The Tier system:

https://www.keymodelworld.com/article/Hornby-introduces-retailer-tier-system.

 

I'm puzzled as to how Swindon Museum  qualified as the lowest   a Tier 3 operation,  from reading the link, surely a Tier 2?

 

You are trying to apply logic to the Tier System. There is no logic from what l can see. It’s totally random.

With regard to Revell enamels. They are recalling certain gloss and satin enamels dependent on Batch numbers, dates etc. They reformulated their enamels from the beginning of 2021. So Revell knew then and obviously well before 2021. So Humbrol presumably knew around the same time?

Hornby retailers have in the past fortnight received an email explaining the way Hornby are going forward to support their retailers. Been informed the different Tiers were sent different emails.

Having recently let most of their sales force go, presumably by way of redundancy, there is now a new system.

From 1st April 2022, maybe the 2nd might have been a better choice?

Tier 1 Retailers have a business development manager. Tier 2 can contact Hornby sales by telephone or email. Tier 3, no idea, probably send a telex or something similar. There is one for the North of the country and a job vacancy for someone to cover the South.

Already been made aware that Tier 2 haven't been sent a weekly 'in stock' update as they no longer have a rep.

Already been pointed out that a rep in the shop would always spot something a retailer had missed on their order as it was missing on the shop's shelves.

To end this update on a lighter note, post April 1st. Speaking to a retailer this week and he told me about a new rep they had some years ago.The shop queried the high price. Retailer was told the train came with a wagon. Shop pointed out that was the tender not a wagon.

The losers in all this are the retailers and wholesalers who have been buying paint from a company that would appear to have known. 
 

Turning around and only crediting retailers etc for what they bought in the last two months? 
 

Lost for suitable words.