Hornby Share Discussion Threads

[orange1] 23/11/2023 10:04

Yes but you fail to mention that the beached whales are "a confederation of semi-autonomous, brand-focused, business units" building a "happier world for all of us". What's not to like?

[holts] 23/11/2023 08:02

Oh dear , Hornby are going full toy company mode again , Ex Mattel, Ex Lego staff at the helm and geezer from Paperchase , that went well .
Debt up substantially , losses up , of course direct sales are higher you have alienated your trade base quite successfully by denying them stock so you will have more direct sales , on the Railway side at least the trade are all busy buying from the other manufacturers that have been let through the back door , they once saw Hornby as a dominant threat and largely steered clear , no longer .
I don’t see any reference to the new scale they spent a fortune on producing results , apart from that it’s all going well . Phoenix must rue the day they got involved .

[clocktower] 23/11/2023 07:30

Having just briefly scanned these results, which once again make woeful reading, the business is thrashing around like a pod of beached whales, with each member of the pod once again being responsible for finding a way to get off the beach but without hope as they beached on a spring tide, and by the time another arrives they will have buried themselves even deeper in the sand ( debt).

A slow death of a handful of outdated brands and products at inflated prices.

[clocktower] 17/11/2023 12:30

Maybe that is why there is a buyer around today. The change of direction might being forced upon them due to needing to move volume at Christmas,

[dodger777] 11/11/2023 08:16

Interesting to see that Airfix kits are now available to buy again in Hobbycraft. Change of directing by the company ?

[clocktower] 11/10/2023 16:16

I was wondering if the company might end up with surplus stock again this Christmas, if sales are hit by higher fuel costs and of course the general rise in prices.

Christmas I assume is the key to the year in general with products of the nature that HRN depend upon.

[holts] 19/9/2023 20:33

It did seem vaguely positive , what I thought was absent was enthusiasm or lack of comment about their investment in the resurrected scale . The direct sales are no surprise , if you deprive your trade base inevitably some sales will shift to direct .

[clocktower] 13/9/2023 07:21

That’s a turn up that is surprisingly positive, in light of the general economic situation and Christmas should see them clear a fair bit of the over stock.

Still, only in line with forecast but time will tell.

[clocktower] 12/9/2023 10:51

Well we will see what the results tell us about how they are coping with all the pressures and mistakes they keep repeating.

More to be worried about than excited about if you remain invested, which I expect very few that still follow this thread are.

[holts] 22/8/2023 20:42

They lost the license for Thomas , their market is adults which is where the big spend is , kids yes , but they choose to make that end of the market too costly , they addressed it once but one Director had the hump about it and had the gent who came up with the idea manoeuvred out of the business and promptly ruined the concept by vastly increasing prices , it had previously been well received . They are their own worse enemy .

[porky9] 21/8/2023 12:24

I take your points about their market disappearing...

Well i guess there is only so much you can do with a train? BUT there is a massive collectors market for the stuff and you do get these nut jobs with ginormous layouts including hills, viaducts etc, one had a bloody fair with bumper cars, a ghost train, ferris wheels the lot that their trains went past - not sure how much that market is worth and how much of that market Hornby control?

As they have completed the warlord deal can they not produce trains buildings and stuff for the Dads Army home guard? Did they miss a trick with Thomas the tank engines or is that all old hat now also?

As a side i watched a program where there were people buying train sounds and linking them to specific engines so you had a flying scotsman with one sound and a pullman coach with another - go figure? Do they offer that already or is that something else they can diversify into?

Its a tough one, at some point you would think there would be a base level of stuff enthusiasts want to buy / so much in kids toys and that equate to the share price bottom and some upside from that point? I guess the issue is we dont know where bottom is?

[arthur_lame_stocks] 03/8/2023 14:49

Is the real problem for Hornby that their market is disappearing? Do many kids these days ask for a train set at Christmas? I'm sure some do but how many? And how many kids build model planes nowadays? I think I'm right in saying the popular ones were the second world war ones but that's getting ever more remote as time goes by.

I guess it's not impossible for them to stay relevant, lego seem to have done a cracking job of it.

[holts] 03/8/2023 14:36

Article misses the Elephant in the room , having made such a horlicks of the last eighteen years they have opened what was a very tightly closed door to competition and those competitors have barged straight through gobbling up significant chunks of Hornbies market .
It also mentions higher prices will be a benefit of screwing retailers , given how un competitive Hornby are on pricing now higher prices will not be achievable they will be a complete turn off . TT I reckon is a disaster they are already sneaking it out to retail from the initial position of its only source would be direct .

[clocktower] 11/7/2023 12:31

I agree with you HOLTS - maybe the boys at Phoenix just like playing with their toys.

[holts] 11/7/2023 11:30

Absolutely nothing , taking the eye off the ball I would say and the ball is going flat anyway ,they have tried diversifying before and it’s failed miserably, but I suppose if you try often enough without going bust something will stick .
All it says to me is that the new broom thinks they are a toy company and that is usually where it goes wrong .

[clocktower] 07/7/2023 17:11

What do you know about Warlord HOLTS? What if anything will this do for Hornby?

[holts] 23/6/2023 16:17

Phoenix would be thrilled if they were bought out , what price they would accept I have no idea , have never worked out just how much they have put in , but it's been a real dog .

[clocktower] 23/6/2023 13:09

Not enough volume to make it worth shorting and at best what are you looking at - a few pence,

They don't have much to say about all the other products they sell, some of which have more long term potential than the trains impo.

This is likely to go the same way as Stanley Gibbons I reckon.

[nov31] 22/6/2023 16:16

Terrible results just as we foresaw and huge overstocks left because they can’t sell units at close to £300 (£240-£300). As for their confident statement that they can sell through these overstocks without damaging the integrity of the brand - good luck!
This share is quickly becoming a shorter dream

[holts] 22/6/2023 07:54

Someone has swallowed the business bull sh bible , the newish CEO is making the same mistake previous incumbents have done and not realised the niche nature of the business which has failed previously to respond to the ‘bigger business’ approach.
There are competitors now who turn out better , by some distance, equivalent product at £50 per unit less than Hornby and that was before the latest round of increases that are filtering through .

[clocktower] 22/6/2023 07:17

Just had a very quick scan of results, and not a pretty picture at all, as they only increased revenue by a tiny amount compared to inflation, so in essence had far less sales, even though I understand they increased prices considerably, leaving a lot of extra stock on their hands.

From profit to loss and the strain has only just started, so with increasing interest rates they will come under increasing pressure as I expect they will start to struggle with debt.

[holts] 13/6/2023 12:51

Maybe something is rotten in the state of Denmark .

[clocktower] 12/6/2023 11:47

Interesting HOLTS - thanks. Do these people just keep trying methods that so many other companies have tried and proved to be their downfall.

It seems there is always someone that thinks they can do what others have failed too do.