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Revell Under New Management after Hobbico Bankruptcy


jargonking

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We can only at his time take these steps as positive for Revell at least in Germany and Europe. A German company buying Revell will look good on the domestic front. Not so hot for those employed in the US, though we will have to see what happens over there.

 

Julien

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16 hours ago, gavingav said:
 

 

 

German investor as new Revell owner

The sale also includes key assets for the North America business, such as trademarks as well as the extensive tool bank being so important for the plastic model building segment. With the change of ownership Revell experiences a strengthening, as this involves an extension of the sales market and an even wider range of products.

 

How does this change in ownership give Revell "an even wider range of products"?

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14 minutes ago, TheVoidDragon said:

How does this change in ownership give Revell "an even wider range of products"?

Because now revell gmbh owns all revell/monogram tooling consisting of  revell usa, renwall, aurora and monogram toolings in addition to their own revell gmbh toolings whereas before the sale they did not own them but had access to the tooling by virtue of being owned by the same parent company, it's a much more secure arrangement for the new revell to own all those tools as one company and no doubt add's value to revells bank of past tools .

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I can't understand the negativity that this announcement has generated !

Revell has been bought by someone, meaning all fears of the company closing are gone.

The new owners have no interest ? They have a lot of reasons to be interested, to be accurate they have 3.9 milion reasons to be interested !

They new owners are a private equity firm, so what ? They have purchased a profitable company and the best way for them to get a return on their investment will be to make this grow. Will they sell the company in the future ? What's the problem ? As long as they'll sell a company making good profits they'll have no problem in finding a new owner. And who says that being owned by a company specialised in model kits is a good thing anyway ? We've all seen what happened to Revell under Hobbyco ownership.

What matters is that the management is valid and is in the position to make all the proper business decisions. This will result in a healthy company capable of issuing new kits every year, that is afterall what matters to us modellers

 

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I wholeheartedly agree, especially as PE firms (some of them at least) in Germany may have a different approach than elsewhere. BTW, there is a parallel in Revell's past in that they and Monogram were bought by Odyssey Partners in 1986 or thereabouts, also - I think - a PE firm. Before that, the Revell catalogue consisted of gems like their Mustang caricature and ***shudder*** Lindberg's Me 163 and Kingfisher. In the Odyssey era, Bünde at least started to issue brand new high quality tooling, and sourced more high quality tooling elsewhere. I am quite certain Binney & Smith would not have bought out Revell without that investments, and am also certain Odyssey made a handsome profit. Without any asset stripping...

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26 minutes ago, tempestfan said:

In the Odyssey era, Bünde at least started to issue brand new high quality tooling, and sourced more high quality tooling elsewhere. I am quite certain Binney & Smith would not have bought out Revell without that investments, and am also certain Odyssey made a handsome profit. Without any asset stripping...

Exactly correct Sir. Buy a company, add value, sell on at a good profit. It is much more profitable for the PE than an asset strip in most cases. Depends on how much work the new owners are prepared to do.

As for negativity it's the same with Airfix (under Hornby Hobbies) who have one massive shareholder. There are asset strippers and there are investors in PE we need to see what happens. As I've said before there is tons of stuff that has never been widely available outside the US that could be viable in the Rest of the World. Gemini & Mercury capsule, Lunar module, 48th B-29 & B-24 have all been hard to get at times. (The Revell LM is not as good as the Monogram one being based on an earlier development configuration.)

I think it will be good for Revell who may end up being owned by the management long term. Asset stripping is far harder in Germany than the UK or USA....

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4 minutes ago, SleeperService said:

Asset stripping is far harder in Germany than the UK or USA....

Exactly, unless we talk of dead metal that nobody ever would like to see reissued (much of the H-600 series), but I'd consider this as weeding not stripping.

While I'm not exactly a fan of Hasegawa's approach of endless "limited" variations of more or less old kits, I could well imagine it could be a viable strategy for Revell to issue REAL limited (and numbered) issues of hard to find older kits to make some money from the ancient tools. If there were, say, 1.000 worldwide (no idea if that would be a viable size of a run) of many of their missile kits which haven't been seen since the History Makers or even longer, I guess there'd be no risk involved - they'd be swallowed up by collectors or builders who want one but are not prepared to pay collectors' prices. It may also work with the vast toolbank RV and Mo must have between them on US cars of the 40s to 70s, thoug hI have no idea how often those were re-run and how plentiful they are on the 2nd hand market.

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3 hours ago, gavingav said:

Because now revell gmbh owns all revell/monogram tooling consisting of  revell usa, renwall, aurora and monogram toolings in addition to their own revell gmbh toolings whereas before the sale they did not own them but had access to the tooling by virtue of being owned by the same parent company, it's a much more secure arrangement for the new revell to own all those tools as one company and no doubt add's value to revells bank of past tools .

Hi Gavin,

if they do 'own' the Revell (US), Monogram et al tooling?

It's my understanding that what was the US arm of the company had the majority of their moulding done in China,

therefore, with bills having gone unpaid, the moulds will be held by the company that has been doing the moulding.

We DON'T know if the German arm is 'in debt' to their moulders in Eastern Europe, there is the possibility of a similar scenario.

If you were out a few $100,000 or more, would you be willing to 'give back' your largest bargining chip?

Remember, neither U.S law nor European law hold ANY water in China!

Does anybody know the Han or Mandarin Chinese for "on yer bike, 'til you pay us what you owe us!"?

 

2 hours ago, Giorgio N said:

I can't understand the negativity that this announcement has generated !

Revell has been bought by someone, meaning all fears of the company closing are gone.

The new owners have no interest ? They have a lot of reasons to be interested, to be accurate they have 3.9 milion reasons to be interested !

They new owners are a private equity firm, so what ? They have purchased a profitable company and the best way for them to get a return on their investment will be to make this grow. Will they sell the company in the future ? What's the problem ? As long as they'll sell a company making good profits they'll have no problem in finding a new owner. And who says that being owned by a company specialised in model kits is a good thing anyway ? We've all seen what happened to Revell under Hobbyco ownership.

What matters is that the management is valid and is in the position to make all the proper business decisions. This will result in a healthy company capable of issuing new kits every year, that is afterall what matters to us modellers

 

Giorgio,

it's NOT negativity, it's called NOT knowing! I refer you to my post in the locked / merged thread you mentioned on page 8 of this one.

.............."meaning all fears of the company closing are gone"

NO, there not! Until the dust has settled, and the new company that owns the trade marks has a chance to cross 'T's and dot 'I's,

and find out EXACTLY what they do and DO NOT own, DON'T hold your breath, the colour Puce doesn't suit anybody!

.............."to be accurate they have 3.9 milion reasons to be interested !"

The one thing I will guarantee is the new company have done their homework and whatever happens they will NOT lose money,

even if they decide to turn EVERY mould and piece of equipment over to the scrap man, again see the post I mention, above.

.............."new owners are a private equity firm"

Whose sole remit is to make money.....END! It's highly unlikely they will play a 'long game', they need to show a return, quickly,

by whatever means nesassary.

.............."that the management is valid and is in the position to make all the proper business decisions"

I really DO hope your faith is well placed!

.............."healthy company capable of issuing new kits every year, that is afterall what matters to us modellers"

Do you really think we are all that self centred? Immaterial as to where on the globe the company is 'based',

my thoughts are with the poor devils AND their family's that have lost their livelyhoods through no fault of their own,

just because the last company who owned the trademarks made a complete and total hash of it.

 

1 hour ago, SleeperService said:

.................... Asset stripping is far harder in Germany than the UK or USA....

Why? Germany, like the U.K. is still under the final control of the European Court................isn't it?

 

Paul

 

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Consider what the possibilities were :

1) company finds no buyer and disappears.

2) bought out by another model company - the rationalization may not have been a great outcome either for the staff or for us in terms of choice and pricing.

3) company bought by a non-modelling company - could have been a good or bad outcome, isn't Airfix an indication that it might well not be a good thing.

4) management buy-out

5) private equity purchase.

The last two options aren't so different from one another, as management would have needed funding, which would have come from.........private equity.

I see the outcome as the best result that was possible under the circumstances.

At the end of the day, if Revell have a profitable business model, they'll be kept going. If they haven't, they were doomed anyway.

 

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The fact that Rv US did most of their moulding in China May, but doesn’t necessarily mean the majority of the tools is also there. The injector likely has a lien on the moulds but doesn’t own them. Which raises a number of options for Revell to handle this, taking into account what is actually there.

OK, who was the former shareholder of Hobbico? A pension fund, apparently. Which apparently overpaid when it bought Hobbico. And who was supposed to make money, of course. A shame that probably a lot of people have lost their pension in the process. Actually a lot of money invested in Germany is from pension funds. If that’s the case here, I sincerely hope they do a better management job...

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2 hours ago, PhoenixII said:

Why? Germany, like the U.K. is still under the final control of the European Court................isn't it?

The European Court enforces Euro Law. This is the minimum level which the UK grudgingly adheres to. EC countries can have domestic law that is more beneficial to the population. Employment law in most EC countries shows how far behind we are in the UK. Asset stripping is harder as the onus is on the business owners to prove the company is nonviable without the changes. Without that things get very difficult very quickly. It is not unheard of for Lande or Federal Government to intervene and run a company until it can be sold on to a new owner. This is perfectly legal under EU Law BTW, don't believe anything other than the sports news in the UK/US controlled mass media. 

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3 hours ago, PhoenixII said:

Hi Gavin,

if they do 'own' the Revell (US), Monogram et al tooling?

It's my understanding that what was the US arm of the company had the majority of their moulding done in China,

therefore, with bills having gone unpaid, the moulds will be held by the company that has been doing the moulding.

We DON'T know if the German arm is 'in debt' to their moulders in Eastern Europe, there is the possibility of a similar scenario.

If you were out a few $100,000 or more, would you be willing to 'give back' your largest bargining chip?

Remember, neither U.S law nor European law hold ANY water in China!

Does anybody know the Han or Mandarin Chinese for "on yer bike, 'til you pay us what you owe us!"?

 

 

 

It does say in revells press release " The sale also includes key assets for the North America business, such as trademarks as well as the extensive tool bank " , i don't believe anybody would have bid on revell without understanding the underlying debt or liabilities that they would need to clear to reclaim there assets, when you have just paid 3.9 million for the whole show a few hundred thousand the clean up outstanding debts is bearable .

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There's a bit of snippy dialogue creeping into this thread since I last looked, so can we dial it back a bit please.  Truth is, NO-ONE knows, not even the money men who have bought Revell with a view to turning it around into a viable business in order to sell it on at a later date, drink heavily from the profits, or some combination thereof.  Even the best businessman can't foresee the eventual destination, but can make educated guesses based on hard data, which I'm certain are a damn sight better than our supposition and pondering.

 

As the buyer has been found, I'll also change the subject of the thread :)

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  • Mike changed the title to Revell Under New Management after Hobbico Bankruptcy
4 hours ago, Thud4444 said:

Even though I no longer build 1/48, I went and picked up an F-102 today from a local store. Next week I'm getting a F-15 and P-61. Just in case.

Im planning on picking up as many of the Revellogram kits as i can. I haveva deuce but want to get the 17,24,25,29 and the other century series kits. Maybe the p-39,40 as well.

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15 hours ago, PhoenixII said:

Hi Gavin,

if they do 'own' the Revell (US), Monogram et al tooling?

It's my understanding that what was the US arm of the company had the majority of their moulding done in China,

therefore, with bills having gone unpaid, the moulds will be held by the company that has been doing the moulding.

We DON'T know if the German arm is 'in debt' to their moulders in Eastern Europe, there is the possibility of a similar scenario.

If you were out a few $100,000 or more, would you be willing to 'give back' your largest bargining chip?

Remember, neither U.S law nor European law hold ANY water in China!

Does anybody know the Han or Mandarin Chinese for "on yer bike, 'til you pay us what you owe us!"?

 

Giorgio,

it's NOT negativity, it's called NOT knowing! I refer you to my post in the locked / merged thread you mentioned on page 8 of this one.

.............."meaning all fears of the company closing are gone"

NO, there not! Until the dust has settled, and the new company that owns the trade marks has a chance to cross 'T's and dot 'I's,

and find out EXACTLY what they do and DO NOT own, DON'T hold your breath, the colour Puce doesn't suit anybody!

.............."to be accurate they have 3.9 milion reasons to be interested !"

The one thing I will guarantee is the new company have done their homework and whatever happens they will NOT lose money,

even if they decide to turn EVERY mould and piece of equipment over to the scrap man, again see the post I mention, above.

.............."new owners are a private equity firm"

Whose sole remit is to make money.....END! It's highly unlikely they will play a 'long game', they need to show a return, quickly,

by whatever means nesassary.

.............."that the management is valid and is in the position to make all the proper business decisions"

I really DO hope your faith is well placed!

.............."healthy company capable of issuing new kits every year, that is afterall what matters to us modellers"

Do you really think we are all that self centred? Immaterial as to where on the globe the company is 'based',

my thoughts are with the poor devils AND their family's that have lost their livelyhoods through no fault of their own,

just because the last company who owned the trademarks made a complete and total hash of it.

 

Why? Germany, like the U.K. is still under the final control of the European Court................isn't it?

 

Paul

 

 

You're right that we don't know yet, however all the signs point to a positive solution, at least for the German side of the business. The fact that the management remains in place is a clear sign that the idea is to keep operating in the business. This seems consistent with what the new owners seem to have done with other companies.

Time only will tell of course, but I'm personally very optimistic for this.

Regarding the people working with Revell, I strongly believe that healthy companies capable of selling products are the best guarantee for employement. The alternatives have been tried in the past and have never brought wealth to anyone.

Regarding the European Court, this has nothing to do with what is possible in one country or the other and actually does a totally different job...

Every country in the EU have their own laws, as long as these don't conflict with EU treaties, regulations and directives each state can legislate on whatever they want in whatever way they want. Today I live in Italy, I have worked for years for an Irish company with plenty of UK customers, 3 countries in the EU and 3 countries that deal with most things in totally different ways... it would have been so much easier if the EU had such power as to make all laws identical !

 

Some more random thoughts, starting from the US moulds: good to hear that these are now in Revell's hands. If they bought the moulds then they have all the legal rights on them regardless of where they are. To be honest not all of these moulds are that valid, some sure are but others are now really ancient. Revell have a long history of reissuing old moulds, be them in special "classic" ranges or simply in the standard catalogue, so they know the potential value or not of these moulds. I'm willing to bet that some will be reissued again and again, but even if they are not I'm not too worried as most of these kits are very easy to find on the second hand market.

And staying with the old moulds, glad to see that the old Monogram moulds will find a home, however I'd prefer to see Revell replacing these with new moulds. Yes, the Monogram F-102 is a great kit, but wouldn't it be good to see a new 1/48 F-102 with all the good features of the Monogram kit but with all the other features we expect in the early 21st Century ???

What would I expect to see in the future ? As the management stays the same really I'm not expecting anything too different from what Revell's direction has been in the last years, at least in the short term, with a mix of new moulds, ressues and reboxes of kits from other companies. What the new subjects will be will depend on one thing only: what they believe will sell ! Always been the case, will always be the case

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The Reason the Revell sales was so cheap was the debt owed by both companies both Revell Germany and Revell USA.   If some of the tooling is in China and money is owed, there is a chance of it going to the scrap man.  

If Revells new owners have deep pockets and can settle the outstanding debt in China no problem.  If its not done quick scrap yard it will go, as one poster stated international Business law means sod all in China.

 

A number of Diecast brand that we once imported are now in the scrap yards, due to debt, the Chinese Gov does not like debt full stop.

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Yes, I think much of the Monogram aircraft tooling is in Europe; not sure when it actually happened, but it may indicate ownership was transferred to Revell GmbH, as apparently they thought the aircraft being the most useful tools for them. 

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