Phil Gollin

. NO ordinary member of the public knows whether the model railway side is "carrying" the Hornby group, or whether Airfix is, or either. There are RUMOURS (and only rumours from a now old annual report) that Corgi and Scalectrix are not performing well, but "we" don't know the truth. .

. Go back to Victorian type furniture ; https://wren-chest.myshopify.com/products/glass-top-display-coffee-table https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/Southern-Enterprises-Terrarium-Glass-Display-Coffee-Table-in-Black/PRD2NJLUAWYV0AB https://soprettyisasprettydoes.com/tag/display-coffee-table/

. I thought the space version of Buran was going to have either tiles or panels for thermal protection - the underside moulding seems to be perfectly smooth. .

. I do NOT believe that anyone knows what is, or is not, profitable within the Hornby Group. There are RUMOURS - but they could be complete fiction. If people look at the RMWeb thread referenced above, they would note that more people have been examining the accounts (including looking back 30 years !!!) and some "conclusions" reached ON THIS LIMITED INFORMATION. It is CLAIMED that both marketing and distribution costs "SEEM" high. .

. Someone was asking for the relative contributions of the constituents of Hornby. From LAST year's (2017) accounts ; Model rail: .................... £22m ... 48% Slot car: ......................... £12m ... 26% Plastic modelling: .. £6m .... 13% Collectible models: .. £4m ....... 9% (Corgi ?????) Specialist paints ........ £2m ...... 4% Airfix is really dependent upon the success of the Model Railways. ( Oh, and these figures are only income - there is NO indications as to profitability Airfix may be making a big percentage of profit, or a loss ?????? ) (Again, info from the RMWeb thread, supplied by others). .

. This was posted on a Model Railway board (RMWeb) - and may be useful for the more accounts literate people ; . The image was posted by "Ozexpatriot" - thanks to him - the thread is here ; http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/135041-hornby-annual-results-year-ended-31-march-2018/page-3 . .

. Hornby Group released their Annual Report and Chairman's Statement today ; http://otp.investis.com/clients/uk/hornby/rns/regulatory-story.aspx?cid=1477&newsid=1057137 19 June 2018 Hornby PLC Hornby ANNOUNCES ANNUAL RESULTS Hornby Plc ("Hornby"), the international models and collectibles Group, today announces its results for the year ended 31 March 2018. Results Highlights · Revenue of £35.7 million (2017: £47.4 million) · Reported loss before tax £10.1 million (2017: £9.5 million loss) · Underlying1 loss before tax of £7.6 million (2017: £6.3 million loss) · Reported loss after tax £9.9 million (2017: £9.7 million loss) · Exceptional items of £2.3 million (2017: £3.3 million) including costs relating to the restructuring of the business and refinancing in 2017 · Net cash at 31 March 2018: £3.9 million (2017: £1.5 million) 1 Underlying figures are before amortisation of intangibles (brand names and customer lists), and net unrealised foreign exchange movements on intercompany loans and exceptional items Current Trading Group Sales for the 10 weeks to 8 June 2018 are lower than we expected. This is due to the ongoing impact of insufficient investment in tooling in the past, coupled with late placing of purchase orders with suppliers. There is also a backlog of stock at our retailers from previous decisions to bring sales forward by discounting, which will take time to work through. Despite these difficulties, gross margin for the Group for the 10 weeks to 8 June 2018 was 5 percentage points higher compared with the same period last year, reflecting the absence of discounting initiatives since October 2017. Lyndon Davies, Hornby Chief Executive Officer and Interim Chairman, said: "In the first seven months that I have been at Hornby, we have assessed our position and confronted the reality of the situation in which we find ourselves. Tough decisions have now been taken and we are currently laying down the foundations for our future success. There is a new energy in the business and I am excited with our plans as we re-engage across both domestic and international markets with these well-loved brands." ============================================== 19 June 2018 HORNBY PLC Strategic Report Executive Chairman's Report As I write this message to you I have been a Hornby employee for seven months, but I have both worked for and adjacent to the brands you own for 40 years. I started on the production line at the old Corgi factory in Wales when I was 16 and have been in the industry ever since. I do not wish to dwell on the mistakes of the past, but please do not think I take them lightly. I have drawn on all my experience in assessing Hornby's current position and formulating my views on the future direction. I have a great deal of passion for these iconic brands and it has pained me to see them fall from grace. You, as shareholders, have had to bear the brunt of it, and so I do not feel the need to reopen those wounds you know so well. My team and I are fully committed to developing a sustainable business that builds on our heritage. My job is to look forward and deliver the results for you. This report is an opportunity for me to give you an honest and humble account of our progress. We need to return this Group to profitability and I need to explain how we intend to do it. The first step is understanding. The next step is fixing the basic issues once they are understood. The final step is to get us back to profitability with a logical and measured strategy that does not imperil the balance sheet. In doing these things we will build long term shareholder value in a sustainable way. Some of our brands have lasted for more than 100 years and it is my view that they should thrive for at least 100 more. The Business Model What we do is simple, but not easy. We have an office in Sandwich where most of our hard-working staff come to work every day. We also have a logistics hub approximately ten miles away in Hersden which most of our product will pass through on the way to both retailers and sometimes directly to customers via our own website. Before Sandwich and Hersden, we had all our operations (including manufacturing many years ago) in Margate, but we have now sold this building and retain only the Hornby visitor centre where we showcase the wonderful heritage of our brands. Over the years we have acquired a diverse portfolio of market leading international brands. These brands are supported by similarly hard-working staff at offices in Italy, France, Spain and Germany. Further afield, we have a warehouse and office in Washington, USA. We aspire to design high quality models and accessories for the toy and hobby markets which are not necessarily low-priced but provide great value for money. Most of the research and development for our product occurs in the UK, but the manufacturing is predominantly executed in China and India, in conjunction with the engineers and support staff at our satellite office in Hong Kong. The design and delivery cycles of our products are quite long, sometimes up to two or three years between inception and delivery to the UK. Our customers tend to be quite particular about what they want and so it takes time to make sure that they will be acceptable to them. The challenge is then to make sure we market our products in such a way as to make them desirable. It is also important to choose the correct retail partners and communication channels that help us cultivate a loyal following of collectors and fans from all age ranges. Knowing the right products to produce and how many of each product to order requires an in-depth knowledge of the individual brands, the history, the competitive landscape and the various customer bases. We have to order all the products up front and wait for them to arrive to truly see how they sell through. We must take risks in this process and there is an element of uncertainty. Managing the cash flows through this cycle of investment is an extremely important part of the process of protecting and enhancing shareholder value. If we order too much of an item that nobody wants, we tie cash up in inventory which means we don't have the cash available to deploy into new and exciting models for the following year. If we order too little, then we don't maximise the profitability and therefore shareholder value. It requires great coordination and deep expertise across engineering, development, marketing and sales to make sure this engine ticks over smoothly. This challenge is made even more difficult by the seasonal element to our business. We are lucky enough to have customers that see our products as worthy of a gift to a friend or family member over the Christmas period. The final three months of the calendar year tend to be very busy for us from a sales perspective and so we have to coordinate the investment in inventory so that it can satisfy this peak in demand. This cycle of development, manufacturing, marketing and distribution is our business engine. We have some wonderful talent in the Group but the engine as a whole doesn't perform optimally. Based on my in-depth knowledge of this industry and following an initial review, many trips to trade shows, retailers, suppliers, manufacturers and other important partners all over the world, I have now developed the understanding and have taken the first steps towards fixing the engine. The Strategy Over the last few years our competitors have gained strength in the marketplace. They are stronger and smarter than ever, and we must give ourselves every opportunity to compete successfully with them. In this situation, it is important that our competitors (who I am more than aware read our reports in detail) are not able to pick out, copy and better the moves we make to delight our customers. As a result, I will look to discuss some of the steps we have already taken to fix the engine here, instead of plotting out the battle plan for our competition to follow. 1. Discounting From the description of the business model above, hopefully you can see how a business like ours can run into cash flow problems. If we have debt repayments to make and we order too much stock, then the cash that is tied up in the slow selling stock can create a liquidity problem. This can sometimes force us to hastily liquidate stock at a discount to pay the bills. Discounting is a very difficult thing to do without materially affecting the perception of a brand or product. Many brand owners, not just in the toy and hobby sector, have fallen victim to choosing discounting to pay bills or to chase arbitrary sales targets, instead of thinking more about the longer-term impact on the brand. Let us take the collector segment of our customers as an example to illustrate this. If a collector eagerly awaits the launch of the latest locomotive and snaps it up at full price on release day, the likely reason he or she will do this is because they anticipate it will be a desirable item to have, will sell out and will become a store of value over the long term as collectors fight over the few hundred that remain in circulation. If this collector then sees the item on sale for half price a few months after release, not only do they become disillusioned because the scarcity value and desirability seems to not be there, but also, they probably won't buy other products from that brand at the time of release again and will just wait for the inevitable discounts. If you keep following this discounting strategy, you will become more and more reliant on lower and lower prices after every round. You end up never selling anything at the prices you assumed when you made tooling investment and the economics of the business are impaired because the trust is gone in the brand. If you destroy the trust in the brand and collectors no longer see the products as a store of value, they will switch to a collectible that does satisfy their desire. The discounting has also impacted the trust our retailers have in us too. If you take our independent retailers who generally do a great job of cultivating the hobby on our behalf, these are small businesses who have to choose their stock carefully because they have limited balance sheets to fund it. If we sell them a box of Airfix Sea Harriers at full wholesale price and then sell them at half price on a website, these retailers will not be able to compete on price without taking a loss on the item. The best they can do is sit on the stock until we have sold out. It makes life very difficult for them and it certainly makes them think about wanting to buy items at full price from us. It has pushed some of them to buy from competitors instead. In both anecdotes, the sales figure the Group would report to you would be higher than otherwise, but the value of the brands over the long term would have reduced. Discounting is a strategy that wins sales in the short term, but history would suggest that the extra sales today does not compensate for the long-term loss of trust in the brands. The first thing we have done is remove the discounting, which has had the effect of initially reducing sales. The strategy has been welcomed by our retail partners and customers, but this is just the beginning. We are only at the start of the long process of rebuilding trust. In order to do this, we needed to remove the financial straight jacket. We have worked with our lenders and shareholders over the last six months to restructure the balance sheet and have started the new financial year with a structure that will allow us to hold the line. We will be able to sell our carefully curated and desirable models/accessories at the price that optimises the brand values over the long term and cultivates trust with our customers and retail partners. 2. Supply Chain We are working to improve the infrastructure in our overseas supply chain to make it function more efficiently. We must guarantee that we get the right amount of product to the market at the right time and at the right cost. When this works efficiently we will greatly improve our sales performance. We have a lack of new product arriving in the UK and therefore can't meet the demand. This is because of two main reasons: - Order quantities were very low per item because of cash constraints and a lack of understanding about which designs would sell better than others. - Not only were orders placed late, but the vitally important technical specifications were also supplied late to our manufacturers. Manufacturers are like sharks - they survive and thrive by moving at pace. We must keep them busy. If we don't they will look elsewhere for orders, which is what they did, further delaying production of our products. After the delays in submitting orders and specifications last year, the situation was similar to trying to book a table at a restaurant at the last minute. As you might expect, most of the restaurants were unavailable, so we desperately rang around and booked the best available table we could find. We then arrived late with less people in the party than we'd promised, we didn't order all of the meals, forgot to tell the kitchen how we wanted our steaks cooked, changed our mind on the side dishes and then complained when we found the restaurant was closing and there was no time for a dessert. The solution here is to pull forward the planning deadlines by six months and choose the right manufacturing partners for the long run. Considering the complexity of our design and ordering cycles it will take time, but the aim is for the new schedule to be fully operational and firing on all cylinders for the financial year ending 31 March 2020. 3. Knowledge & Experience The skills required to produce the correct products in the right quantities needs decades of knowledge and experience of what the business has done before, what competitors have done before, what has worked, what hasn't worked and the understanding of why in all these scenarios. We don't sell toothpaste. Our customers don't return once every couple of weeks for a new tube without thinking about it. It is difficult to generalise because the customer base for each brand is unique, but on the whole we have discerning customers who require only very specific models for their layouts, collections, gifts or playrooms. If a product sells well in a particular year, it doesn't necessarily mean the same one will sell well the next year. We are on a constant treadmill of innovation and this needs highly specialised and in-depth knowledge and experience for each of the brands. Initially, I brought Simon Kohler and Tim Mulhall with me to help manage this turnaround. Simon alone spent 35 years with the Group during Hornby's most profitable years, before parting ways under a previous regime. Tim has a wealth of experience in this industry, bringing in knowledge of the international markets. All three of us together have over 100 years of directly applicable experience. This was a good start, but I realised we needed more. In 2018, we will take on more people who combined will add another 100 years of experience. These roles span all the major functions including sales, marketing, purchasing and operations. This concerted effort to fill the Group with people who have decades of directly applicable experience to our rather esoteric markets is not limited to outside hires (or re-hires). Allowing the right internal talent to rise up and giving them a voice has started to yield great results too. Several existing employees with years of experience have been returned to their positions that they held during our most successful years. We are assembling a team of experts who understand the customers and the markets in which each of the brands operate. We also have many stars moving through the ranks who now feel empowered to get on with rebuilding these brands and learn from the more experienced members. It's still only day one and we are rebuilding the foundations, but the early impact on morale and motivation is encouraging. 4. Costs As I mentioned above, we have good visibility into the costs that we will need to incur to operate throughout the year. The challenge is to make enough gross profit to cover our operating costs and have some net profit left over for shareholders and/or future investment. In the simplest terms; there are two levers we can pull. We can sell more, and we can reduce our costs. As it currently stands, we need to sell more product if we are to cover our costs. We have reset the business to a more sustainable level of sales without discounting. This has been painful in the short term from a profitability perspective, however, it is the right thing to do to ensure the business has a future. We aim to rebuild sales as the trust returns to our brands, but we are also working tirelessly to do more while spending less. In the last announcement, we told you of the ongoing operational expenditure we had saved. We have found additional savings since the January update, and these savings are being found while improving service levels and product delivery schedules. We are instilling a culture of frugality which means we are doing more with less. This will be a key part of getting us back to profitability. Outlook As I said above, we don't want to give too much away to our competitors, but I can tell you that the changes to the strategy and the way we deal with our customers, suppliers, retailers and manufacturing partners has already yielded many opportunities to save cost, sell more and increase gross margins. Dominant national retailers who were only a distant memory to the business have proactively re-engaged now the discounting has stopped. Licensors of important trademarks are engaging with us again and wanting to broaden ranges and partnerships. Previously lost talent is coming back to the Group and morale is starting to improve in our staff who will be the real champions of this turnaround. Whilst there are green shoots starting to appear for the future, at the time of writing this, we have only been in place for seven months. The long design cycles mean that we have a largely inherited line plan for products being delivered this year. Nonetheless, we are at work doing the best with what we have as we seek to return the Group to profitability. On behalf of the Board Lyndon Davies 18 June 2018

. Does it come with a spring loaded rear hatch ? .

. How about a 1/8th TMA-1 ? (Only for skilled modellers, of course.) .

. Yes, always good to point out to SOME people who claim how accurate "Saving Private Ryan" is that the troops "should" (based on the unit and location involved) have been taken to shore in RN operated LCA's. .

. Well ! Lovely ! At least one model shop quick off the mark ; https://freetimehobbies.com/1-32-hk-models-avro-lancaster-mk-iii-preorder/?mc_cid=fefab692cc&mc_eid=6ee7f24a9d .

. Well, Hornby (Airfix's parent) is again in financial news ; https://www.standard.co.uk/business/hornby-gets-a-hand-from-barclays-as-it-bids-to-put-head-of-steam-into-sales-a3804451.html https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/04/03/hornby-forced-seek-lender-reprieve-profits-sales-drop/ https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/apr/03/toymaker-hornby-seeks-new-finance-deal-model-railway-scalextric-sales-slump And this, copied from a Model Railway site ; Well, here is the actual RNS interim trading statement published by Hornby plc today. Hornby is not the only model railway business with a stretched balance sheet and Companies House is always worth looking at. Regards, Charles Hornby PLC ("Hornby" or the "Group") 3rd April 2018 Trading Update Hornby Plc, the international hobby products Group, provides an update to shareholders on the progress of the new strategy. 4th Quarter Trading We have continued to implement the strategy to support the long-term value of the brands rather than the use of discounting to drive short term sales. As reported in the January update, the lack of discounting coupled with late deliveries of product has continued to affect our sales rate. There was an improvement in sales towards the end of the financial year as some of the European product started to arrive, but as expected, the Group sales and profits were lower than last year. Lending Update The Board has now refined its strategy to enable the business to return to profitability. The investment needed to support this strategy will require a larger facility than the one currently available to the Group. Hornby is in the final stages of discussions regarding a new financing facility with new lenders and expects to have the facilities in place ahead of the Group's full year results, which are expected to be announced in mid-June 2018. To support these discussions, the Board has engaged with Barclays and it has been agreed that they will support the Group with a covenant waiver in relation to the Group's EBITDA covenant in respect of the quarter to 31 March 2018, which is required due to the reduced sales volumes. At the financial year end, the Group had a net cash position of c. £4m. Interim Chairman and CEO, Lyndon Davies, said: "As the dust settles on the changes to the strategy and we start to put together the line plans for 2019 and beyond, morale is starting to build in our hardworking staff and some trust is coming back with our retailers and customers; both in the UK and abroad. Whilst we have managed to make a lot of progress in the first few months, there is still much more to do in terms of reducing costs, streamlining processes and adding routes to market." More information on the progress of the strategy will be included in the full year results announcement in June.

. Does anyone have a link to the Eduard webpage with the English translation of the "Riders of the Skies" book ? Thanks. .

. I'm sure that these figures were given further up the thread, but just to put things in perspective, these are gross earnings from Hornby's 2017 annual report :- Model railways ........ (Multiple brands) ... £22m Slot cars .................. (Scalectrix) ............ £12m Plastic modelling ..... (Airfix) ..................... £6m Collectible models .. (Corgi) ..................... £4m Specialist paints ..... (Humbrol) ............... £2m Total revenues are £47.4m (The "multiple brands" against Model Railways includes various European brands.) So Airfix is half the size of Scalectrix (although what the relative profitability is, who knows ?) .

. This was posted by an individual on the RMWeb Model Railways site today ; "Hornby has issued a trading update to the Stock Exchange this morning - the financial media will report this as a profits warning. Trading updates are normally issued when the directors become aware of a change, or impact on the business, that will affect their previous statements. The shares fell by 2.7p (11%) on the news. Please remember that Hornby is not just model railways, and that the statement about retail partners might relate to non-railway retail, but it might not..." The announcement is below: Trading Update Hornby Plc, the international hobby products group, provides an update to shareholders on the progress of the new strategy. Current Trading As announced on 17 October 2017, the Board has determined that to maximise the value of its brands over the long term, the Group will no longer offer for sale large quantities of stock at a discount. There has been overwhelming support for this change, especially in our largest channel, the independent retailers. However, rebuilding the trust in the pricing architecture takes time and some of our retail partners are taking longer than others to accept the new approach. As a result of the reduction in discounting and a continuation of late product deliveries in the international segment; the sales performance over the key Christmas trading period was below management expectations. Both of these factors had an equal impact up on the under performance of the business. We now have some visibility into the outcome for the full year and because of the revenue shortfall, the underlying loss after tax is likely to be larger than the board's expectations. Cost Savings The new management team have made a significant impact on the ongoing cost base. They have reduced the fixed overheads by £1.7m since joining and the Board believes that there are further procurement efficiencies to come as we reorganise our supply chain towards mutually beneficial partnerships. Lyndon Davies, Interim Chairman and CEO, commented: "We remain committed to the strategy that was outlined in the half year results. We are already starting to see evidence of positive momentum in the pre-orders for our new product ranges that were announced at the beginning of the year as well as old retail partners re-engaging following the end of the discount-era. The design and production cycles are long in this business and whilst we are excited about the products we have in the pipeline, it will take time for the new products to come through and for the trust with our customers to be fully rebuilt. The change in strategy has meant that the Christmas trading period was tough and there is likely to be some more volatility as we find out how off-peak trading performs for the first time in years without discounting. Despite this, we are determined to weather the storm and come out the other side with stronger brands, loyal customers, a leaner cost base and a better foundation from which to build a profitable and growing business." The board intends to provide a more comprehensive review of the year in the final results in June.

. Announced yesterday, a RTR British 18-inch howitzer Railway Gun ; https://www.oxforddiecast.co.uk/collections/by-range/products/railgun-gladiator-ww11-railgun-or76boom02 Probably not wonderfully detailed, but no one else will do one. .

. The key thing SEEMS to be a bad imbalance between assets and debts. The Chapter 11 allows time (and some incentive) for restructuring debts, but a lot depends on who owns the debt and what REALISTIC plan the company has for turning things around. IF they are operationally profitable and just not earning enough to service their huge debts, then there is something to discuss. IF they aren't even operationally profitable then probably a break-up / sell-off makes sense. I wish them luck

. There can only be one choice for 2019 :- A 1/48th Black Arrow rocket. 50 years before 2019, in 1969, the first sub-orbital launch of Black Arrow took place. In 1971, a Black Arrow rocket launched a British made satellite, Prospero, into orbit. See ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Arrow .

. Just to note that the 2018 Hornby releases have been announced. Obviously there are different takes on it, but MY opinion is that it is relatively conservative, only a few "new" releases and quite a lot of re-releases and new liveries. The new releases do seem to have been carefully chosen and "should" be popular, but not what most would describe as an adventurous or "spectacular" year. I hope they make money. .

. The blank/black cover is probably due to a coxk-up Hornby made with their catalogue tease. They posted a cover with a heavily pixelated painting of a train. Unfortunately, an eagle eyed poster identified the painting from a few bull rushes which hadn't been pixelated out in the extreme left hand corner !!! Hornby withdrew the cover and replaced it with a blank/black cover, obviously they don't trust airfix modellers not to repeat the trick. ( P.S. The Hornby cover showed a painting of a Southern Lord Nelson locomotive hauling the Night Ferry stock. ) .

. Are any pods included in the kit - or are there any decent ones available elsewhere ? .

. So which Scammell is the better model ? .

. Which means (by past performances) there will be leaks all over the internet by midday. .

. Talking of John Lambert (a fine gentleman who I met and talked with several times) does anyone knows what happened to his plans series (ships and guns) ? Likewise, I know he did a certain amount of work on Volume 3 of the Coastal Forces series, but that it stalled - does anyone know of the fate of that ? Thanks (and nice to remember him). .

. This may interest you then ; https://www.amazon.co.uk/Havilland-Vixen-Manual-Haynes-Manuals/dp/1785211889/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511958437&sr=8-1&keywords=sea+vixen+manual de Havilland Sea Vixen Manual (Haynes Manuals) 5 Jun 2018 .