Airfix 2019

[occa]

Airfix can't do that bad with the new tooled kits if you look at the second run release schedule (all for June - July):

 

From here: https://www.airfix.com/uk-en/shop/coming-soon.html

- North American P-51D Mustang™ 1:72 A01004A

- North American B-25C/D Mitchell 1:72 A06015

- Junkers Ju87 B-1 Stuka 1:72 A03087

- Messerschmitt Me262A-1A Schwalbe 1:72 A03088

- Hawker Typhoon Ib Starter Set 1:72 A5520

- English Electric Lightning F.2A Starter Set 1:72 A55305

 

^^ These is only a personal selection (only 1/72) and are the kits I am interested in, there are more that are already in the second run.

These were all already sold out before obviously and will be all re-released as originally released means same decal options and cover art.

[SleeperService]

Quick tip for getting to the meat of a statement like those from Airfix. Cross out the emotional words, qualifiers, and bits about how good the management team is. Then look at what's left. It isn't impressive reading.

The second worrying thing is not a single word or example of an area that will be addressed immediately. Plans that are being implemented as the report is published are commonly mentioned as it's not giving much away to the competition (who Hornby are trying to catch up to). 

As others have said, with a cold business head this is not looking good. Our best hope is that it's deliberate misinformation. That's a very dangerous games to play. It cost Gerald Ratner his jewellery empire.....

[Admiral Puff]

The fiasco over the Sea Fury must have cost Airfix a motza. My pair arrived recently. Both had the short shot fin leading edge on the starboard fuselage half plus a second frame of properly moulded fuselage parts. I'd call that an expensive fix to a problem that should have been picked up before the kit was released at all.

[Plasto]

8 hours ago, Phil Gollin said:

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This was posted on a Model Railway board (RMWeb) - and may be useful for the more accounts literate people ;

 

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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

 

 

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The financial performance is TBH pretty poor... For any retail goods distributor that’s the key metric...

 

They have basically had a falling profit base since 2008 and falling revenue since 2012...  So while some of that is down to management and decisions is all of it???

 

 

 

 

[RussellE]

On 6/20/2018 at 7:40 AM, Phil Gollin said:

 

 

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.

          

 

 

Seems to me, if I were the CEO, the logical thing to do here would be to bring manufacture of Airfix kits back in house. For example, building a dedicated molding shop in Eastern Europe owned and run by Hornby/Airfix, where wages are low enough, but skills are high, (Czech or Slovakia come to mind). This would allow the tool bank to be located all in one location, maintained by dedicated staff, on hand and ready to mold when needed with quality checked on the spot, not after it's been shipped half way round the world and is too late to get the mold back in the machine because some other work has come up! Not to mention the availability of local high quality tool makers ready to supply new tools at competitive costs, close at hand.

 

Then again, I'm not the CEO , so what do I know? 🤔

[Albeback52]

20 hours ago, Jazzie said:

Dave,

Although i do see and understand your point, i have as many as 20 Airfix kits that i would never have bought if they were not discounted to the level they were. Now there are many Airfix kits that i want to purchase but simply cannot justify spending the money that they want for them. 

Arabest,

Geoff.

I'm inclined to agree with you and find myself in a similar situation.Some Airfix kits are fast becoming unaffordable for me..I wasn't going to pay £50 for a Javelin,no matter how much I wanted it and I won't pay £60 for a Victor. The only way I will buy the reissue Meteor

and, new Hunter is if I can get them a discount. If I can find a cheaper alternative (e g Revell B-17G and, Heinkel HE-111) then I will buy them in preference to Airfix. If I cannot find a cheaper alternative then I simply do without.I

 

 

Allan

[Chimpion]

25 minutes ago, Albeback52 said:

I'm inclined to agree with you and find myself in a similar situation.Some Airfix kits are fast becoming unaffordable for me..I wasn't going to pay £50 for a Javelin,no matter how much I wanted it and I won't pay £60 for a Victor. The only way I will buy the reissue Meteor

and, new Hunter is if I can get them a discount. If I can find a cheaper alternative (e g Revell B-17G and, Heinkel HE-111) then I will buy them in preference to Airfix. If I cannot find a cheaper alternative then I simply do without.I

 

 

Allan

Therein lies the real unspoken challenge. Customers like Allan give the volume which provides the economies of scale to pay for new tooling, but doesn't allow Airfix to make much (any?) profit. Customers willing to pay full price provide the profit, but tend to get upset when they find out they could have got the goods cheaper. Keeping both kinds of customers happy is a key challenge facing most retailers. I'm sure it's not an easy one to solve in Hornby's line of business - the CEO refers to this dilemma in his statement.

[lasermonkey]

I also find myself in the position where an increasing number of Airfix kits are becoming out of reach. It's not a gripe, it's a simple statement of fact. I've bought very few new Airfix kits over the past couple of years, and those were heavily discounted. I think the last couple were a Gnat starter set from Aldi and a Swift which I got for £11 posted from Jadlam in a flash sale.

 

It doesn't seem that long ago that  Airfix was my first port of call if I wanted a kit that balanced what I wanted from a model, at a price I could justify. Don't get me wrong, if Airfix need to sell a kit at price X to make it viable to them, then I understand that's what they need to do. However, when one looks at what the likes of AMK and Eduard can achieve at their price points, maybe you have to wonder whether Airfix are getting the right people to produce the kits.

 

Striking the balance between what's in the kit and pitching it at a price that's attractive to both the hardcore modeller and the pocket-money/impulse buy/gift market (which, if I understand things correctly, makes up the bulk of their market) seems to me to be incredibly important. This does make me think out loud about a model such as the forthcoming Wellington, which looks to be utterly exquisite and has everything including the toilet, but realistically, how much of that can be seen and therefore, how much of that is really necessary? How much of that extra detail pushed the price over thirty quid? While some of you may well be laughing out loud at someone apparently complaining about too much detail, it may be worth bearing in mind that this isn't the be all and end all to a good many modellers. To put things into context, I suspect that most people who build models rarely or never buy any aftermarket detail sets. I'm sure it will be a fun build for the experienced modeller (and I'd love to have a bash at it myself) , but I can't help but think that the price will exclude it from the "pocket money" market and certainly to those of us with limited budgets. As I said, I'm just thinking out loud, but I do think that it's a point worth discussing. Or TLDR: does Airfix understand their market sufficiently?

 

I wish Airfix every success, I really do. We live in uncertain times and it's always the manufacturers of what are essentially luxury items that get hit first and hardest, as I know all too well from personal experience.

 

Cheers,

Mark.

[Denford]

12 hours ago, RussellE said:

Seems to me, if I were the CEO, the logical thing to do here would be to bring manufacture of Airfix kits back in house. For example, building a dedicated molding shop in Eastern Europe owned and run by Hornby/Airfix, where wages are low enough, but skills are high, (Czech or Slovakia come to mind). This would allow the tool bank to be located all in one location, maintained by dedicated staff, on hand and ready to mold when needed with quality checked on the spot, not after it's been shipped half way round the world and is too late to get the mold back in the machine because some other work has come up! Not to mention the availability of local high quality tool makers ready to supply new tools at competitive costs, close at hand.

 

Then again, I'm not the CEO , so what do I know? 🤔

It would have the additional benefit of transport time being reduced from weeks/months to days.

[VMA131Marine]

4 hours ago, lasermonkey said:

I'm sure it will be a fun build for the experienced modeller (and I'd love to have a bash at it myself) , but I can't help but think that the price will exclude it from the "pocket money" market and certainly to those of us with limited budgets.

I think the "pocket money" market is basically dead when it comes to new kits (there are plenty of bargains to be had for used kits on the secondary market though). Whereas kits used to sell in the tens to hundreds of thousands when I was first introduced to the hobby in the 1970's now they sell in the thousands to low tens of thousands. Should Airfix make their kits simpler and with fewer parts to make them cheaper? I actually don't think this will have much of an effect on the final price, because there is still a certain amount or research and design work that needs to be done no matter how simple or complex the kit is. The apparent success of the recent 1/48 Walrus, which seems completely sold out everywhere, would also suggest that most people want more detail. Compared to some of the competition (Trumpeter in particular) Airfix kits are still very reasonably priced. 

 

I think actually part of Airfix's problem is that they are trying to straddle the fence in marketing the same products to both casual and more active modelers. Eduard seems to have handled this well with their Weekend and Profipack kits that are clearly distiinguished as to what they contain, who they are intended for, and what they cost. Companies like Trumpeter, AMK (for the most part), Meng, Kinetic, KittyHawk, and others are clearly going for the enthusiast market when you consider the complexity of their kits and the prices they are asking. Even so, you have Meng  with their snap-together P-51D, 1/700 ships, "egg" planes, and so on who are also looking to develop a specific product line for younger, more casual modellers. Contrast that with Airfix, whose Quick-Build series of Lego-like kits seems to be in the doldrums with only a change in plastic colour for new releases.

[Albeback52]

6 hours ago, Chimpion said:

Therein lies the real unspoken challenge. Customers like Allan give the volume which provides the economies of scale to pay for new tooling, but doesn't allow Airfix to make much (any?) profit. Customers willing to pay full price provide the profit, but tend to get upset when they find out they could have got the goods cheaper. Keeping both kinds of customers happy is a key challenge facing most retailers. I'm sure it's not an easy one to solve in Hornby's line of business - the CEO refers to this dilemma in his statement.

I think you have summed it up very neatly.  I am realistic enough to understand that Airfix (like all companies) has to set a retail price at a level sufficient to recoup their costs and, to turn a profit. I have absolutely no problem with that as,it is sound business sense. However, if we, as customers decide that said price , no matter how justifiable is out of our reach and we simply refuse to pay it then all these careful calculations go out the window! Much as I would like to support Airfix, my own financial situation dictates my purchases and, I will only buy what I can realistically afford.

 

I would also like to add that I am not singling out Airfix. They are not the only company whose products are, in some cases reaching the point of unaffordability. Removing discounting is, I feel a decision that will turn round and bite them in the backside. If customers who rely on discounting to encourage purchases  create volume sales then that suggests to me that they are perhaps the majority? That being the case, if discounting is no longer available then Airfix could actually see a huge drop in sales. Perhaps in 2019 we will see which side is right?

 

Allan

Edited June 21, 2018 by Albeback52

[Albeback52]

5 hours ago, lasermonkey said:

I also find myself in the position where an increasing number of Airfix kits are becoming out of reach. It's not a gripe, it's a simple statement of fact. I've bought very few new Airfix kits over the past couple of years, and those were heavily discounted. I think the last couple were a Gnat starter set from Aldi and a Swift which I got for £11 posted from Jadlam in a flash sale.

 

It doesn't seem that long ago that  Airfix was my first port of call if I wanted a kit that balanced what I wanted from a model, at a price I could justify. Don't get me wrong, if Airfix need to sell a kit at price X to make it viable to them, then I understand that's what they need to do. However, when one looks at what the likes of AMK and Eduard can achieve at their price points, maybe you have to wonder whether Airfix are getting the right people to produce the kits.

 

Striking the balance between what's in the kit and pitching it at a price that's attractive to both the hardcore modeller and the pocket-money/impulse buy/gift market (which, if I understand things correctly, makes up the bulk of their market) seems to me to be incredibly important. This does make me think out loud about a model such as the forthcoming Wellington, which looks to be utterly exquisite and has everything including the toilet, but realistically, how much of that can be seen and therefore, how much of that is really necessary? How much of that extra detail pushed the price over thirty quid? While some of you may well be laughing out loud at someone apparently complaining about too much detail, it may be worth bearing in mind that this isn't the be all and end all to a good many modellers. To put things into context, I suspect that most people who build models rarely or never buy any aftermarket detail sets. I'm sure it will be a fun build for the experienced modeller (and I'd love to have a bash at it myself) , but I can't help but think that the price will exclude it from the "pocket money" market and certainly to those of us with limited budgets. As I said, I'm just thinking out loud, but I do think that it's a point worth discussing. Or TLDR: does Airfix understand their market sufficiently?

 

I wish Airfix every success, I really do. We live in uncertain times and it's always the manufacturers of what are essentially luxury items that get hit first and hardest, as I know all too well from personal experience.

 

Cheers,

Mark.

I wouldn't laugh at you Mark because I actually agree with the point about the interior detail. To be honest, I'd actually bin most of it and leave only what could actually be seen. I did that with the Shackleton kit - I discarded everything aft of the cockpit. Whether or not this extra (and, unnecessary in my view) detail adds significantly to the price is probably a moot point though.

 

The new Wellington which you mention is certainly within my price bracket so, I will probably buy it anyway😀

 

Allan

[VMA131Marine]

32 minutes ago, Albeback52 said:

, I will only buy what I can realistically afford.

But that's also a choice. There is no difference to your pocketbook whether you buy five £20 kits or one £100 kit and in the end they are still just pieces of plastic that sit in a box or assembled on a shelf and, probably, eventually end up in a landfill somewhere.

[Plasto]

The issue of course is that the problems lie across the entire Hornby group. So solutions specific to Airfix would need to be applicable across all product ranges. 

 

This years financial report gives no real insights into category sales performance. So who knows how Airfix are performing compared to say Corgi or model trains.

For all of the issues Hornby need to fix for Airfix ( QC, Discounting, unhappy specialist retailers) they have to do the same for the other product ranges... That’s the challenge. 

 

 

[Asmodai]

Setting prices is always a challenge at best. 'Second tier' companies lately seem to be charging a lot more for their kits, just like they're one of the industry leaders like Tamiya or Hasegawa. Whether that is all actual production costs, greedy markups, or simple delusion about their place in the market, or a combination of factors is open to interpretation. But when Airfix costs me more or less the same price as Tamiya, who is going to lose out there? 

I understand some of the home team rooting, and buy local and all, and why people would want Airfix to continue a going concern. After all, here in the US, it is all over. With the crash and burn of Revell/Monogram, all the major domestic kit makers are dead and buried. Whether their old tooling lives on in some other country is irrelevant. Airfix and Hornby are in seriously dangerous waters right now, and a wrong move could be catastrophic. And just like Revell/Monogram, their ability to make good decisions may be greatly limited by the troubles and mistakes of the corporate parent. Relying on nostalgia and the new tool or two a year might get you by for a while. But eventually, nostalgia and odd scale old kits in new boxes won't save the company long term. It wears off, and the people interested in them are rapidly reaching the age of dying off altogether.

[VMA131Marine]

1 hour ago, Asmodai said:

But when Airfix costs me more or less the same price as Tamiya, who is going to lose out there? 

Model kits are not groceries or televisions, where typically you're looking to get the best price on something offered by many brands. If I want a 1/48 Walrus, or a 1/72 Victor, or even an accurate 1/48 Spitfire Vb then Tamiya is not an option. Comparing on price is therefore fairly pointless.

[Ratch]

I was going to make the same point as Marine, if I want a Victor or a Wellington I won't be going to Tamiya. That argument relies on how customers buy their kits. I buy specific subjects not just any odd kit because its cheap or because its made by a particular manufacturer. If Eastern Express (for example) made a 1/72 Sentinel 4x4 (V-bomber tractor) I'd probably buy it. If Eastern Express, Airfix and Tamiya all produced it then I'd look for the best one and only if prices were significantly different does that become a factor.

[Rabbit Leader]

So if I really want an accurate K.2 Victor do I pay the going price for one of the soon to be released Airfix kits or save a few quid and buy a 1983 mould Matchbox/ Revell kit? I suppose that depends on what I want it to look like when it’s finished. No matter how much I saved, I doubt I’d be able to bring the old Matchbox girl up to modern day standards so in that case I’d be prepared to stump up and open my wallet. I suppose that’s me and we are all different. In my case, I need to budget my bench time, so when it comes to maximising this, I need a kit that has some chance of making me smile with the least amount of effort possible to get there. 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

[Plasto]

I’d get the Airfix Victor, while you still can.....

[occa]

I probably have it easy, I don't smoke, I rarely go out for a drink and I don't own a car even.

 

So I can't complain as the Airfix prices are still good value for money for me.

The Mitchell cost me 28 € for example, that's not bad for a modern mold two engine AC.

I bought several C-47 and Whitleys also which were around 40€ each.

 

I don't understand the moaning about prices, everything has gone up over the years. It's called index adjustment.

 

 

 

 

[tempestfan]

22 hours ago, lasermonkey said:

 

Striking the balance between what's in the kit and pitching it at a price that's attractive to both the hardcore modeller and the pocket-money/impulse buy/gift market (which, if I understand things correctly, makes up the bulk of their market) seems to me to be incredibly important.

That may be correct in volume, but I don't think in margin/profit. A couple of years ago, the Airfix Collectors' Club mag Constant Scale had some interesting market research from ca. 1979. A Series 2 pocket money kit, IIRC a Cromwell, was calculated to require well over thirty years to recoup the investment - while a 1/12 RR Phantom was calculated at IIRC less than two years, because the big premium kits carried a much higher margin. I am quite convinced that this is still correct as...

16 hours ago, VMA131Marine said:

I think the "pocket money" market is basically dead when it comes to new kits 

 

I think actually part of Airfix's problem is that they are trying to straddle the fence in marketing the same products to both casual and more active modelers.

... I fully agree with the first sentence, at least from a German perspective. You'll be hard pressed to find kits in a brick and mortar store, at least in the northern half. I am quite convinced that the enthusiast modeller/buyer who has at least three each of 1/24 Typhoon, Shackleton, Victor, C-47, Lancaster, WHitley, Meteor, Defiant etc. (like myself...) is not the cherry but the cake - at least in money terms, and this is the crucial aspect. And with Series 4 kits not being RRPed at something like 18 quid, I think anything in higher Series' will be out of the Lil' Johnny and Aunt Kate market, or for someone who slams together a kit a year for fun.

 

Revell tried that straddling for a long time but it seems they have finally realised that the mass market is ever-shrinking, and they can make money only if they have high-quality products that can compete with the best on the market quality-wise, and have perhaps a slight price advantage.

[tempestfan]

13 minutes ago, occa said:

I probably have it easy, I don't smoke, I rarely go out for a drink and I don't own a car even.

I don't understand the moaning about prices, everything has gone up over the years. It's called index adjustment.

 

 

 

 

But you do live, do you ? 🤔

Historically, modelling could be described as a poor man's hobby I think. If everything gets more expensive but wages don't rise accordingly, the essential things in life will take precedence, and for most this will not be plastic. May be another factor in the loss of the mass market base.

[sniperUK]

Kit pricing for a hobby isn't bad , my other main hobby is target shooting, I have six firearms of different calibres ranging from .22 to 44 Mag and 7.62 NATO, ammunition costs from £4 for 50 rds of 22 to £27 for 50 .44 and £44 for 50 0f 7.62, I can go through 50rds in 15 minutes or less ,add to that club membership of over £250 for the year and the initial outlay, £350 to £1000 for the weapons and even the most expensive kit, and Airfix are the main makers of the stuff I have interest in ,looks like a good deal providing hours or day of pleasure and leaving me more than holes in paper at the end of it.  Hornby shares have now raised to over 30p following the statement.

[cmatthewbacon]

 

52 minutes ago, sniperUK said:

Kit pricing for a hobby isn't bad

Exactly: try playing golf, keeping horses, running a classic car or even playing the fixed-odds betting terminal...

 

So what if a new tool large size Airfix kit costs £25.00 or £50? How many hours of research and time at the workbench would that detailed Shackleton interior, or a new-tool Hunter occupy? That Tamiya FXX-K I just finished cost about £40, with £10 more on the carbon decal sheet. But it took the best part of three months to finish, so I see that as reasonable return on investment in modelling time...

best,

M.

[Barrovian]

Still waiting for my 1/24 Henschel Hs 123, Hs 129 and Hawk T.1a.