I see Rails are now doing Hornby

[ColinB]

If appears from a EMAIL this morning RAILS is back as a Retailer, does that mean that they have realised selling exclusively to the Public is not as easy as they thought.

[Bulleidboy]

Not sure that Hornby was ever selling "exclusively" to the public. There is a small shop near us that is a picture framing business, but one corner of the shop sells Hornby products - always has the latest releases - at good prices.

[Brew Man]

I wonder what Hatton's will make of that thinking_face

[SteveM6]

Maybe it signals the end of Hornby’s tier system for retailers? Some of the marketing decisions in recent years have appeared a little spiteful towards other retailers and manufacturers but maybe the economic realities of those decisions have prompted the winds of change to blow through Margate?

[The son of Triangman]

Let's hope it is kept at a level playing field and the big box shifting operations don't get all the latest new stuff first at silly discounts off trade as they have in the past.

[ColinB]

I suspect it is probably the shift in management team. The new lot are probably more interested in making a dent in last years loss rather than trying to appease RMWEB (which you will never achieve) which Simon was paranoid about (according to the TV program). So perhaps they are more focused on selling stuff. Like or not Rails and Hattons were really good at shifting their product.

[atom3624]

I received that email too.

I also see that my 'recent interest' Turbomotive is being 'distributed' by a lot more dealers than it would have been 12 months ago - common sense prevails!

Al.

[AndyMac1707817969]

It benefited neither party, rattles have been put back in their prams.

[LTSR_NSE]

@ANDYMAC - the tier system definitely appeared to benefit very few (if anyone?) hopefully this news indicates its demise.

Considering the hassle (& apologies to disappointed pre-order customers) that Hattons, Kernow etc. were required to contend with - I’m not certain how much Rails would regret removing themselves from that train-wreck early on? Only they will be privy to its financial cost.

Certainly if Rails & Hornby have found a mutually agreeable & beneficial solution - that must be a positive.

[ColinB]

Perhaps when the tier system came out Rails found themselves in the same situation as Hattons, being bottom of the list for new models. They probably realised that is where most of the money is, so with no new models they weren't going to be making much on Hornby sales, so they did the logical thing and decided not to deal with Hornby. There is also the point that Rails trades on its reputation, it has done for years, so letting down customers because they don't get an allocation is also not good for business. All the time they have been a good Retailer for Bachmann and all the other makes especially Accurascale. Then there are their specials which also seem to sell at a premium. So overall losing Hornby probably did cause them some issues but not that much.

[wairoalbany]

I see this as positive news.