Moccasin Posted July 11 Share Posted July 11 (edited) Promised in June, the group’s financial report was finally released today. While the headline figures don’t seem great (revenue up by 2%, loss/debt significantly higher) there do seem to be some positive elements: TT120 now at £2.8m revenue over the 18 months or so that it’s been going Direct sales up again, by 18% They’re taking websites back in house, with them due to be relaunched Potential new Wonderworks site in a better location (rather than a trading estate on the edge of Margate (sic)) There’s plenty more in there, with some interesting details for TT120 fans. By the end of March 2024, over 4,000 TT:120 sets had been sold, with an additional 8,000 locomotives and a staggering 30,000 coaches and wagons, reflecting the appetite for a new scale in the hobby. TT:120 sets sales have surpassed our forecasts resulting in 3 re-orders on key product lines and the TT:120 Scotsman set has become the best-selling trainset, in value terms, from the entire Hornby catalogue over the last 18 months. report is here https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/hornby/news/rns/story/xjd157x Edited July 11 by Moccasin Added link 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dBerriff Posted July 11 Share Posted July 11 I wonder what certain YouTube "influencers" will make of that? RMWeb could be fun too. Repent ye non-believers. 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
What About The Bee Posted July 11 Share Posted July 11 I am enthusiastic about Hornby's web pages coming back in house. Finally, errors will be corrected, or so I hope. With direct sales up 18%, and the webpages the store, it behooves Hornby to get this bit correct Bee 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rallymatt Posted July 11 Share Posted July 11 I am sure the purpose of putting some numbers to TT:120 sales is to drive home to the industry just how big this small scale is. Hornby’s TT:120 is dwarfing other manufacturers total sales volumes. I’m sure the big noises will bluff and bluster as usual and get the balance sheet interpretation completely wrong as usual. Hornby taking control of its digital platforms, in particular its website and shop can’t come soon enough. Despite the issues from subcontracting it’s still managed a strong DTC performance which underlines the strength of the offering. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Allen Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 11 hours ago, Moccasin said: Promised in June, the group’s financial report was finally released today. While the headline figures don’t seem great (revenue up by 2%, loss/debt significantly higher) there do seem to be some positive elements: TT120 now at £2.8m revenue over the 18 months or so that it’s been going Direct sales up again, by 18% They’re taking websites back in house, with them due to be relaunched Potential new Wonderworks site in a better location (rather than a trading estate on the edge of Margate (sic)) There’s plenty more in there, with some interesting details for TT120 fans. By the end of March 2024, over 4,000 TT:120 sets had been sold, with an additional 8,000 locomotives and a staggering 30,000 coaches and wagons, reflecting the appetite for a new scale in the hobby. TT:120 sets sales have surpassed our forecasts resulting in 3 re-orders on key product lines and the TT:120 Scotsman set has become the best-selling trainset, in value terms, from the entire Hornby catalogue over the last 18 months. report is here https://polaris.brighterir.com/public/hornby/news/rns/story/xjd157x very interesting, thanks for posting. 🙂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moccasin Posted July 12 Author Share Posted July 12 10 hours ago, What About The Bee said: I am enthusiastic about Hornby's web pages coming back in house. Finally, errors will be corrected, or so I hope. With direct sales up 18%, and the webpages the store, it behooves Hornby to get this bit correct Bee Yes I agree. They will save money, be more agile and hopefully more accurate. Let’s hope the new platform still allows us to see metadata! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinB Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 So Hornby have realised outsourcing software is not a great idea. It generally is a license to print money. From experience there is little reason to make it easy to maintain, as you can make more money continually trying to fix it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
What About The Bee Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 Even with the best of intentions by software engineers, unexpected outcomes occur. The most obvious example here is the metadata driving the pages. Hornby cannot really want numerical sales data exposed to public view, nor the expected date certain instead of the 'season'. It is clear that the implementation meets requirements. The availability of a model (pre-order, in stock...) and the season are displayed to clients. Yet exposing internal data is a side affect, and obviously not a stated Hornby requirement. Hornby - "can you fix that Mr Subcontractor?" Subcontractor "Yes, how much money do you have. Give it to me" And on to the next cash cow, ad infinitum. Correct Colin. Bee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rallymatt Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 (edited) Whatever back of house data that leaks out, the worst part of the website is the lack of attention to detail. This is terrible for a hobby that is all about detail. Each section on an individual model should be packed with ‘accurate’ information, lots of photos including plain back ground and staged photos in a nice scenic layout with inspirational ‘extras’ I am sure that’s what people within Hornby want too. No one ever sells the product as well as the people who make it 😁 Edited July 12 by Rallymatt 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moccasin Posted July 12 Author Share Posted July 12 It’s hard to know whether the myriad of errors on their website is down to Hornby not supplying the right data or their web company not transcribing correctly and/or charging to fix things. Certainly once Hornby take over, they’ll have no excuse. Hopefully the new web platform will have better links with their systems that removes some of the manual processes that seem to be the root of the errors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinB Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 24 minutes ago, Moccasin said: It’s hard to know whether the myriad of errors on their website is down to Hornby not supplying the right data or their web company not transcribing correctly and/or charging to fix things. Certainly once Hornby take over, they’ll have no excuse. Hopefully the new web platform will have better links with their systems that removes some of the manual processes that seem to be the root of the errors. It probably is a bit of both. The thing is, by having "in house" it is so much easier to identify faults quickly. The only time is does pay off is if you don't have the expertise "in house". 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moccasin Posted July 12 Author Share Posted July 12 It sounds like they’ve taken the decision to create/build those skills in house. I do wonder whether this is something where Mike Ashley’s team have advised them as Frasers are pretty hot on this stuff. Maybe the next move will be to change their logistics arrangements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rallymatt Posted July 12 Share Posted July 12 Thinking similar, and it’s no bad thing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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