Problems with Hornby International?

[ellocoloco]

 

I have seen a recent posting on Spanish forum Forotrenes news regarding Hornby International's activities in Spain.

http://www.forotrenes.com/foro/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=71336

My Spanish is not the best but it would appear to state that the Madrid office of Hornby International (Electrotren) has been closed, all staff laid off and activities moved to the UK.

As a RENFE modeller this is most concerning, though understandable in the current climate. Can anyone shed any light on this? Is this being repeated in France, Germany, Italy and the US? Are we going to see any new International models for 2016/17?

[bill7437]

All activities for the International brands appear to have now been concentrated in the UK as part

of Hornby restructuring. All Brands are imported into their new warehouse in Canterbury where

also parts are stored.  The only office which has not moved in the EU is that of Hornby

Germany. Italy, France & Spain moved some while ago and their specific country warehousing closed.

A logical step to cut costs if would appear. 

[ellocoloco]

Thanks for the update bill7437

Hopefully the Jan 5th countdown popup will be back onto the Hornby Int'l soon and we'll be able to get a glimpse into the lead items of the 2017/18 programme.

[bill7437]

No countdown this year although New Items Catalogue for Rivarossi and Arnold has appeared for a brief moment in the last few days on www.hornby.de - not terribly interesting however.

From yesterday this site appears to be barred to UK servers and Hornby Germany has referred me to the UK Hornby site.

Do Hornby not want to sell their International brands in the UK apart from the measly offerings via

www.hornby.com ????

[ellocoloco]

The 2017 Arnold and Rivarossi new items catalogue can be downloaded as pdf from:

https://www.modellbahn-voigt.de/Prospekte

I cannot comment on how interesting the items are or not as I am more interested in Electrotren, nor do I know what was announced last year. P27 does however show full 2017 catalogues for all the Int'l brands which is encouraging.

[bill7437]

Hi ellocoloco. There was a comment on www.hornby.de that the 2017 full catalogues would be ready

for all the International brands after Nuremburg, except Lima Expert which this year is being

merged with Rivarossi, a logical step. It is OK to mention full brand catalogues but trying to

get them from Hornby ( the supposed UK distributors ) when they are actually all stored in the warehouse at

Herndon to supply UK & EU is a major feat !!!. Not sure  to what  P27 refers, could you possibly please

enlighten me ?

[ellocoloco]

Hola Bill7437

P27 just means that on page 27 pictures of the cataloges are shown, echoing your comments above that they will soon be available.

I does seem crazy that in a time when every sale should count, that it is difficult to acquire products in the parent companys home market. I have usually bought my items in Spain and it will be interesting to see how availability in Spanish hobby shops is now that distribution has been relocated.

It would also seem sensible membership of the various Int'l collectors clubs could be open to everyone. Granted, they may be few takers in the UK for Club Electrotren but I imagine there would be more interest other Club items, if indeed they will be continued.

[bill7437]

I could not agree with you more. The problem with Hornby is that the "old school" has left and the company is now in the hands of the marketing graduates with little inside knowledge of the model railway field. It was inevitable that there would be some consolidation of the International brands and it makes sense to import from China into the UK and then redistribute to the EU. It seems to me that Margate has little knowledge of the acquired brands and also the EU offices are in the dark but told that the reorganisation will be complete by April 2017. At least I managed to get some Jouef and Electrotren parts via Margate  with only an eight month wait a great surprise. You mention possible problems with Spanish shops - did you know that the T2 coach for the Electrotren Club for 2015 has only recently been delivered to members, from China to UK and then delayed before shipment to Madrid. Catalogues - no mechanism to obtain via Margate  This is not good enough and things really do need to change for the better.

[JeremiahBunyan]

Have a read...NEW - our new catalog conceptAs of the beginning of February, the new catalogs 2017 of our popular brands ARNOLD, ELECTROTREN, JOUEF and RIVAROSSI will be available and available to order.As you browse the new catalogs, you will notice that some new models from the previous year are not included. Furthermore, articles that have been announced for some time (such as the ARNOLD Series 10) are not included in the new catalog - all this for a good reason: we have decided on a completely new catalog concept!In the current and future main catalogs of our brands, you will find only items which we can actually deliver in the respective year.All projects for which a realization is not secured within the catalog period will only be included in the annual catalog as soon as reliable delivery is foreseen.Of course, this also means that all models not listed in the current main catalogs will no longer appear in our price lists and these products will be deleted from your reseller and existing orders at your dealer and these products will be returned in due time if the models are back in the catalog And the price list, must be re-ordered.Certainly you agree with us that with this new concept, we ensure an honest and reliable information of the market, our retailers and end users and, of course, ensure an efficient and market-oriented back-up for you. Long waiting times and therefore dissatisfied or disgruntled customers are a thing of the past.Certainly you agree with us that with this new concept, we ensure an honest and reliable information of the market, our retailers and end users and, of course, ensure an efficient and market-oriented back-up for you. Long waiting times and therefore dissatisfied or disgruntled customers are a thing of the past.Best regardsof theirHORNBY HOBBIESteam

 

From their facebook page...

[bill7437]

Seems reasonable to me if it actually happens. It still does not clarify the availability issue of either international catalogue or range availability in the UK from either retailers or Hornby.com. The offerings have been pretty meagre up to now despite promises of an increased range and there still does not appear to be any mechanism for enthusiasts in the UK to obtain the new "catalogue concepts". We will have to wait and see.!!!

[JeremiahBunyan]

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[bill7437]

 Hi Jeremiah, You are lucky to be able to access the Hornby Germany website where I assume you found the pictures of the 2017 International catalogues. This site has been blocked to my TalkTalk server for the past week - after reporting this to Hornby Germany they referred me to the UK site - what don't they want us to know ?????????????

[JeremiahBunyan]

 Hi Jeremiah, You are lucky to be able to access the Hornby Germany website where I assume you found the pictures of the 2017 International catalogues. This site has been blocked to my TalkTalk server for the past week - after reporting this to Hornby Germany they referred me to the UK site - what don't they want us to know ?????????????

Hi Bill,

 

I found it on facebook. And just to confirm with you, I have received a 403 Forbidden message when trying to access the Hornby Germany page. I presume it's being changed or revamped. I guess all in good time.

[bill7437]

Hi Jeremiah,

Have been informed by Hornby that the www.hornby.de site is down at the moment and they are hoping to get it back shortly. The International catalogues will be arriving at Hornby Towers next week. Hope this helps. 

[JeremiahBunyan]

Hi Jeremiah,

Have been informed by Hornby that the www.hornby.de site is down at the moment and they are hoping to get it back shortly. The International catalogues will be arriving at Hornby Towers next week. Hope this helps. 

Ahha...good news! Hope it's back up and running soon. Not that my German is fluent, but I like to do some WINDOW(s) shopping  😆 😆 😆

[96RAF]

Still cant get on the .de site - the other countries are no problem.

 

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access / on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

 

Rob

[Wagoncollector]

The brochure posted Hornby Germany and available to see on a number of web-sites only shows a limited part of the range of new releases, these that are relevant to Germany and Austria. However I think that Hornby are definitely missing out by not having either the new catalogues or new release brochures available in time for the Nurenburg trade fair.virtually every other major manufacturer manages it. So far I have only seen a list of Electrotren new releases on the Fore Trens Facebook page.

    On the subject of catalogues will they be freely available in this country, either through Hornby or a retail shop?

[bill7437]

I gather that the International catalogues arrived at Margate this week. How they will be distributed is anyones guess as they have been very problematic in the past. Suggest you keep an eye on the modelling press - Continental Modeller being your best bet as the International part of the Hornby website leaves much to be desired.

 

[ellocoloco]

All the Int't collection 2017 catalogues except Lima are listed on the Hornby website now.

[bill7437]

There is no Lima Expert catalogue this year, it has been merged with Rivarossi - my info from Hornby Italia. 

[96RAF]

The .de site is back up...

[bill7437]

Yes but nowhere near as informative as before, just a copy in German of the standard International site. Great pity, one could discover german prices, shops, availability, new items catalogues, etc. Maybe to discourage any purchase from the EU. ??

[Peter Ruifrok]

In my humble opinion Arnold (which is the Hornby brand covering the Netherlands and Germany, and maybe some other countries) is going nowhere. This used to be a great brand, but today there are hardly any new models, they are virtually absent on trade shows, visibility is zilch. I wonder what will happen in future with the German office......it is a pity since I deem e.g. Railmaster in combination with the eLink despite the absence of loc detection still an excellent starters package for DCC. And the Majestic set is great value for money. But unobtainable from local shops. There is no way any potential customer on the continent would even know its existence unless from using Google and finding the UK Hornby site. Fortunately companies like Hattons do an excellent mail service. Oddly enough, layouts with UK scenery are very loved overhere and many choose this as a theme, but Arnold/Hornby seem to be unable to valorise this. I don't see a strategy, only cost cutting. As an example, I estimate that Arnold/Hornby sold less than 5 Railmaster/eLink packages in the Netherlands (where I live), I being one of them. The reason being, that it is not being advertised and nowhere for sale.

[Peter Ruifrok]

 And the latest news on the international site is two years old.......

[bill7437]

I could not agree with you more Peter.The same can be said of all the International brands, there is very little new tooling and all the closures of major European back up is just plain cost cutting.  Prices have increased dramatically way beyond the pocket of the average enthusiast and distribution of these brands to retailers in the UK is to say the least spasmodic. The future does look bleak.