[woodcote]

From Hornby Hobbies…

Hornby Hobbies Agrees Sale of Scalextric in £20m Deal
 
27 February 2026 - Hornby Hobbies Limited has agreed the sale of 100% of the Scalextric brand, including its intellectual property and associated assets, toScalextric Motorsports Ltd for total consideration of £20.0 million. £8.5 million of the total consideration is payable in cash upfront, with the remaining £11.5m deferred and payable out of free-cash flow. Completion of the sale is conditional upon certain consents, with completion expected to occur in early March.
 
Scalextric Motorsports Ltd has been established by Mark Brown, Chairman of Purbeck Capital Partners, to be the holding company of the brand in the future.  Mark brings extensive experience in brand growth, capital allocation and operational execution. As part of the transaction, Mark has agreed to an ongoing role helping Hornby on its wider strategic transformation.
 
Under the terms of the agreement, Scalextric’s operations will continue to be supported within Hornby’s existing infrastructure. Hornby will manage the brand as agent, ensuring operational continuity while enabling Scalextric Motorsports Ltd to focus on accelerating the brand’s next phase of growth.
 
The sale represents an important milestone in Scalextric’s growth journey. With additional capital and independent ownership, the brand will be well positioned to accelerate development across both established and new categories, and to expand its domestic and international footprint.
 
Olly Raeburn, CEO of Hornby Hobbies, commented:
“This is a hugely exciting development for the Scalextric brand, building on the work from our teams that has made such encouraging progress over the last couple of years. Mark's leadership will bring enormous experience, energy and enthusiasm to the business and we look forward to supporting the execution of his vision and strategy. We have enjoyed working with him to get this transaction over the line and are now focused on converting all of the positive discussions into reality and growth for Scalextric.”
 
On behalf of Scalextric Motorsports Ltd., Mark Brown commented:
“We are both honored and thrilled to be acquiring such an iconic British motorsport brand which has been bringing family and friends together for motor racing competition, excitement, and fun at home for nearly 70 years, spanning four generations.  As we look to a long-term future with Scalextric as a now family-owned company, we are energised by the opportunity to continue bringing competitive racing fun to families, while expanding into new areas of motorsport helping to build physical and hand-eye coordination skills, particularly at a time when families are trying to balance time spent online versus real world activities.” 
 
-Ends-

[JasonB]

Good Lord!!!!

[Mr.M]

Good luck to them.

I wonder if any of the "hobby grade" companies could raise that investment.

[Kevan]

Who said there's no money in TV & film Slot cars 

[Scuderia_Turini]

Sounds like someone came up with the brand name "Scalextric Motorsports" and then they bought the company to go with it. 

[Graham]

My first thought is that £20 million was not a great deal of investment money to come up with these days, so quite surprised that the company did not get taken over by a competitor, perhaps Carrera, SCX or even Ninco etc, perhaps worth it for market share ? so I assume that this was a deal between friends......
The 2nd thing I notice was the £8.5 million cash up front, presumably this was to pay off the bad depts which Scalextric had acrued, quite unbelievable this as I worked for a good few commercial enterprises the past and none of them would have tolerated that level of bad dept relative to the annual sales income. So I assume the new owner will impose quite different Credit rules on their customers which might hurt a few retailers.

The name choice is interesting, "Scalextric Motorsports Ltd" does this imply a change of direction towards more competition based club level models, and is at the demise of the Novelty type TV type models....... Also Mark's words on "expanding into new areas of motorsport" is enticing, umm are karting and Raid models back !!

[Kevan]

Expanding into 'racing'..  hmm, good for us racers who don't see ourselves as 'collectors'.  If that is indeed what they intend doing then good. 

Close-to-scale racing Slot cars are not readily available and there is definitely a market out there for them.  When I say racing I mean without magnets and race ready chassis, cars made with as much focus on performance as looks.

We live in hope eh.

[JasonB]

I'm still not sure what to think of this.

It obviously doesn't fill me with confidence, as you don't sell off a thriving part of a business, nor one that is at the core of what you are doing. I guess it was no big secret that Scalextric was neither of those things for Hornby, but the sale certainly nails that down unequivocally.

On the plus side, we can hope that with Scalextric shedding itself of it's largely unenthusiastic parent organisation, the company will finally be run by someone who actually cares.

I guess it's also a positive that...

Scalextric’s operations will continue to be supported within Hornby’s existing infrastructure. Hornby will manage the brand as agent, ensuring operational continuity while enabling Scalextric Motorsports Ltd to focus on accelerating the brand’s next phase of growth.

Scalextric is one of the iconic brand names, probably the biggest in slot cars, we need them to be successful. They make the sets that parents buy for their children.

[Graham]

Looking at Mark Browns history, he seems to have been very successful at acquisitions in the drinks industry in the USA, bringing together a number of smaller different brands together to form a larger drinks cooperation. So I would expect him to be seeing an opportunity to do something similar under the Scalextric Motorsport umbrella. 

It is interesting to speculate as to what other small companies could be acquired in this context…..
But for sure he will be looking primarily at making this a commercially viable enterprise.

[BAracer]

If i had a pound for everytime a family member asked if I was the buyer....I'd be able to buy it!