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Hornby share price soars after Henry de Zoete joins the board
#1

   

You may have seen a story about Hornby and Scalextric tucked away in the business pages a couple of days ago. Henry de Zoete, a young, wealthy and talented entrepreneur has joined the Hornby board as a non-executive director. Speaking to the media on Tuesday, de Zoete said...
Quote:Hornby, Scalextric, Corgi, Humbrol and Airfix are all incredible heritage brands that I grew up with. I am really excited to give strategic input as the brilliant team focuses on digital transformation and growth, to build the business for generations to come.

De Zoete's biography is impressive. Starting out with renowned Silicon Valley start-up accelerator Y Combinator, in 2014 he co-founded The Big Deal, which used tech to facilitate collective bargaining for consumers. In 2018, he went on to establish Look After My Bills, a tech start-up which became the largest auto-switching service in the UK, saving families money on their gas and electricity. After raising global investment and securing the best deal in the history of BBC’s Dragons’ Den, Look After My Bills was acquired by GoCompare in July 2019. De Zoete has also served on the Board of the influential grassroots campaigning organisation 38 Degrees, was involved with the successful Vote Leave campaign and was a Special Adviser in the Department for Education from 2010 to 2014.

The news this morning was encouraging...
Quote:The Hornby share price closed up 10.6% yesterday, with another 3% of gains added in early trading today, after the scale models company announced the appointment of the angel investor Henry de Zoete as a non-executive director. Markets clearly approved the potential impact of de Zoete, who is a graduate of the renowned Silicon Valley start-up accelerator, Y Combinator and serial entrepreneur.

More here: https://www.tradingandinvestmentnews.co....-director/
[+] 1 member Likes woodcote's post
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#2

Hmmmmm vote leave ;)
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#3

Hornby went through the process of getting smart business people in previously and it nearly ended the company.

Scalextric is not missing business acumen, it IS missing people who are interested in slot car racing,

AlanW
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#4

Just the other day I was talking to a friend about where Scalextric is at worldwide at the moment. Here in Oz there’s not much available especially digitally speaking. In the US it’s hardly mentioned and Carrera seems available everywhere.
So the distribution and advertising outside the UK barely exists. That’s issue number one.
Second one you never see ads here in Oz anymore. Not that Aust is a huge market but it seems the same everywhere outside the UK.
Digital aspect: Next is they have released 10 powerbases since 2005when 2 maybe 3 would have done the job. At one stage their premium product was a underpowered 4 car powerbase without even an lcd screen. This sent them backwards for years.
After years they finally got a good powerbase, the C7042. Way too complicated in the user interface, even I struggle using it but it was top notch.
Then the next big mistake in my opinion. They release a powerbase with Bluetooth connection and wireless throttles. Throttles are actually quite good. Power is good.
App and aftermarket apps seriously lacking, an annoying 1.8 second delay on lap count updates and no way for developers to develop the system further as they refuse to release the protocols. App protocols however are available. But the system is so limited there is no room for app developers to “go for it”. It’s a dead end. There is some activity on the Scalextric forum but almost zero on the main forums.
The car and track side are fine.
I feel unless Hornby revitalise the new frontier, digital, they will see Carrera take the entire scene.

Rick
[+] 1 member Likes ScorpiusWireless's post
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#5

No need for sketchy impressions and assumptions… With Hornby being a public limited company, there’s quite a lot of corporate information in the public domain - including annual and half year reports via the ‘investor relations’ link at the bottom of all the different Hornby brands’ websites. Or directly here: https://www.hornby.plc.uk/annual-reports/

The latest half year report has figures for how and where products are sold…

   

That gives Scalextric the largest percentage non-UK reach of any of the main Hornby brands. The drop in that overseas percentage since 2019 is certainly influenced by an extremely strong domestic market during the pandemic.

Particularly strong in the past 24 months has been the sales of ARC Pro digital sets and accessories - they have been selling as quickly as they can be made. It might not be the perfect digital system, but it is certainly selling very well in the UK home market. The Magic app seems to have been embraced by this new audience too. I hope Cristiano is making some Euros out of that.

Rick - I always enjoy your extremely confident sweeping statements of ‘fact’. However, I don’t always see what you do…

The independent Australian distributor is able to commission increasingly attractive Aussie-only releases - more likely to be in response to a healthy Antipodean market than one that is flat or declining. And although Scalextric USA (now part of Hornby Hobbies) doesn’t have exclusive regional releases in the same way, the demands of the North American market are always considered in the range planning process, with models and sets chosen to appeal to that market. Hornby USA also distributes Slot.it and Policar in North America, of course.

Ten Scalextric digital powerbases? To my mind, there have been four distinct designs - the original; the APB; the ill-judged, but understandable budget 4-car pb; and ARC Pro. In my opinion, the latter is by far the best-suited to the Scalextric audience - it is very accessible to a wide demographic. It is a different market to the one Scorpius operates in.

And let’s never kid ourselves, digital is a tiny part of the Scalextric (or Carrera) sales. The main market is for the family-oriented sets (Micro Scalextric / Carrera Go!!!), then collectors. A long way behind are home racers, digital home racers. Completely insignificant in terms of sales are organised racing groups and clubs (analogue or digital) - despite this, the Scalextric team take time and effort listening to what we want. In the UK, digital racing is predominantly Scalextric digital - with a handful of 1:32 club racers enjoying oXigen.
[+] 6 members Like woodcote's post
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#6

My main point is Carrera has eaten a huge part of their business. Here in Oz there are hardly any Arc Pro sets but more digital Carrera sets than I can ever remember. On the US Scalextric was widely sold but now 9/10 new digital users are Carrera.

Powerbases.
c7030 5 versions. When they perfected if they strangely dumped it. Bad business decision.
W9430. The 4 car powerbase with 3 versions. No screen. Why not 6 cars? Worse power than the 7030 thru dumped. So here another backward step.

C7042. A couple of updates

Arc Pro. At least one update.

So ten versions. Each costing development tone and money. Lots of wasted resources Ave money for the investors.
In comparison over the sags period Carrera 2 powerbases.
From memory they ran 6 years in a row at a loss.
Yes very different market to Scorpius but I never mentioned Scorpius as it has nothing to do with Hornbys position since 2009.  

Yes the Arc Pro is good for the investors and kids. As an enthusiast level I was shocked to see how underwhelming it is as a digital slot car experience compared to even the old C7030 using PC lapcounter. You have to admit the 2 second delay makes it impossible to accurately assess where you’re at during a race. And very annoying. But why? That simple yet annoying feature shows poor design yet again. 
And ok it’s a money decision to dump the C7042 even though it’s 5 times more functional than the Arc Pro but why hold back on sharing protocols on the Arc Pro so the enthusiasts can improve on it? 
I think the first year I got back into Scalextric there was 86 releases and this year 35???
My main point is worldwide Carrera have taken a big chunk of their market due to Hornbys poor marketing, distribution and product choices like motorbikes, Olympic releases, 4 car powerbases etc. With Carrera I haven’t seen any of that.

And now prices that are 80% of an NSR whereas 6 years ago they were 50%. 
Am I going to spend $93 on a Scaley or $115 on an NSR? The NSR looks very good in comparison price wise for a mass produced Chinese car versus a hand made Italian one. Fair point?

That’s my perspective since 2006.
[+] 1 member Likes ScorpiusWireless's post
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#7

Scorplus says

"My main point is " I don't like Scalextric
[+] 2 members Like Bazzer's post
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#8

OK, well let's discuss the effect on Hornby and specifically Scalextric, that the new board member may bring. 
He is obviously an Internet facilities entrepenuer so presumably he will be pushing that interface with the buyers. The table above shows that a relatively small percentage of sales are "direct to customer" so its fair (imo) to assume that the new guy has been brought in to boost that aspect. 
The "Rest of The World" sales still appear to be via dealers and that may be due to bulk imports are more economical than individuals purchasing direct from the UK.  
To me all I can see happening is that home market sales could become more direct (I feel that that Hornby are keen on that).  
Although the new chap mentions childhood times with Hornby products, I can't see him having much input on product expansion either in terms of the items chosen or in the production processes.

The chart above doesn't show the actual departmental split of sales within the Hornby group but surely the existing management have their eyes on the viability of each departments activities and could easily identify the appropriate business decisions required. 

Leo

Forum Precepts:  Don't hijack or divert topics - create a new one.   Don't feed the Troll.    http://www.scuderiaturini.com
[+] 2 members Like Scuderia_Turini's post
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#9

(13th-Jan-22, 11:04 PM)KBazzer Wrote:  Scorplus says

"My main point is " I don't like Scalextric

No mate love it, long time, just been watching the scene for 15 years. Grew up on Scaley. Had massive 4 lane track lots of great memories. My best track ever was a 33mm digital Scaley track. I’ve dedicated lots of time to improve the system and made alternatives. Love the cars, the heritage, I’ve been inside Margate and seen their wholesale area, their manufacturing facilities still in place from the 60s to until they moved to China. Met CEO, talked to their developers.
Maybe if you listen you might get a real understanding.

It’s because I love Scalextric I’m disappointed in how the company is being run into the ground. The end game is they close up shop if they continue as is. No one here wants that.
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