Toymaker Hornby was back on track today after last autumn’s profit warning, which wiped a third off its value.
The difficult-to-shift Olympic toy cars and memorabilia have now virtually disappeared in discounted sales while new products shown at the recent London Toy Fair have gone down a storm.
Problems with the Chinese manufacturer of model trains also appear to have been fixed with the firm, which once supplied 75% of these products now down to just 15%. Sales are, as expected, below last year’s and analysts forecast Hornby will only break even in the year to March.
New chairman Roger Canham said: “I am confident that as I take over the chair, we are on the way to dealing with the headwinds highlighted in previous trading statements, not least the supply chain challenges. I visited our suppliers in China early in January and believe that the strategy being pursued by the business will result in a much more robust product pipeline as 2013 progresses.”
