Airfix in administration !

I would want to know the source of that information before accepting it as correct. There's little business sense in operating in that way, though sense is often lacking in business. Chers, Bill.

Reply to
Bill Davies
Loading thread data ...

formatting link

Buying famous brand names and selling off their physical assets is standard business practice in the UK. Airfix' model railway tooling was sold off many years ago.

(kim)

Reply to
kim

The railway tooling was sold, the products made from those tools are now sold under the Dapol name. If Humbrol was purchasing the moulded products form Dapol and rebranding them as Airfix, that would be a valid parallel. I can't see that the suggested situation with Heller has much in common with this arrangement, Cheers, Bill.

Reply to
Bill Davies

Some of the former "Airfix" products sold by Dapol were always made by Kader in the far east and have since been rebranded as "Bachmann" products. The moulds were never physically owend by Airfix or Dapol.

(kim)

Reply to
kim

Heller don't own the Airfix moulds. Humbrol is the major (only?) trading arm of a company called Hobby Products Group. Airfix in turn is a brand belonging to Humbrol. Humbrol also owned Heller until about 9 months ago when a deal was reached to sell the Heller plant to it's management. Humbrol retained ownership of all the moulds from both the Airfix and Heller catalogues. Heller would be a contract moulder for Humbrol.

In July the new Heller management placed the company in administration. Subsequently it would seem a dispute arose between Heller's administrators and Humbrol's management which resulted in Heller refusing to supply any products - kits- to Humbrol. It would seem that it is this drying up of their principal supply stream tat has forced Humbrol into administration.

John

Reply to
John Walker

Ah, the Frogs won't miss any opportunity to annoy the Brits, and the Brits won't miss any opportunity to blame it on the Frogs...

Reply to
Serge D. Grun

There is some confusion here. I thought we were discussing the Airfix model railway construction kits, most of which originated with Kitmaster before being bought by Airfix upon that company's demise. These tools always remained the property of Airfix until sold to Dapol. At no point after that did Airfix market products from the tools thay had formerly owned. I believe that Kader always owned the Mainline tooling in Hong Kong. This has become somewhat muddied following Mainline's purchase of the Airfix range, the latter (as far as I am aware) had nothing to do with Kader. Kader subsequently bought Bachmann sometime around 1987, launching many of the former Mainline tools they owned under the Bachmann Branchline brand. Cheers, Bill.

Reply to
Bill Davies

Thanks Graham, That's pretty much how I understood the situation, Cheers, Bill.

Reply to
Bill Davies

Never apologize for being smart. I wish I had put back more of their military colors.

Bill Shuey

Reply to
William H. Shuey

But has anyone made the 'perhaps the business model just fell apart' joke yet?

JJ (UK)

Reply to
JJ (UK)

No, thank God!

Doug Wagner

Reply to
Doug Wagner

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.