euronews - Lyon, France
Thursday 5th February 2009
" The famous German model railway maker M=E4rklin could be approaching the end of the line. The firm=92s filed for bankruptcy protection after failing to secure new credit from banks. "
In fact, it's possible for the company to continue operating for many years. If it can eventually reinvent its product line and increase sales to the point of profitability, it could emerge from bankruptcy. The owners may also want to sell what's saleable. However, most of the tools are substandard in today's model railway market, the "system" is essentially obsolete (although there may be niche market for it, based on nostalgia, for some years yet), and the marque itself is no longer "spiztenklasse." So it's not really worth much.
Wait and see what happens.
Cheers,
wolf k.
Their AC stud contact system is obsolete, but their Trix division is excellent.
I have a suspicion that many firms are using the world wide economic downturn as an excuse to lay off staff and sell / dump unwanted assets without the normal 'complications'.
As for Marklin their new (?) digital 'New Central Station' looks the part.
The American's appear to love their models.
Time will tell :-)
Chris
On Sat, 7 Feb 2009 09:58:10 -0800 (PST), Dragon Heart said in :
Of course they are, this is perfectly normal. It is so hard to ditch people who are no longer in the right job that it is an irresistible temptation. We had a few redundancies, I could have predicted every single name in advance. As it happened there was one surprise, but only one.
Guy
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