End of the line for Marklin?

This truly means bancrupcy unfortunately.

However, hopefully they might find a way to avoid it this year due to pre-planed festivities to be held honoring the 150th anniversary .

Also we have to wait and see how Nurnberg goes. i.e; any substantial sales?

Rumor is that wages also not been paid.

Sad.

Baykal

Hello,

this will become interesting. Given the fact that Märklin lost about 13.6 Mio. Euros in 2006, 16.6. Mio. Euros in 2007 and according to that report about 20 Mio. Euros in 2008 I honestly do not see much of a chance. There are ongoing rumours that Märklin paid excessive fees for consultants since Kingsbridge took over in 2006 which will be part of the problem.

It is a fact that January wages have not been paid, see http://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/in...umsjahr;2139524 (in German).

Looking at the German forum http://www.drehscheibe-online.de Märklin has a serious quality problem at the moment which also adds to the general problem.

Märklin might also be a victim of a too heavy reliance on its residual AC system in H0 gauge as opposed to DC, its residual Z gauge as opposed to N gauge and its I gauge as opposed to IIm or G.

Whatever happens, I seriously doubt that we will see the end of either the Märklin or Trix brand. Especially Märklin is far too strong as a brand name to simply disappear. What we might see is another round of concentration on the German (or continental) market with the brand and the castings being bought by one of the competitors.

Possibly there are far too many manufacturers for a shrinking market anyway. If we count brands we have Märklin, Fleischmann, Trix, Piko, Roco, Lima, Rivarossi, Jouef, Bemo, Liliput, Gützold, Tillig, Mehano, Brawa, L.S. Models, ViTrains, A.C.M.E, Hobbytrade (DK), Heris, Railtop (if they really exist), Hobbytrain (Lemke), Kombimodell and Lenz on the German H0 market, even though Lima, Rivarossi and Jouef are one manufacturer and so are Märklin and Trix on one hand and Roco and Fleischmann on the other. And ViTrains and A.C.M.E. do not do German outline models.

Contrary to common believe this competition did not lead to falling prices to gain market share but to small production runs with escalating costs. Many prototypes are available from two or even more manufacturers in a similar quality and there are very few prototypes which have never been modelled.

From what I have learned in the Continental vs. UK. vs. US thread in the UK there are far fewer manufacturers, essentially just two, Hornby and Bachmann, plus two smaller ones, Heljan and ViTrains. There are less models available rtr and, please correct me if I am wrong here, models of very few prototypes are currently available from more than one manufacturer. Personally, I see this as the future of German model railways manufacturers.

Kind regards

Christoph

John, if the management won't be there what is the point in having a stand ?

Nurnberg is not like Dortmund fair, you are simply attending to promote 2009 new products and to make transactions ,i.e sell products to all your wholesalers around the globe.

This means that kingsbridge has thrown the towel.

People unfortunately still do not comprehend the scale of the recession that we are facing.

Its a domino effect of which this world has not ever seen before. I do believe we haven't seen the worst yet.

See what a couple of $"x%&$ so called greedy financial wizard CEO's of the so called financial establishments has created?

What really puts me off is that these guys responsible for this devastation is still walking around and asking for their bonuses.

Baykal

QUOTE (billericaybill @ 3 Feb 2009, 13:20) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>It is an extraordinary fact that many or most of us Aussies have just been given $950 which the government wishes us to go out and spend. Shall I start a thread for Aussies on "when i get my $950 I will spend it on....". I doubt there will be a shortage of ideas
Andrew
Unlike us here in the UK who have just had to swallow a government "rescue" package for these fine upstanding institiutions called banks that will be paid for by the tax payer (isn't everything) then they reduce the vat (purchase tax) by 2.5% to help stimulate growth
Its cost me more than 2.5% to administer this as a business. Then I get a letter from the bank telling me my credit line (business overdraft) has been withdrawn because I havn't used it recently! The Bank of England reduces the base interest rate but it takes the banks too long to pass it on to us customers.
And to top it off our so called Leader wasn't even elected as such and it was his finacial policys as chancellor of the exchequor (by de -regulating the finacial services) that allowed the banks to get greedy and get in a mess in the first place.
"We've put an end to boom and bust" Gorden Brown (so called because his head is stuck up his arse)
Banker should be spelt with a W instead of a B!
Rant over!