How Big?

Grrr - sorry, finger trouble

You asked: " What am I missing? "

You probably aren't missing much but the Wiki creator is, I'm sure... I think that the Wiki is perhaps based on limited info or viewpoint:

Bachmann and Hornby are single brands: To be honest I find it hard to believe that at least one EU company (Marklin/Trix) and a couple more US companies aren't at these or higher levels!

For example, one company "owns" and distributes the brands Broadway Limited (BLI), PCM, Tower 55, Intermountain all of which do very well, and Walthers own LifeLike which is Proto etc etc etc - and thats just on HO. Large scale sales in US are very big (Lionel etc)

Anyway - other thoughts

(1) Hornby doesn't only sell trains, so their model train sales are significantly lower then their total turnover

(2) Bachmanns parent company Kader make for several brands other than Bachmann, so they may be significantly larger than "Bachmann Branded" products.

Apart from the above - numbers seem small for leadership. For example two American O scale companies recently went to war in the courts and one was awarded over 40 milllion... for loss of profits and technology theft etc... just for a bit of proprietary tech stuff...

Another example Hornbys Chinese manufacturer Sanda-kan makes for many brands in huge qtys and would have to be at much bigger than Hornby or Bachmanns turnover in trains as they are the source for much of the huge US markets product.

Richard

QUOTE Bachmann and Hornby are single brands: To be honest I find it hard to believe that at least one EU company (Marklin/Trix) and a couple more US companies aren't at these or higher levels!

Not strictly true. Bachmann/Kadar do indeed claim to be the largest model railway manufacturer in the world by volume. I've heard the claim made in a presentation by Dennis Lovatt , though he added that Maerklin are larger by turnover (but smaller by unit volume)

This includes all the brands of their model railway empire - Bachmann in the US, Lilliput, Bachmann and Farish in Europe plus Bachmann's Chinese range . The Kadar factory also apparently make models for other undisclosed brands (some of the specialist Australian names came to my mind)

To call all Kadar's model railway activities Bachmann is a slight simplification , but it is their usual brand in most markets.

And strictly speaking Hornby are no longer a one brand operation since they now have Electrotren, Jouef , Arnold and Rivarossi , though their market presence in the US is obviously very small

The writer of the Wiki may have got his wires slightly crossed and quoted turnover figures only for Bachmann Europe , not for the whole of Kadar's Trains Division (which I doubt would be publicly available) - the figures do not look right for Kadar globally