Marklin under pressure

I found out from another forum the major reason for our complaints. The below is translated from a newspaper article which was translated using bablefish.

Maerklin is heavily at pressure. The conversions
break away, customers criticize unsatisfactory
delivery behavior, and the banks send a
management consultation from Munich to the
Goeppingern into the house. Of Soenke Iwersen No
horror number, which is not still undercut. When
the management and the work council of Maerklin
negotiated one year ago about the basis for an
occupation safeguard contract, managing director
Paul Adams put a number on the table: 130 million
euro. That, said the managing director, is the
most unfavorable case, which lowest conceivable
conversion, with which Maerklin must be
nevertheless survivable however. In order to
ensure this, the model course manufacturer
diminished 342 places in production in
Goeppingen. Work council and trade union agreed,
because 130 million euro sounded expressed 2004
as pessimistic prognosis. That changed. "our
expectations will not arrive probably", say Adam.
Which expectations are this, he does not say.
Maerklin publishes no more reference numbers for
two years. 2003 did not lie the conversion with
164 million euro, over 2004 are anything
well-known. After information of the Stuttgart
newspaper the production target was not reached
by 145 million euro. For 2005 a repeated
break-down is approaching. The past horror
conception seems thereby after today's conditions
almost as a dream goal. "130 million would be an
enormous achievement", say a leading employee. A
conversion of 115 million euro seems realistic -
that would be opposite 2003 a break-down of 30
per cent. In addition, Adam denies this number,
calls no different one. On a workshop meeting the
managing director announced, one must about a
dismantling from 70 to 80 further places think,
if the situation did not improve. This is to
happen however without notices. The Beschaeftigu
ngssicherungsvertrag, which runs until 2010, is
to be maintained. Still 720 coworkers are active
in Goeppingen. As reason for the crisis the
Adam's bad surrounding field constitutes. The toy
industry stagnated, the customers bend rather to
saving as for consuming and also the coalition
contract is unsuitable to set the business in
motion. Whether all this can be however reason of
enough for such violent recessions in sales as
with Maerklin is doubted, in the industry.
"hauptproblem of Maerklin is the stupidity in
planning", says Ingrid bitter, the business guide
of model railway pupil in Stuttgart. "from
January to May 2005 important tracks were not
available. That cannot be done simply." Bitterly,
sold, recently the central station in such a way
specified station received for 30 years the model
courses from Maerklin. The controller was
announced in February 2004, which shifted supply
since then for various reasons. "the customers
are annoyed, if they come into the shop and do
not find, what it in the catalogs see", say
Norbert Sawinski, a dealer in Frankfurt. "I got
the whole summer no novelties from Maerklin
supplied. And then the people save the money
evenly not, separate spend it on other things."
The question remains whether Maerklin is strong
enough, in order to free itself from the crisis.
Between 2001 and 2003 the result was altogether
about 2.5 million euro. However the personnel
reduction 2004 cost 13 million euro. The business
banks of the model course manufacturer are so
alarmed that they sent the Munich management
consultation Wieselhuber & partner after
Goeppingen, in order to analyze Maerklin. The
first result: Maerklin is classified as
reorganization worthy and as reorganizationable.
She suggests which reorganization steps, the
management consultation did not want to say
yesterday.