Hornby has formally bought LIMA-Rivarossi group.

[ciortato]

It is an official news, Hornby has bought LIMA-Rivarossi group. The verdict has been issued by Italian Law Court in these last days. All the production will be moved to China and Italian factories will be all closed (a lot of workers will less their job).

[simon1966]

Taken from the press release:

Story Posted: 05/10/2004
Hornby Plc, the model and collectables group, is pleased to announce that the Court of Brescia in Italy has signed a decree which allows the Liquidators of Lima S.p.a. to accept Hornby's offer of €8 million to acquire certain assets of Lima.

The Hornby Board is confident that the acquisition will be completed by the end of the calendar year.

Lima is one of the best-known model railway companies in Europe.

However, given the high cost overhead associated with its European based manufacturing operations, the company has suffered recently from poor cash flow and was forced into liquidation in 2003.

The Hornby Board is confident that it has the skills and experience to re-invigorate Lima’s brands. This will be achieved by reducing production costs by outsourcing production to China and concentrating on improving sales and distribution channels to ensure a recovery in sales of Lima’s key European markets. Hornby intends to maintain Lima’s current product lines.

The bulk of the company’s assets are detailed product moulds; initially these will be moved to Hornby’s site in Margate before dispatch to China. Hornby has implemented this outsourcing strategy successfully with its own Hornby and Scalextric brands.

The acquisition represents a major opportunity for Hornby to continue its growth in key European markets. Lima has a strong range of brands:

Lima/Rivarossi - brand leaders in Italy
Jouef - brand leader in France
Arnold - 'N' gauge products (predominantly German)
Pocher - high-end diecast collectable kits

In addition to the European opportunity, Rivarossi is recognised as a premium brand in the USA.

Chief Executive of Hornby, Frank Martin, said: "We are delighted that the Italian Court has recognised the merits of our offer. Now, subject to our due diligence, we hope to complete the acquisition before the end of the year. We are excited by the potential for the Lima brands, which alongside our Spanish operation Electrotren, will form the platform for our expansion into key European markets. Over the long-term we are confident that this will also increase our rate of growth in the USA.”


It is not quite done yet, and could still fall through. Until the due dilligence is performed and the papers are signed the deal can fall. Anyway, it reads as if all Hornby is purchasing is the goodwill of the brand names and the production drawings and moulds. Presumably any factory and machinery assets are being sold to someone else?

[ciortato]

No, Hornby will to move all the LIMA machinery before to England and after to China ...... all those are excellent machinery, therefore Hornby has no purpose to sell them to someone.

[dknelson]

Rivarossi is a premium brand in the USA? Premium priced for sure. Maybe I am showing my age because back when AHM first grew by leaps and bounds in the 1960s, the Rivarossi products were remarkable for how cheap they were -- and how highly detailed (for the time) - and for how they utterly disregarded anything approaching NMRA standards when it came to flange depth and wheel width which is why a lot of serious modelers had nothing to do with them -- because they could not get Rivarossi stuff to run on their code 70 HO layouts. I know they have changed the tooling since but old memories and impressions die hard .... seems like there is still some 40 year old tooling being offered at high prices.
Dave Nelson

[orsonroy]

Rivarossi does some absolutely beautiful work, as shown by their own 60' passenger cars and Allegehney (sp). They've also made at least two of the steamers marketed by Life Like Proto (the 2-8-8-2 and Berk). Their problem is that the bulk of their product line is 1960s tooling, leftovers from the AHM days. THOSE engines need to either be retired or completely upgraded. Rivarossi is a BAD option for any car or engine made by any other company.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by orsonroy

Rivarossi does some absolutely beautiful work, as shown by their own 60' passenger cars and Allegehney (sp). They've also made at least two of the steamers marketed by Life Like Proto (the 2-8-8-2 and Berk).

Perhaps the Riv FEF-3 may also qualify.

The warranty terms on the new Rivs beyond the Walthers 12 month exchange needs to be addressed in due time.

[cjcrescent]

Ray;
I thought the P2K 2-8-8-2 was made by Roco? If so they are not part of the deal. Roco is out of Austria and appear to be doing well. Don't know about the berk, haven't seen one.

[ciortato]

The Rivarossi prices were very high also in Italy ...... New machinery had refined their products, but crisis, that have affected Italian market in these last years, has crushed Group' relaunch hope.

[Anonymous]

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