I was curious about how big some of these companies are like Bachmann, Walthers, Athearn, Kalmbach, etc.. Someone told me that MB Klein had 90 employees, i don't know how true that is but thats alot. Also wonder which is the biggest as far yearly income.
M. B. Klein is a real life brick-and-mortar hobby shop in Maryland, in addition to being a major mail order source, but they are not a manufacturer.
Bachmann owns one of the major factories in China (Sanda Kan) that manufactures model railroad products in all scales and for several different importers who then sell the products under their own brand name.
If you look carefully at most model railroad products, very few are manufactured in the USA.
Bachmann is the big player. Probably the largest model railroad manutacturer. In addition to the U.S. market, they have a huge presence in Europe. Athearn is owned by Horizon Hobbies which also owns Roundhouse as well as RC stuff, don't know how large they are but pretty good size. Walthers also owns other companies like Life-Like and others. Both Horizon and Walthers have most stuff made in China. Kalmbach is a major hobby publisher (probably the largest for model railroading in the U.S.) mainly model railroading, but other things as well. Atlas, Lionel, and MTH are also large companies.
Most model railroad companies are privately owned, so there is little (if any) public information on revenues, etc.
Enjoy
Paul
Bachmann, as well as other renowned brands, belong to Kader Holdings Co.Ltd., Hong Kong. The annual report for 2014 shows a consolidated turnover of 825 m HK$, that´s about 106 m $. About 5/8 of this is revenue from business with North America, mainly the Bachmann (USA) brand.
This puts Kader on eye level with Marklin.
Well, Rapido has about 5 employees.
True Line Trains has around 2 or 3.
Atlas has around 6 to 10 people; maybe a couple more.
The Athearn part of Horizon has around 10 or so (if that).
BLI has 13 (according to their own online catalog).
For the most part, none of these "manufacturers" actually assemble or build things. They contract them out to various Chinese companies, or own their own Chinese companies outright (like Rapido).
The larger hobby employers are also distributers (like Walthers), but a lot of that is warehouse work, filling orders, etc.
Paul A. Cutler III
cacoleIf you look carefully at most model railroad products, very few are manufactured in the USA.
It's worth pointing out that MicroEngineering products are made in the USA.
Steve S
A few thoughts:
I seriously doubt MB Klein has 90 employees.
Even when many products were made here, most of the "biggest" companies were still very small - Walthers is likely the still the biggest domestic employer in model trains, and they did make a lot of stuff here for a long time - 100 people? maybe at one point.
Athearn - even when making everything here, like in the 70's or 80's, maybe 30 people?
Even the domestic operation for Bachmann is staffed by a small group of people, likely 20 or less including warehouse staff?
Back before total China production, Life like made its scenery products right here in Baltimore, but many of those employees were also part of their styrofoam cooler business.
Kader is really the only publicly held company in this business, so based on Ulrich's numbers you can get an idea of just howsmall most ofthese companies are.
Having worked in this business years ago, I met a lot of the owners/"big players" years ago, and still know a few people.
But that aside, you might be surprised how easy it is to call up some of these companies and have the owner answer the phone......or talk directly to the "head" of a given department......because they ARE that department.
Since most all the companies are privately held, how much they sell, or how much they make, is closely guarded.
Sheldon
Woodland Scenics is no small potato. They have 150 employees plus or minus.
Bob
Don't Ever Give Up
cacole If you look carefully at most model railroad products, very few are manufactured in the USA.
I know that Kadee, Micro-Trains, Micro Engineering and Rix Products/Pikestuff all manufacture their products in the USA.
ATLANTIC CENTRAL A few thoughts: I seriously doubt MB Klein has 90 employees.
I have been to the MB Klein brick and mortar store in suburban Baltimore, and at any given time, there's about 3-4 staff on the floor. Maybe half a dozen on the weekends. The store has an entirely separate inventory than the online store (in fact, I purchased a Kato doublestack well car set at the store that was listed as "out of stock" on the website). The online orders are taken care of in the back part of the store, which isn't accessible to the public. There might be just as much staff back there. So maybe the "90" figure had an additional zero, or maybe they heard "19."
When I was there in January, there was a job opening listed on their bulletin board, so while they might not have 90 employees, they are definitely still growing.
Walthers own website copeis a local business newspaper article that mentions 100 employees.
http://www.walthers.com/exec/page/fourth_generation?friendly=Y
My hunch is that current employment is less than that but if you go to their headquarters there are plenty of cars in the employee parking area.
Dave Nelson
Metro Red Line ATLANTIC CENTRAL A few thoughts: I seriously doubt MB Klein has 90 employees. I have been to the MB Klein brick and mortar store in suburban Baltimore, and at any given time, there's about 3-4 staff on the floor. Maybe half a dozen on the weekends. The store has an entirely separate inventory than the online store (in fact, I purchased a Kato doublestack well car set at the store that was listed as "out of stock" on the website). The online orders are taken care of in the back part of the store, which isn't accessible to the public. There might be just as much staff back there. So maybe the "90" figure had an additional zero, or maybe they heard "19." When I was there in January, there was a job opening listed on their bulletin board, so while they might not have 90 employees, they are definitely still growing.
I live only 40 minutes from there, and was just there last week. I've been a customer, and have met Mr Klein, going all the way back to the late 60's.
It is a nice sized warehouse for just model trains, but you would not need 40 employees let alone 90.
M B Klein's web site says they have a staff of 77.
Mark H
Modeling in HO...Reading and Conrail together in an alternate history.
crhostler61 M B Klein's web site says they have a staff of 77. Mark H
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
If so, I suspect a good percentage are part time.....which would make sense for several reasons.
ATLANTIC CENTRAL crhostler61 M B Klein's web site says they have a staff of 77. Mark H If so, I suspect a good percentage are part time.....which would make sense for several reasons. Sheldon
Since their job opportunities lists clean up person Monday-Wednesday-Friday 4:00pm to 8:00pm, I would say very part time.
ATLANTIC CENTRALBut that aside, you might be surprised how easy it is to call up some of these companies and have the owner answer the phone......or talk directly to the "head" of a given department......because they ARE that department.
I've had Jason Shron (of Rapido) reply directly to me on a forum before. I'm not gonna lie, it totally made my day.
Also, whenever I call up MTH I always end up talking to Midge. I assume that she is the parts department, as the parts department was closed last Friday afternoon, when she was off :P
It's way different than dealing with insurance, finance, or tech companies, where you end up getting someone out of a pool of 5000.
I was once in there on a December Saturday that also featured a show at the fair grounds and I overheard they had 12 people working that day. I'd imagine they've got a fair number of seasonal in addition to part time. We didn't have 12 people working at once on the day after Thanksgiving at the B&N I worked!
I think we can all agree that "small numbers" is the rule here, even if exact numbers may be, as they say, fungible. It is an industry that has seasonal ups and downs, as well as gluts of activity when new shipments are received. Every hobby shop I've ever been in is staffed with mostly part-time employees so wouldn't surprise me there's a lot of that above retail also.
That said, I think the small numbers also speak to the personal effort and dedication to their work to bring us the fantastic products we have today. Things are never perfect, either, so when there are failings, it's important to keep in mind you're really not dealing with GFC (Giant Faceless Corporation). It's almost always a small or even family business that wants the customer to be satisfied. Treat them like you would friends, even if something needs corrected, and they're certain to return the favor.
I only say this because so often I read criticism that implies that the folks on the other end are "money-grubbers who are out to rip us off." That they have entire depts devoted to frustrating modelers, etc. Literary license aside, I think the scope of the industry and its personal nature all speak to good folks doing their best to bring us quality products at reasonable costs. It's not an easy task and as I've often heard, the same money invested elsewhere could probably earn a higher rate of return. In fact, some model RR companies are actually offshoots of bigger companies whose management sees fit to devote part of what they do to something they love, even if it is at a lower rate of return than their main biz. That's another reason many are privately held. They make decisions that bring good models to us all the time that would leave the BOD of a public corp. shaking its head. Good for them.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Testors being the largest by a huge run is oddly amusing to me.
Klein had around 20 in the early 80's before internet sales, though true there were a lot of part timers.
Back around 1996-97 when Model Die Casting was still in Carson City, Nevada and was actually MDC/Roundhouse I paid them a visit. There were about 9 hispanic women sitting at a cluster of tables putting parts into the classic Roundhouse boxes, 2 injection machine operators, and 3 office/supervision. I spoke with the Menteer son...can't recall his name. They were in full operation that day.
That came to mind with this thread.