Hornby pledge after £1.2m loss

Toy firm Hornby vowed to deliver an improvement in its performance yesterday after racking up losses of £1.2 million during the last financial year.

Toy firm Hornby vowed to deliver an improvement in its performance after racking up losses of 1.2 million. Picture: PA

The group, whose brands also include Airfix, Corgi and Scalextric, said the deficit for the year to the end of last month will be £200,000 more than expected because of foreign exchange losses. The company’s troubles stem from supply chain woes involving a major model railway manufacturer in China, but with those ties due to be cut from July it expects a “gradual improvement” in its reliability and quality this year.

It said trading in recent weeks has been in line with expectations and that it broke even in the year to 31 March when excluding the foreign exchange impact, which relates to the value of currency held to purchase its products.

The firm has been broadening its supplier base, moving production to other Chinese firms as well as those in India and bringing some manufacturing back to Britain.