Hattons is Closing Down

[D1511]

Back to Hattons, I am wondering if they've made some poor business decisions. I have been browsing the sale, as I'm sure many of us have......and I spotted that they have no less than 1584 units of their own brand 18 pin loco decoders left in stock, which doesn't sound like sensible stock buying to me. Apparently they don't talk to Hornby controllers either, so I suspect that rules out a chunk of their client base for them. I realise there will be economies of scale from whoever makes the units for them to order them in larger numbers, but that's thirty grands worth of decoders
If your business isn't doing very well, I suggest you wouldn't place an order like that, but it wouldn't take too many bad calls like this one to turn it into a business that isn't doing very well.....

 

[SCH117X]

There were / are certainly some incredible stock levels. There were 200 O gauge plain black Dapol Terriers which all vanished one afternoon. They still have 4106 Hornby R609 curves and 4001 R606 curves. Using their sale prices thats around £16,000 of stock on two Setrack items. Trying to picture such quantity in a typical model shop and they would fill most of it. A posting on SREmG on groups.io looks at their published trading figures over a number of years and concludes the writing was on the wall and closure the correct course of action. My expenditure has largely been elsewhere for a number of years - Derails and Model Railway Direct as examples normally despatch promptly and postie is usually effective in achieving a delivery two or three days after placing the order whereas unless paying more orders from Hattons I had found where often more than a week to be despatched.

 

[Ducatist4]

For products that they sell under their own name i wouldn't be surprised if the mark up is much higher than you might imagine. Those £30k decoders at retail prices probably cost Hattons under £5k to buy We used to buy an item from the far east for under £1 per unit landed in the UK and sell them for £9.95 retail. We sold tens of thousands of them!
Our trade prices as an importer were around 50% of retail but many retailers heavily discount the larger items, sometimes only making 2 or 3% profit then relying on selling accessories at full retail to make their money.

 

[SCH117X]

I understand the decoders are/were rebadged DCC Concepts ones so the same as what Rails sell as their own.

 

[Andrew1395]

My last order arrived today from Hattons. Quick and efficient and well packaged as normal. It was only a circle of third radius Hornby settrack - will find a use for it somewhere - Sounds silly but felt I wanted to buy one last thing before it closed. A decade ago they had brilliant prices on RailRoad stuff, the backbone of the train set in the garden.

 

[GatwickDepress]

DPD delivered mine the other day. Unfortunately, it wasn't as well packed as yours with the box bursting at the seams - and the nice gent at reception taped it up for me - but nothing was damaged or missing, so I can be thankful for that. It does feel quite surreal knowing I won't be idly browsing the preowned section at teatime again.

 

[D1511]

I received the final email today, as many of you will also have received.
77 year old Mrs Hatton is looking forward to a spot of golf and tennis in her retirement, but nice to see that staff have found other positions with Rapido, Rails, TMC etc.
As a rail enthusiast version of Douglas Adams might have said, "so long and thanks for all the trains" Hattons.

 

[Sun Chariot]

And it's a little surreal, seeing their web home page stating "Hattons has permanently closed down".

 

[E27007]

Hattons were prominent buyers of sales advertisement space in the model railway magazines.
How much revenue have the magazines lost with the withdrawal of Hattons?

 

[GusB]

Hattons were prominent buyers of sales advertisement space in the model railway magazines.
How much revenue have the magazines lost with the withdrawal of Hattons?

I wondered about this when I browsed through a copy of the Railway Modeller the other day. Hatton's was a prominent advertiser when I regularly bought the magazine in my late teens; when I recently started buying the occasional copy, some 30+ years later, it was quite pleasing to see that they were still there.

 

[CAF397]

Hattons becomes part of the Rails family.

Hattons becomes part of the Rails family!

We are pleased to announce that we have now brought “Hattons Model Railways” into the Rails family! It was a shock to the modelling world earlier this year, when stalwart of the industry, Hattons, announced that it was to close. At Rails, we could not allow the legacy of this esteemed brand...

railsofsheffield.com

WE ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THAT WE HAVE NOW BROUGHT “HATTONS MODEL RAILWAYS” INTO THE RAILS FAMILY!
It was a shock to the modelling world earlier this year, when stalwart of the industry, Hattons, announced that it was to close.

At Rails, we could not allow the legacy of this esteemed brand to disappear and we have sought a way to keep the spirit of Hattons alive.

Many customers reached out to us, dismayed, that the valuable resources on the Hattons website such as the product database and expansive “Directory” system may be lost forever. Rails will soon relaunch these services and will continue to update them with new information.

While the original Hattons store and business will remain closed, this iconic brand will live on.