Hornby Regulatory News (HRN)

Hornby Plc ("Hornby" or "the Group")

Pre-close Trading Update

Hornby Plc, the international models and collectibles Group, is today updating shareholders on trading for the period from 1 January 2014 to the end of our financial year, 31 March 2014.

Business Performance 

At the operating level, the Group has traded in line with the Board's expectations in the last quarter and expects to deliver a performance for the year around breakeven at the underlying pre-tax level as indicated in our last trading update. However, we have suffered a further £0.2m foreign exchange loss since January's update that will therefore lead to an expected £1.2m loss overall.

The Group is now engaged with its main bankers on a negotiation of new banking facilities based on the operating plans for the next financial year. It is expected that these negotiations will be concluded by the time results for the year to 31 March 2014 are announced in June this year. Net debt at the end of March 2014 is now expected to be around £7.3m compared to £6.5m at the end of December 2013 and £2.1m at 31 March 2013.

Outlook

As announced previously, Richard Ames is joining the Group as the new Chief Executive later this month. Richard has a wealth of experience and we look forward to him leading the Group and driving Hornby's future performance. The Group's plans for the new financial year are well advanced and with the main obstacle to an improved and efficient supply chain out of the way, we expect a gradual improvement in its reliability and quality. As a result we look forward to improved trading next year.

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Date: 8 April 2014

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