Hornby Regulatory News (HRN)

Hornby Plc ("Hornby" or "the Company")

Trading Update

Hornby is an international hobby products group, whose brand portfolio includes Hornby, Scalextric, Electrotren, Lima, Jouef, Rivarossi, Airfix, Humbrol and Corgi.

The Company is today issuing a further trading update for the financial year ended 31 March 2010 and anticipates making its annual results announcement on 4 June 2010. Business Performance 

Further to our pre-close trading statement on 31 March 2010, although the financial year to 31 March 2010 has been challenging, with adverse foreign exchange effects and de-stocking by retailers in the early part of the financial year, we are delighted to report that the financial year finished even more strongly than we expected. As a result, the Group will be reporting profits in excess of market expectations. This is primarily due to a significant reduction in inventories, purchased at more favourable dollar/sterling exchange rates in previous years. Cash generation has also been strong and we have reduced our debt levels significantly from £11.8 million as at 31 March 2009 to £3.2 million as at 31 March 2010.

In light of this performance, the Board intends to recommend a return to payment of a dividend for the year ended 31 March 2010.

For the new financial year there remains some uncertainty in respect of consumer confidence but order intake has continued strongly across all our brands.

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Date: 23 April 2010

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