Hornby Regulatory News (HRN)

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

Trading Update

Hornby Plc, the international models and collectibles Group, is today updating shareholders on trading for the period from 1 October 2020 to date, which includes the important Christmas and New Year period.

Business Performance 

Group sales for the third quarter were positive and ahead of the same period last year. As a result, cumulative group sales for the financial year to date are ahead of last year. This has been driven by a hugely popular product range and increased global demand as consumers spend more time indoors focusing on their hobbies and taking comfort from our brands.

January to date has been a slower start that we would have liked as we contend with tighter COVID-19 restrictions within the warehouse and the impact of courier companies pausing collections bound for Europe due to Brexit backlogs. We have now largely worked through these issues and will start shipping to Europe imminently.

Covid-19

In the short term we have had to make repeated changes and adaptations to protect our supply chain, to ensure that we will be stronger after Covid-19 than we were before it. Our sales performance currently bears this out; throughout this difficult period most of our wonderful staff have had to adapt by working from home or restricting their activities in other ways, but they still achieved higher sales than in the prior year, pre-Covid. We need to continue this hard work so as to earn our customers' continued loyalty.

We have to accept that the previously established retail environment has changed forever, due to the pandemic. We continue to adapt to this new situation and the challenges it presents. Our responses, and the changes we have made, have given us a stronger bond with our customers. Our direct sales are up 133% year on year.

Financial Position

Covid-19 has had dire consequences for many businesses, but we have coped with it. We will be in a much better position to advance still further, once the pandemic is over. 

Net cash at the end of December 2020 was £3.8 million compared to net cash £3.9 million at the end of September 2020 and net debt £9.9 million at December 2019.

Product Range 2021

We would normally be attending several Toy Fairs during January but these have been cancelled due to COVID restrictions. As such we have digitally previewed our latest range announcements which have been released to the trade and the public through various social media platforms. The feedback was encouraging, and we were buoyed by the levels of interest.

Outlook

We currently expect to finish the year with sales 15-20% ahead of the prior year subject to the warehouse still being able to operate fully with new COVID restrictions in place. 

Our new website is expected to go live in the coming weeks and we anticipate a much improved interaction with our much loved customers as the platform allows us to continually develop the communities we serve.

Hornby will announce its preliminary results for the year ended 31 March 2021 in June.

Chief Executive Officer, Lyndon Davies commented:

No one expected the last year to turn out as it did. It is hard, however, not to want to spread a little 'good news' amongst all the bad. The transformation at Hornby continues to accelerate, this is not time for braking, we must now accelerate upwards through the gears.

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014 as amended by The Market Abuse (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019.

-ends-

Enquiries:

Hornby plc

Lyndon Davies, CEO 01843 233 500

Kirstie Gould, CFO

Liberum Capital Limited, Nominated Advisor and Broker

Andrew Godber 020 3100 2222

Edward Thomas