Buggy Whips

4 September 2006



Airfix Models May be Permanently Unglued

One of the things kids did a few decades ago that they don’t seem to do now is build models. Plastic airplanes stuck together (with a glue that one wasn’t supposed to inhale) don’t hang from bedroom ceilings as they used to do. As a result Airfix, a British model company owned by Humbrol (now in receivership), finds itself at the edge of oblivion. Computer games and the internet appear to have done in the hobby and Airfix’s revenues.

Stephen McGinty, reporter for the Scotsman recently wrote, “Airfix, based in Hull, was founded in 1939 by Nicholas Kove, a Hungarian businessman, and initially made rubber inflatable toys. The heyday of the Second World War model kits was in the 1960s, when some 350,000 Spitfires, 80,000 Hurricanes and 60,000 Lancasters were sold a year. The firm also made tanks, warships, artillery and soldiers . . . . In 1981, Airfix declared bankruptcy after a huge decline in the market but was revived when Humbrol bought it in 1986.” It seems Humbrol’s magic is gone.

Owing to “severe cash flow pressures,” Humbrol sacked 31 of 41 staff. The company also has experienced supply problems with is main manufacturer in France, a holdover arrangement from 1981’s bankruptcy when Palitoy stepped in and moved production to France. That relationship was five years of non-success.

One must remember what Britain in the 1970s and 1980s was like for kids to understand the appeal of model building and why in 2006, it’s a dying hobby. The weather isn’t all that great, so indoor activities play a bigger part in life than in, say, California. In 1980, there were three TV channels in the UK (BBC1, BBC2 and ITV – all of which went off the air around midnight), no cable or satellite to speak of, and the video recorder was still too expensive for most households. No wonder so many bands came from there at that time; there was nought else to do.

Airfix could have evolved into something else. Mr. Kove introduced the injection molding process to Britain, and in 1947, the company was the biggest manufacturer of pocket combs – it didn’t start as a model airplane company. Yet, the brand-name is forever going to be associated with building models, and shareholders get jumpy when a firm tries something outside its core competency.

Keith Hinds, whose firm Grant Thornton is handling the administration, said: “In December 2005 a team was drafted in to restructure Humbrol but they have now had to call us in due to cash flow problems and disruption to supplies. The brand names and intellectual property of the business are potentially very valuable and we are looking to sell those to investors. That includes Airfix.” As much as one would like to predict success, one must ask, where is the demand? Airfix will live on, but it will be on eBay as a collector’s brand.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.


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