Hornby plans to leave its historic Margate headquarters after transferring its warehouse to an outsourced operation.
The maker of model trains, Airfix kits and Corgi cars has moved the warehouse and its 21 permanent employees 11 miles away to an industrial estate at Hersden, near Canterbury. The plan is for adminstrative staff from the Margate offices to follow, early next year.
The move will come as a blow to Margate, the once-bustling resort on the Kent coast that is trying to revive its fortunes.
The remainder of Hornby’s Margate site is occupied by the company’s visitor centre, which hosts thousands of enthusiasts a year. Sales, admin and visitor centre staff together employ 110 people.
In a statement accompanying its half-year results, Hornby said: “Consideration is being given to moving the offices and visitor centre to more suitable locations within the local area in order that the whole site can then be redeveloped.”
Hornby owns the freehold on the visitor centre site, where 35,000 people a year go to see company founder Frank Hornby’s early home-made toys in sheet metal and other attractions.
The plan is to move the centre closer to the seafront, possibly still in Margate but with nearby Ramsgate another option. Both towns are part of Thanet, the easternmost coastal district of Kent where Nigel Farage will contest the South Thanet seat for Ukip at next year’s general election.
Margate is trying to reverse decades of decay since Britons began flying to hotter countries for their holidays. The Turner gallery has attracted visitors and the artist Wayne Hemingway is backing a redevelopment of the derelict Dreamland amusement park, but Hornby remains a significant private sector employer.
The Margate site opened 60 years ago as a new factory for Hornby’s rival, Tri-ang Railways, and became Hornby’s home when Tri-Ang’s owner, Lines Brothers, bought Hornby’s parent, Meccano and merged the model rail brands under the banner Tri-Ang Hornby.
Hornby made its products at the plant until the 1990s, when it transferred manufacturing to Asia and the old factory became a warehouse. But the site became run down and struggled to handle big lorries used in modern deliveries.
Hornby has struggled for years with delays to products from its manufacturer in China. After freeing itself from the manufacturing agreement, the company said business was improving. For the six months to the end of September, sales rose 8% to £24.2m and pre-tax losses halved to £516,000.
Hornby has hired the commercial real estate firm Jones Laing Laselle to advise it on its options for the Margate site. The closure plan first emerged when it announced the warehouse move in June.
