Press release – 21 March 2013

Märklin’s future is secure
A long-awaited decision has now been taken: Michael Sieber, with the firm he
established with his son, Sieber & Sohn GmbH & Co. KG, is taking over model
railway manufacturer Märklin. The signatures required to make the takeover
complete have already been notarised. The headquarters will remain intact in
their current location, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The move secures a
mainstay for the economy of the City of Göppingen and the surrounding
districts and retains all jobs at the same time.
The success story continues. Through Sieber & Sohn GmbH & Co. KG, Michael
Sieber, a pioneer of the German toy industry, will become the new majority
shareholder at Märklin. This secures the future of the company with a long
tradition in Germany’s Swabia region. All of the current positions in both
locations – Göppingen, Germany and Györ, Hungary – will remain intact, and
all outstanding liabilities to banks and other creditors will be settled.
Under the takeover agreement, Florian Sieber will join the current dual
leadership of the company as the third Managing Director of equal rank,
working alongside Wolfrad Bächle and Stefan Löbich. Sieber is well-aware of
the responsibilities that his new role involves. ‘The Märklin name is
synonymous with a whole category of toys, and has stood for top German
quality since 1859’, he explains. ‘That is why it is my great pleasure to help
shape the future of this traditional brand with a history dating back more
than 150 years.’
The new ownership will also secure the business location of Göppingen and
the surrounding districts over the long term: the key provisions of the existing
Company agreement with the workforce have successfully been extended
beyond 2014. For salaried employees in Göppingen, this means a
safeguarding of positions until 2019 – a provision signed by 98 percent of
the employees.
A large share in the arrangements is played by liquidator Michael Pluta, who
has been assisting with developments at Märklin since March 2009. ‘During
the past four years, we have managed to place the Company back on a
stable footing. Having Sieber & Sohn GmbH & Co. KG join as new owners
ultimately confirms the success of the decisions we have made to date.’ Pluta
endorses the new ownership structure. ‘The agreement guarantees complete
service of outstanding claims and continuation of business operations – a
very positive development indeed.’
Sieber echoes the assessment: ‘Mr Pluta and his team have chosen the right
course for the future. All things considered, I see great potential for growth
for Märklin and the subsidiary companies Trix and LGB.’ Above all, the multibrand
strategy will be pursued and expanded. Sieber also sees children and
teens returning as the focus for the future business strategy. The basis for this
already exists in the ‘Märklin my world’ and ‘LGB Toy Train’ lines. ‘Anyone
who, like me, was enthusiastic about Märklin even as a child will remain loyal
to the brand as an adult.’
The Märklin headquarters in Baden-Württemberg will remain the centre for
the development and production of high-quality, special articles in future as
well. Györ, Hungary, will remain the centrepiece of the Company’s core
production. Additional production lines will be returned to Europe from
China over the medium term.
The takeover is currently awaiting approval by the German Federal Cartel
Office [Bundeskartellamt]. It is expected, however, that the plans will be
found consistent with applicable legal norms.
For further information and enquiries:
heller & partner communication GmbH
Martin Prankl
Possartstraße 14
81679 Munich, Germany
Tel. +49 (0)89.4 57 10.336
Fax +49 (0)89.4 57 10.305
e-mail: mp@heller-partner.de

Hi everyone,

I thought I start a new topic as the old topic, in my opinion is no longer applicable, as insolvency or recovery issues are now a thing of the past.
We will see what the new firm will bring, e.g. innovations and a more realistic, "new model money spinning exercise", e.g. Swiss crocodile, one never can have enough crocodiles but producing fantasy models is a bit much just to get scores on the board.

We should hear more about their future intentions and it will be interesting to see how long it will take them to make major announcements although some have already been made regarding the current workforce will stay in place.

Usually new owners always kick start by introducing something new to put their own stamp on, on a company with tradition.

If my videos statistic is anything to go by, the younger teenagers are not watching or one can assume are not buying model trains and the bulk of the modeler lies between the age of 40-60.

the idea is to get youngsters hooked onto it and as we all know, the rest is history and this depends what is available for young people besides electronic gadgets.
the company itself has enough past experiences what sells and what doesn't and most probably certain toys are going out the door faster as they can supply.

My gut feeling is, the Märklin brand will see an expanded distribution level to lift its profit margin, you can produce as many new models in a year but your customer base hasn't increased and I think this company is capable of doing this.
Distribution has always been a major problem for companies who have not the volume of sales to support such a move to do it themselves and than have to rely on other companies to fill the gap and the gap is usually only a gap without using its full potential to make a name for itself and this means getting among other major toy manufacturers and becoming competitors.
Some large companies in the past have bought out competitors to shrink any opposition products and others have diversified and increased their profits that way and I believe this company has all the assets, distribution, diversifying, market research and capital input to achieve their goal in the shrinking model train toy market

John



http://simba-dickie-group.de/en/index.shtml

Hi John,

I have similar thoughts. Marklin have always suffered outside of Germany, with seemingly inefficient distribution to reach mass markets, as opposed to hobby/enthusiast buyers.

I can only imagine, and hope, that Simba-Dickie have a myriad of distribution channels in USA and Asia, that given a few years, will correct any deficiencies.

regards
Kimball

Looks like we've got 2 threads covering the same topic. I've merged them both.

Kimball,

I think it would be fair to say, large companies like these have the know how to create extra sales.
I'm not completely confident, countries such as ours will ever benefit from mass sales as the market is small but putting this aside, my attention is drawn to the difficult task one would experience, how to solve the aftermarket service, e.g. spare parts, repairs, returns and general information, the mass market doesn't really cater for this.
I can see for a general kitchen items, if anything goes wrong, the seller has to send it back to a repair company (waiting time could be up to 3 month) and on other occasions you get your money back (I always ask for their return policy).

another product we used to play with, was: Matador, an Austrian firm (just found it now), which produced wooden building blocks and I remember I've spent hours and money to build different objects, similar to metal construction kits: Meccano.
Märklin in Australia has its disadvantages, for instance anything goes wrong with the decoder you have to send the whole loco back and this becomes very expensive and my last experience with Märklin , I've send back something including a sound decoder and they've acknowledged receiving the other part but not the sound decoder (weird) and this was one of the many reasons I've changed to ESU decoders.

Unless you've got someone in this country who Märklin authorizes to repair locos and faulty parts, let alone selling it on a mass volume I can't see it happening.

the North or South American market we will wait and see and of course the Asian market.

John

Hi Greg here.

I have been reading this forum for a few years and have finally got around to joining.

I have had marklin trains for just about 50 years I just keep to myself (and grandkids). I have been in a couple of clubs over the years but can't stand the politics etc that goes on. One club - some of the emembers were straight out corrupt and only in the club for their own benefit.

But i have to say living in Brisbane you cant go past Noel at Nathans Toys n Trains. His prices are good and much cheaper than some of the sellers on ebay that want more than new prices for second hand items and charge a fortune for postage. In fact he's just reduced some of his C Track prices. His service is outstanding. I regularly travel over 50km from the southside to go see him cause he bends over backwards to help. So i am trying to say support your local dealer and you will reap the benefits.

Hope this post helps some of you save money and find a great dealer.

Welcome to the funny farm Greg.

Nev on hte Northside.

Hi Greg, Welcome to the forum. (Dave, Parkwood, Gold Coast )

Hi again and welcome to Greg it's nice to know their is more of us than just me
I live in South Brisbane/Highgate Hill area

There is another Marklin dealer at Everton Park/Mitchelton but he only sells the stuff.

Just saw Noel the other day and are going to get my loc's serviced over the next few months.

Ooops, I just answered my own question.... needed to look a bit further through their site pages

http://www.simba-dickie-.../press_release.156.shtml

So from this, it would appear Märklin are positioned among their other brands, but no distinction further down into LGB & trix for example.

All very interesting stuff

Edited by user 29 April 2013 09:19:34(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Hi everyone,
The question over branding is a simple one unless the people who bought the company are absolute idiots then they would keep the Marklin brand as a stand alone because that's why the took
over the company in the first place IE the reputation behind the brand.
Arnotts Biscuits was taken over by Campbell's in USA but they are still sold here under the Arnotts name.
In fact most of the literature would say that the Marklin name is owned by the said company and the reason they do this is so you know who will sue if you misuse the trade marks Etc

Hi all,

I suspect my question further above may have been mis-interpreted. Never in a million years would I think S-D would tinker with the famous "Märklin" brand name, that was not my question.

What I was speculating was whether we would see mention of the Märklin Trademark coming into the S-D website as strongly as the other brands are?, particularly the familiar Logo.

I then posted I found Märklin as an entry under the text-only list of Brands but nowhere (yet) the trademark, and perhaps it will stay that way so to avoid any 'brand confusion'.

It may be interesting to see how much the Märklin group overall will contribute to annual income of S-D.

And I guess there must still have been some degree of pain or discomfort from various members of the surviving Märklin family at the final turn of events but that is a sign of the times in a company that has survived as long as this.

It is easy to speculate that if any of the most recent controlling family members had been up to the task with strong management and leadership, (and clear direction for the company), we wouldn't be having this discussion now, but economic conditions have overtaken some otherwise well-managed companies around the world and we can at least be thankful we still have a company to talk about.

Cheers

Steve

I agree with you Tom, personally I think the future looks very strong for Märklin, and it also appears the new owners know their stuff and have been good at it.

While it might be nice in a traditional sense to still have one or more descendants of the original founder/s in control, if the result was to be bickering and in-fighting then it would be doomed anyway and nobody wins. We have seen too many empires crash down as a result, whether they be family dynasties, corporations, or indeed an entire country.

I am to some degree much more excited and encouraged by this development and for the future of the House of Märklin than I was until not too long ago.

I guess the next 12 months, and what we will see appearing (and disappearing) from the catalogues will tell us a lot.

Cheers

Steve