I have read news that Hattons of Liverpool is closing down after 77 years because of Brexit.

https://www.hattons.co.uk/newsdetail?id=1498

All stock will be 30% off everything included below.

Hattons still have Marklin flying scotsman in stock (3 left).

https://www.hattons.co.u...gital_sound_/stockdetail

tragedy indeed, did purchase a few items from them and the service and delivery speed (to Norway) were truly excellent. usually, it arrived within 24 hours of placing the order.

MC

Little wicket railway has done a very interesting video on you tube about Hattons and looked at the financials behind it

In essence
Trading year 2021 was positive, nice profit
2022 small loss
2023 no figures available yet but judging by the Hattons release 2023 was poor, which probably helped their decision making.



Hattons and GST. In the UK when we receive parcels from say Germany and VAT is to be collected then Parcelforce, DHL and FedEx all slap a handling fee of about £12.50 per parcel to cover their admin costs of collecting the VAT on behalf of the Govt.

Sad, I’ve never dealt with them personally, but after watching James May’s BBC documentary on Hornby I’ve understood they were one of (or the) biggest model railroad retailers in the UK.

Trying to look at their Flying Scotsman from Märklin but their site is unbearably slow, probably overloaded from everyone trying to shop at a discount.

EDIT: Scotsman sold out:( would probably have bought it at 30%+ off

It is end of an era with Hatton’s closing, a British institution, no business like it. My Father and I bought a lot of Hornby Dublo from them in the late 1960’s and 1970’s. Norman Hatton use to go many times to Meccano Ltd in Binns Road. This was a few blocks from his shop and fill his truck with obsolete Hornby Dublo. It would then be sold through the Railway Modeller to eager Dublo enthusiasts everywhere. He did this buying for 10 years, having seen some of the invoices issued by Meccano to him. Norman this way ended up with very large stocks of Hornby Dublo for 20 years or so. He was basically the outlet for Dublo after production ceased. The irony was that while Dublo was in production, Norman never had the Dublo agency. This was elsewhere in Liverpool.

Hatton’s started out early post war selling army surplus, pot and pans. basically anything second hand which was in short supply, in the post war years. In the early 1950’s Norman branched out into second hand model trains and this developed into his main business. He told me he had 0-gauge Hornby Princess Elizabeth’s for 10 years and sold them for 10 pounds each in the 1950’s. From the Railway Modellers inception Hatton’s had a sizeable advert every month right up to present, a record in itself for the industry.

In the 1980’s Norman was the place to buy Wrenn Railways and had the best range in the UK. In fact his listing was the reference to what was made by Wrenn. It was during the 1970’s that his two children started work and became a very good team. This was Keith Hatton and his sister Christine Hatton. Keith was good with the remaining Dublo and priced it well before it eventually dried in the early 1980’s. Unfortunately Keith died in an accident and with the loss of Norman, the business fell on to Christine. She was the one who really built up the business into a very big company. There seemed to be no new family members involved with the business and Christine did sell it at one stage. It was stated that she was an employee, however there must have been some say for her in the running of the business, very prominent even now. Christine would now be retirement age, and probably this was another undisclosed closing factor. She wanted to retire.

Hattons was a family business, very special to UK model train enthusiasts throughout the world, RIP.

David

It is indeed very sad that Hatton's are closing down and it is the end of an era, I remember going to the store on Smithdown Road with my father to see what was for sale when we were back in UK on holiday, but the Hatton's that most of us remember has not been Hatton's since 2018 when the business was purchased from the family.

The old shop moved out to a Widnes warehouse in 2015, and visiting was welcome but I felt not encouraged and if you ordered online for collection they even charged you for collection from the warehouse which was a sure sign that they preferred Mail Order to a traditional shop model.

I am sure that Brexit and all the added red tape that came with it (as well as lost orders) has played a part in the demise of Hatton's, as has the general decline of the number of railway modelers, but I would note that IMHO Hatton's also made two crucial business decisions that perhaps have also played a big part in the end;

1) The decision to start to manufacture items under their own name had caused discourse with both Bachman and Hornby, which may have impacted upon supply agreements and pricing as a result.

2) Hatton's purchased a distribution center in Nebraska, US and then bought MB Klein in the Baltimore, US and were allegedly involved in liquidating a lot of stock, this may have had a bigger burden that was anticipated. However, the website appears to be still operational and selling new stock although some stock has 80% off, and so the US business appears operational.



Maybe the cost of business in the UK and the available market in the UK has meant the owners will relocate their business to the US, and closing the UK business in an orderly fashion and without leaving debts, which in turn can generate bad feeling, makes good business sense. I guess the future will reveal all.

In the meantime, Hatton's is just another sad loss for the UK MRR scene and will surely reduce our choice and availability over time.

I am sure the issues are not straight forward they never are.

I went on the maps app earlier and their warehouse in Nebraska is still shown but now says permanently closed.



Maybe all will be revealed in fullness of time

BR