I'm guessing EKD is Elouise Davies, Taff (Lyndon) Davies' daughter and MD of Oxford, so essentially a management buyout/buyback? Very sadly, Taff had health problems last year that caused him to lose his sight, so I wonder whether the city corporate types in Hornby's boardroom have forced Lyndon's hand? I hope this development allows Oxford to go from strength to strength; Eloise is a force of nature and I'm sure Taff continues to advise and mentor her when he gets chance, but I get the impression the Hornby arrangement hampered Oxford's expansion and I'm sure I'm not the only modeller who appreciates what Oxford brings to the market and would like them to keep doing that.
So to clear things up on the Oxford Rail situation. Oxford Rail is simply a brand of Oxford Diecast Ltd which is why it does not get mentioned in the notice. This is the same for Oxford Diecast's other brands like Oxford Figurines. Things have been slow for Oxford Rail since 2021 but it's starting to build momentum again so we should expect to see new developments in the near future.
* expect to see new developments in the near future * After paying out £1m+ to buy it? R&D and production monies might be hard to come by, in the near future.
@@grandaddyoe1434 As mentioned both in the Hornby notice and this video, there will be a £250k initial payment upon completion (expected early December) with the remainder being paid across the next 5 years. It would be foolish if EKD Enterprises Ltd purchased Oxford Diecast Ltd and were not be able to invest further. Investment is necessary for the business' future success.
The reason it was loosing money is because Hornby did nothing with it. I’m so glad Oxford Rail is finally free of Hornbys grubby mits. I loved their models, and ever since Honby bought them out because they were the competition at a higher quality and lower price we haven’t heard from them.
Surely the appointment of Lyndon Davies as Hornby boss, was probably the key reason why Oxford was bought by Hornby, otherwise they wouldn’t have done it. Maybe a bit of nest feathering by LD here!
Maybe the claws belong to the one walking away with the better end of the deal. It is a strange world of attacking the investors that kept Hornby going as being there for extraction yet praising the winner of this series of interactions as a victim of greed when they ultimately walk with a bigger bag than they arrived with.
Hi Rob. I either didn't know (or has forgotten) about Hornby's ownership of Oxford Diecast, so your video came as something of a surprise. I model stly in N gauge, so I have bought quite a few of their models. Not so many of their TT:120 ones. I hope they do survive!
I hope the new owners keep producing all the diecast and railway models in batches as stock is sold. Perhaps not many (or any) new toolings as there's a lot of risk there if sales don't cover costs. As for Hornby, I feel that they need to strip back to the main product. Model railways. Perhaps trim a lot of management and admin in the process. Maybe then they can get back into the black.
I wish the Davies family well with this, I’m not sure it was ever the right fit for either Hornby or Oxford Diecast. My sense is that it will be tough for them to survive outside of Hornby PLC. It will be interesting to see if Hornby develop a model railway range of vehicles in OO and TT:120 via Corgi or Airfix brands. Similar to the Dublo Dinky idea. 3D printing has completely changed the market though.
I see this as good news. For me Oxford Rail have produced good quality wagons at reasonable prices. At least now they are free from the shackles of Hornby and can hopefully move forward with developing their brand. I look forward to any of Oxford's upcoming releases.
Oxford Diecast has stagnated as part of Hornby, in particular the 1/43 range. Same with Corgi. They kept up to date with price increases though! I wonder if Pocher kits and some of the European HO model railway brands will be sold off soon?
Thanks. I don't have the time or inclination to read the Hornby annual company report so it's useful to have your summaries, if only to know whether dear old Hornby and indeed our hobby has a long term future. Re the comments below about whether the huge investment in the new TT:120 scale was a good move financially, I doubt it could have happened now in their current financial position and not without Simon Kohler's championing it. And re Hornby's excessive stock holding on their balance sheet, I recently bought a TT:120 set in their stock clearance sale, just to try TT:120 and also DCC for myself for the first time and it's been great fun but I doubt I'll buy any more of the new scale. And btw I don't personally know of any young people who have been attracted into the model railway hobby by TT:120 so I'm not convinced it has been very successful in addressing the glaring age imbalance of our hobby. But I'd be only too happy to be proved wrong!
The hobby has always had a glaring age imbalance in reality, even in the 90s there was no other kid in my entire school who did it, even in the early 2000s the whole of my highschool, no one else did it. I'd know if they did it was well known I did and I would bring the stuff in to show it off on occasion and never was anyone else like "we have that at home"... The crusty old teachers though couple of them were right into it. The age imbalance thing is honestly a creation of people looking for reasons why this will fail to cause some drama.
Maybe they shouldn’t have bought them in the first place, they only bought them a few years ago. I hope Oxford will be okay after this, I like what they do
Agree, I'm unclear whether the spin off sale includes brand of Oxford Rail ? - if it does then yep OR can still exist and try to make OO Coaches, etc, if OR remains within core Hornby; don't see benefit of name continuing; just lose the name, along with Lima and OO models will simply be produced by Hornby Core Brand.
The only thing that Mike Ashley really wants when he 'invests' in a company is to end up controlling it , and taking it over cheaply. Aside from all the distressed companies and brands that he has taken over through the years..., ask any Glasgow Rangers supporter how difficult it was for their club to fight its way out of Ashley's suffocating grasp. The guy is a predator, pure and simple. Typically, once Ashley takes over a company, or 'supports' a company with loans and conditions that they will ultimately be unable to pay back..., he gets rid of everyone, installs his acolytes, transfers manufacturing to the cheapest Asian manufacturing contractor that he can find, and then 'sweats' the brand name. Quality hits the skids, and the brand just becomes more tat stocked in Sports Direct.
I'm also curious to see what happens with Oxford Rail. On one hand I'd be interested to see another competitor not owned by the current big players. But would Hornby allow that or would they take the toolings in house instead?
That's very likely the reason they are in the position they are , must have been a big investment . Not made any better by other manufacturers pulling out of British TT gauge
You think it's diluting? I'd say it is adding based on many fellow TT120 modellers I'm in contact with who had either stopped actively modelling in or collecting more OO. Its their one opportunity to grow sales, compared to a very crowded space in OO.
@@robertmarsh3588 instead of attracting new modellers we are seeing active modellers abandoning one scale for a new one. Whilst this is moth8ng new, the idea of TT120 wad to attract new modellers.
I hope this means more Oxford Rail locos..can't help thinking Hornby stopped Oxford making locomotive's , as they were too good for the price , and made their's look uncompetitive...been waiting years for the NER P2 which is virtually the same as the P3, so theres no reason it couldn't have been turned out sooner...apart from management maybe?
The NER P2/J26 is in production so not long now. Things have been slow for Oxford Rail since 2021 due to staff changes but it's starting to build momentum again so we should expect to see new developments in the near future.
Make sense for Oxford Rail line name to disappear and for brand to be merged in with Hornby Core products, same with other minor offshoots / Acquisitions as of late, e.g., Lima, jouef, etc or to sell them off.
I honestly didn’t realise they were still part of hornby, all the updates from anything Oxford was coming from the family that used to own it and neither hornby or Oxford make any reference to each other
I am sure Oxford Rail goes away with Oxford Diecast. Since it is a sale I would expect Oxford Rail to continue under the new ownership and not be part of Hornby anymore.
How long before Hornby sell off other brands that they aquired over the years but never invested in. The harsh reality is that the buyers for these only have so much spare cash, and the cost of putting food on the table is never going to get any cheaper. The asking prices of Hornby's core products have increased far more than wages, so something has to give. Other brands such as Accurascale have shown that it's possible to make better products at a lower prices If Hornby can't do the same, then sales will continue to decline, i can't see Simon Kohler wishing to rescue them again.
Hornby mentality lets by all model brands to have domination of the hobby and maximise profits, also hornby "oh that's not worked, let's sell of as much as fast as we can"
Hornby seem incapable of running their business competently. The TT stuff is now being sold off at rock-bottom prices. I'm very glad I'm not a Hornby shareholder.
Hardly rock bottom prices, they had a 2nd anniversary sale, it was short. TT:120 in one of the few growing sectors in the hobby. At least 2 other rivals are expected to launch UK models in 2025, on top of Peco and Revolution (I mistakenly typed Rapido)
@@HighFell Seeing as TT120 is new, it can't help but be a growing sector! The question is whether it's a profitable sector, something only Hornby knows at the moment.
@ No new models are profitable for the first couple of years once you start eating into the development costs. This is a long game. Certainly the volumes have got the attention of most of the UK industry. It’s possible to get a pretty good idea how TT:120 is stacking up against other scales and it’s very promising. The fact that here are no massive changes down in sales volumes in other scales to support the notion that this is all ‘new business’ rather than conquests from other scales. More modellers, more choice, more international compatibility, all great for the hobby. It’s interesting to see which of the other manufacturers shows it’s TT:120 hand first 😁
Selling die-cast is a good step But if thay really whant to make change then thay need to stop producing poor quality models at ridiculous prices and need to stop with the tt crap and thay will get the volume of sales back up
I don't get that, They were different scales, Oxford Diecast were aimed mainly at the OO and N gauge market, Corgi had it's own scale and it's own (shrinking) market
The two brands occupy different positions in the market. Oxford is mainly OO/HO/N vehicles (i.e. the popular model railway scales). They also offered a good range of affordable but decent quality 1/43 scale vehicles, this has withered on the vine under Hornby. Corgi is mainly mid-priced 1/43 vehicles (e.g. the once excellent Vanguards range) and 1/48 and 1/72 scale aircraft. Unfortunately this brand has also stagnated under Hornby and lost ground to the competition. Too expensive for relatively dated models and very little new tooling for several years. Poor management and lack of investment by Hornby in both cases.
No longer aligned... So basically Corgi will make 2 cars and a few London Buses.... Whilst the company actually making new tooling was too much for Hornby, who like faffing around with 60 year old toolings and charge a bomb for it...
I wish Oxford/ or Corgi for road vehicles would make front wheels steerable. (matchbox did it pre superfast so technology exists) If that happened there would be a market in the play vehicles level (which still ideally has a price point below £1 small and £5 large which cannot be done with existing VAT and duties but might be achieved with £2.50 and £15 prices. Change the smaller vehicles to the blister pack design and find vehicles to match properly O . OO . TT and N. (which to some extent they do but can be improved).
I never understood why Hornby bought Oxford Diecast when they were not making a profit and nor was Hornby. I am pleased to hear that Hornby is now selling Oxford Diecast. Martin. (Thailand)
Oxford was profitable when Hornby acquired it. It was part of the deal when Oxford's owner Lynden Davies became Hornby's Managing Director. That made sense as it removed a conflict of interest for him.
Interesting viewpoint, but a number of questions remain unanswered. Did you put those questions to Hornby, or can you ready for the next video? In passing, and yes, this is pedants corner, but as Hornby is a singular organisation it should always be referred to as such when talking about the business itself. So, “Hornby is…”, not “Hornby are…”. Makes no difference to the understanding of the story of course; it’s merely a grammatical point.
Perhaps I should reach out to Hornby for comment. I'd be surprised if they agreed or could give any more info than is publicly available. Naturally I always refer to businesses as non-singular. I noticed this after the Hornby finances video and Googled it. You're correct it technically should be singular, but non-singular is widely accepted. I suppose I view Hornby as a collection of businesses and people, so in my head it's a they.
I'm guessing EKD is Elouise Davies, Taff (Lyndon) Davies' daughter and MD of Oxford, so essentially a management buyout/buyback? Very sadly, Taff had health problems last year that caused him to lose his sight, so I wonder whether the city corporate types in Hornby's boardroom have forced Lyndon's hand? I hope this development allows Oxford to go from strength to strength; Eloise is a force of nature and I'm sure Taff continues to advise and mentor her when he gets chance, but I get the impression the Hornby arrangement hampered Oxford's expansion and I'm sure I'm not the only modeller who appreciates what Oxford brings to the market and would like them to keep doing that.
I assume there may be some tax advantages to retirement relief and the like if Oxford is more stand alone and shares valued and so on .
So to clear things up on the Oxford Rail situation. Oxford Rail is simply a brand of Oxford Diecast Ltd which is why it does not get mentioned in the notice. This is the same for Oxford Diecast's other brands like Oxford Figurines. Things have been slow for Oxford Rail since 2021 but it's starting to build momentum again so we should expect to see new developments in the near future.
Oxford Railway has always been good quality at a sensible price. Looking forward to the new releases.
@@LittleWicketRailway Me too, and I hope to see some of their old releases return as well. (Tilmanstone colliery wagons.)
* expect to see new developments in the near future * After paying out £1m+ to buy it? R&D and production monies might be hard to come by, in the near future.
@@grandaddyoe1434 As mentioned both in the Hornby notice and this video, there will be a £250k initial payment upon completion (expected early December) with the remainder being paid across the next 5 years. It would be foolish if EKD Enterprises Ltd purchased Oxford Diecast Ltd and were not be able to invest further. Investment is necessary for the business' future success.
The reason it was loosing money is because Hornby did nothing with it. I’m so glad Oxford Rail is finally free of Hornbys grubby mits. I loved their models, and ever since Honby bought them out because they were the competition at a higher quality and lower price we haven’t heard from them.
It was a shame they got their claws in Oxford to begin with.
Surely the appointment of Lyndon Davies as Hornby boss, was probably the key reason why Oxford was bought by Hornby, otherwise they wouldn’t have done it. Maybe a bit of nest feathering by LD here!
Maybe the claws belong to the one walking away with the better end of the deal. It is a strange world of attacking the investors that kept Hornby going as being there for extraction yet praising the winner of this series of interactions as a victim of greed when they ultimately walk with a bigger bag than they arrived with.
Hi Rob. I either didn't know (or has forgotten) about Hornby's ownership of Oxford Diecast, so your video came as something of a surprise. I model stly in N gauge, so I have bought quite a few of their models. Not so many of their TT:120 ones. I hope they do survive!
I hope the new owners keep producing all the diecast and railway models in batches as stock is sold.
Perhaps not many (or any) new toolings as there's a lot of risk there if sales don't cover costs.
As for Hornby, I feel that they need to strip back to the main product. Model railways.
Perhaps trim a lot of management and admin in the process. Maybe then they can get back into the black.
I wish the Davies family well with this, I’m not sure it was ever the right fit for either Hornby or Oxford Diecast. My sense is that it will be tough for them to survive outside of Hornby PLC. It will be interesting to see if Hornby develop a model railway range of vehicles in OO and TT:120 via Corgi or Airfix brands. Similar to the Dublo Dinky idea. 3D printing has completely changed the market though.
I see this as good news. For me Oxford Rail have produced good quality wagons at reasonable prices. At least now they are free from the shackles of Hornby and can hopefully move forward with developing their brand. I look forward to any of Oxford's upcoming releases.
Oxford Diecast has stagnated as part of Hornby, in particular the 1/43 range. Same with Corgi. They kept up to date with price increases though! I wonder if Pocher kits and some of the European HO model railway brands will be sold off soon?
That's a good question.
Thanks. I don't have the time or inclination to read the Hornby annual company report so it's useful to have your summaries, if only to know whether dear old Hornby and indeed our hobby has a long term future. Re the comments below about whether the huge investment in the new TT:120 scale was a good move financially, I doubt it could have happened now in their current financial position and not without Simon Kohler's championing it. And re Hornby's excessive stock holding on their balance sheet, I recently bought a TT:120 set in their stock clearance sale, just to try TT:120 and also DCC for myself for the first time and it's been great fun but I doubt I'll buy any more of the new scale. And btw I don't personally know of any young people who have been attracted into the model railway hobby by TT:120 so I'm not convinced it has been very successful in addressing the glaring age imbalance of our hobby. But I'd be only too happy to be proved wrong!
* without Simon Kohler's championing it * 'Nuff said ?
The hobby has always had a glaring age imbalance in reality, even in the 90s there was no other kid in my entire school who did it, even in the early 2000s the whole of my highschool, no one else did it. I'd know if they did it was well known I did and I would bring the stuff in to show it off on occasion and never was anyone else like "we have that at home"... The crusty old teachers though couple of them were right into it.
The age imbalance thing is honestly a creation of people looking for reasons why this will fail to cause some drama.
Maybe they shouldn’t have bought them in the first place, they only bought them a few years ago.
I hope Oxford will be okay after this, I like what they do
I've never bought their diecast, but I really like their railway stuff.
I think Oxford will return to what is was before the Hornby tie-in.
The release rate of new models might slow down a bit though.
Totally agree.
Agree, I'm unclear whether the spin off sale includes brand of Oxford Rail ? - if it does then yep OR can still exist and try to make OO Coaches, etc, if OR remains within core Hornby; don't see benefit of name continuing; just lose the name, along with Lima and OO models will simply be produced by Hornby Core Brand.
The only thing that Mike Ashley really wants when he 'invests' in a company is to end up controlling it , and taking it over cheaply. Aside from all the distressed companies and brands that he has taken over through the years..., ask any Glasgow Rangers supporter how difficult it was for their club to fight its way out of Ashley's suffocating grasp. The guy is a predator, pure and simple. Typically, once Ashley takes over a company, or 'supports' a company with loans and conditions that they will ultimately be unable to pay back..., he gets rid of everyone, installs his acolytes, transfers manufacturing to the cheapest Asian manufacturing contractor that he can find, and then 'sweats' the brand name. Quality hits the skids, and the brand just becomes more tat stocked in Sports Direct.
Can we expect Sports Direct themed train sets in the not too distant future then? All to encourage new modellers of course... 😁
@@mooglesmodelrailways Free giant mug with your trainset...
It's not that long ago when M&S sold Hornby train sets.
Good decision for all parties, hopefully. Now go through the rest of the brands.
Thanks Rob, very informative.
Regards Charlie
Thanks Charlie.
I'm also curious to see what happens with Oxford Rail. On one hand I'd be interested to see another competitor not owned by the current big players. But would Hornby allow that or would they take the toolings in house instead?
Oxford Rail will continue 👍
If Hornby is in such a poor financial position, why invest in a new scale that will dilute sales awayfrom their core scale?
That's very likely the reason they are in the position they are , must have been a big investment . Not made any better by other manufacturers pulling out of British TT gauge
You think it's diluting? I'd say it is adding based on many fellow TT120 modellers I'm in contact with who had either stopped actively modelling in or collecting more OO. Its their one opportunity to grow sales, compared to a very crowded space in OO.
What other manufacturers are pulling out of TT:120 ?
@@robertmarsh3588 instead of attracting new modellers we are seeing active modellers abandoning one scale for a new one. Whilst this is moth8ng new, the idea of TT120 wad to attract new modellers.
Bad decision by management, but perhaps Hornby has disposed of those people ?
I hope this means more Oxford Rail locos..can't help thinking Hornby stopped Oxford making locomotive's , as they were too good for the price , and made their's look uncompetitive...been waiting years for the NER P2 which is virtually the same as the P3, so theres no reason it couldn't have been turned out sooner...apart from management maybe?
Agreed. Like Oxford Rail products. Good quality and sensible price.
The NER P2/J26 is in production so not long now. Things have been slow for Oxford Rail since 2021 due to staff changes but it's starting to build momentum again so we should expect to see new developments in the near future.
@GwionRhysDavies are you associated with the Davies family that run Oxford Diecast or is it just a coincidence?
@@LittleWicketRailway I'm not related (at least not directly, there's a lot of Davies' around here 😂) but I've been helping them with Oxford Rail.
@GwionRhysDavies I have just realised you own Model Tech though! Hope that's all going well.
Make sense for Oxford Rail line name to disappear and for brand to be merged in with Hornby Core products, same with other minor offshoots / Acquisitions as of late, e.g., Lima, jouef, etc or to sell them off.
Hornby doesn’t know what the hell it’s doing, I’ve seen better financial decisions made on a monopoly board 😂😂
I honestly didn’t realise they were still part of hornby, all the updates from anything Oxford was coming from the family that used to own it and neither hornby or Oxford make any reference to each other
I am sure Oxford Rail goes away with Oxford Diecast. Since it is a sale I would expect Oxford Rail to continue under the new ownership and not be part of Hornby anymore.
I guess with those sorts of losses the die is cast
👏🏼
😂
I think LD knew exactly what he was doing. My opinion of course
It'd be nice if Oxford diecast did some Irish models, such as the Alexander N Type, Q Type, and X Type buses.
Hey Rob can you do a video of just running trains in your collection
hi great video, i thought hornby was already 7 million in the red,they have taken on too much
How long before Hornby sell off other brands that they aquired over the years but never invested in.
The harsh reality is that the buyers for these only have so much spare cash, and the cost of putting
food on the table is never going to get any cheaper.
The asking prices of Hornby's core products have increased far more than wages, so something has to give.
Other brands such as Accurascale have shown that it's possible to make better products at a lower prices
If Hornby can't do the same, then sales will continue to decline, i can't see Simon Kohler wishing to rescue
them again.
Hornby mentality lets by all model brands to have domination of the hobby and maximise profits, also hornby "oh that's not worked, let's sell of as much as fast as we can"
Hornby seem incapable of running their business competently. The TT stuff is now being sold off at rock-bottom prices. I'm very glad I'm not a Hornby shareholder.
Hardly rock bottom prices, they had a 2nd anniversary sale, it was short. TT:120 in one of the few growing sectors in the hobby. At least 2 other rivals are expected to launch UK models in 2025, on top of Peco and Revolution (I mistakenly typed Rapido)
@@HighFell do you mean revolution trains? Rapido have made no commitment to TT120.
@ absolutely 😁 thanks for correcting me 👍
@@HighFell Seeing as TT120 is new, it can't help but be a growing sector! The question is whether it's a profitable sector, something only Hornby knows at the moment.
@ No new models are profitable for the first couple of years once you start eating into the development costs. This is a long game. Certainly the volumes have got the attention of most of the UK industry. It’s possible to get a pretty good idea how TT:120 is stacking up against other scales and it’s very promising. The fact that here are no massive changes down in sales volumes in other scales to support the notion that this is all ‘new business’ rather than conquests from other scales. More modellers, more choice, more international compatibility, all great for the hobby. It’s interesting to see which of the other manufacturers shows it’s TT:120 hand first 😁
Selling die-cast is a good step
But if thay really whant to make change then thay need to stop producing poor quality models at ridiculous prices and need to stop with the tt crap and thay will get the volume of sales back up
Seems to make sense given the juxtaposition of Corgi and Corgi Die-cast.
I don't get that, They were different scales, Oxford Diecast were aimed mainly at the OO and N gauge market, Corgi had it's own scale and it's own (shrinking) market
The two brands occupy different positions in the market. Oxford is mainly OO/HO/N vehicles (i.e. the popular model railway scales). They also offered a good range of affordable but decent quality 1/43 scale vehicles, this has withered on the vine under Hornby. Corgi is mainly mid-priced 1/43 vehicles (e.g. the once excellent Vanguards range) and 1/48 and 1/72 scale aircraft. Unfortunately this brand has also stagnated under Hornby and lost ground to the competition. Too expensive for relatively dated models and very little new tooling for several years. Poor management and lack of investment by Hornby in both cases.
No longer aligned... So basically Corgi will make 2 cars and a few London Buses.... Whilst the company actually making new tooling was too much for Hornby, who like faffing around with 60 year old toolings and charge a bomb for it...
I may be mistaken but I thought they had just purchased Oxford recently?
Held 49% since 2017, and got the last 51% in 2021.
Didn't they buy into Warlord Games last year as well ?
They did.
@@LittleWicketRailway Managerial dilution, whilst seeking a quick profit on the back of emergent trends . . .
Business matters confuse me, though I'd have bought it for 2p, just saying, lol.
I can see them dumping Airfix too in order to save themselves
Hornby need to step.back and just do scale electrics and cheap trains And sets no more money wasters
I wish Oxford/ or Corgi for road vehicles would make front wheels steerable. (matchbox did it pre superfast so technology exists) If that happened there would be a market in the play vehicles level (which still ideally has a price point below £1 small and £5 large which cannot be done with existing VAT and duties but might be achieved with £2.50 and £15 prices. Change the smaller vehicles to the blister pack design and find vehicles to match properly O . OO . TT and N. (which to some extent they do but can be improved).
I never understood why Hornby bought Oxford Diecast when they were not making a profit and nor was Hornby. I am pleased to hear that Hornby is now selling Oxford Diecast. Martin. (Thailand)
Oxford was profitable when Hornby acquired it. It was part of the deal when Oxford's owner Lynden Davies became Hornby's Managing Director. That made sense as it removed a conflict of interest for him.
Oxford Diecast have been introducing too many items for far too long.
Interesting viewpoint, but a number of questions remain unanswered. Did you put those questions to Hornby, or can you ready for the next video? In passing, and yes, this is pedants corner, but as Hornby is a singular organisation it should always be referred to as such when talking about the business itself. So, “Hornby is…”, not “Hornby are…”. Makes no difference to the understanding of the story of course; it’s merely a grammatical point.
Perhaps I should reach out to Hornby for comment. I'd be surprised if they agreed or could give any more info than is publicly available.
Naturally I always refer to businesses as non-singular. I noticed this after the Hornby finances video and Googled it. You're correct it technically should be singular, but non-singular is widely accepted. I suppose I view Hornby as a collection of businesses and people, so in my head it's a they.
Grammatically, Hornby in British English can be singular or plural…even within the same sentence.