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Old 01-05-2017, 10:59 PM
Initiator001 Initiator001 is offline
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Default Things are Tough in the Hobby Industry

This latest news blurb appeared about Hobbico:

http://www.modelretailer.com/en/The...payments.as px

Hobbico is the parent company of Great Planes and Tower Hobbies along with being the largest hobby distributor in America.

Hobbico also owns Estes/Cox and Revell/Monogram among other hobby companies.
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Old 01-06-2017, 08:13 AM
Rob Campbell Rob Campbell is offline
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95 million are out of the workforce. Many are working, but are underemployed. Those who were able to keep their jobs are saving just I'm case they get laid off. This isn't surprising.
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Old 01-06-2017, 02:42 PM
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mojo1986 mojo1986 is offline
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Employees FIRST
Shareholders SECOND
Executives LAST.


As long as the employees own the company, I'm in full agreement. CEO salaries and bonuses have gone beyond disgusting. Any plan to put employee interests ahead of those of shareholders will break the machine. That has been tried repeatedly around the world and hasn't worked very well yet.............
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Old 01-06-2017, 02:51 PM
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Jerry Irvine Jerry Irvine is offline
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This caused by unnecessary regulation on shipping and access to rocket hobby products and the massive takeover of retail by online such as Amazon. It is shrinking the localized browsing retail outlets that made demand magically because of local supply.

The over-regulation of "hazmat" extends to paints, solvents, fuels and anything that in large quantities could be potentially hazardous, but are distributed in shockingly small quantities.

Tech Jerry
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Old 01-06-2017, 02:55 PM
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Jerry Irvine Jerry Irvine is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mojo1986
Employees FIRST
Shareholders SECOND
Executives LAST.


That's an opinion.

Reality today and into the foreseeable future is:

Shareholders (owners)
Executives (managers)
Employees (worker bees)

This is an ESOP plan and you seem confused about it. The employees are stockholders and are first in line after business costs are covered. Business costs are not being covered. They should go "over the top" ASAP.

See usrockets.com for the model.
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Old 01-06-2017, 03:09 PM
ManofSteele ManofSteele is offline
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Ugh! That's bad from a number of standpoints:

1) No date when the payments would be made up was announced. That likely means it is a big hole;
2) It likely means they were counting on a big Christmas season, which obviously didn't come through;
3) Hobbico is decently positioned to take advantage of the drone craze, but I suspect that did not make up for losses in more traditional hobby areas of RC cars and airplanes;
4) We are not in an overall recession, so the phrase "hobby industry recession" more likely means that the industry is rapidly contracting. Historically, hobbies have done well in recessionary times, as discretionary dollars are usually spent on low price items (hobbies) rather than high ticket items (vacations, cars, appliances).

We generally know that hobbies are falling out of favor, especially with younger folks. If it is rapidly contracting, we will see fewer and fewer new products in the marketplace. Not fun.

Matt
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Old 01-06-2017, 04:38 PM
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Joe Wooten Joe Wooten is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ManofSteele
Ugh! That's bad from a number of standpoints:


4) We are not in an overall recession, so the phrase "hobby industry recession" more likely means that the industry is rapidly contracting. Historically, hobbies have done well in recessionary times, as discretionary dollars are usually spent on low price items (hobbies) rather than high ticket items (vacations, cars, appliances).


Matt


With 95 million people out of the workforce now, that's a LOT of discretionary spending going AWOL. I'd call our current economic condition more attuned to a depression. True unemployment levels are probably closer to 15% than the reported ~5%.
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Old 01-06-2017, 04:42 PM
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bernomatic bernomatic is offline
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Somehow I get the feeling that if GH realized how much of his retirement is wrapped up in the stock market and he were a tad bit closer to retirement, he would switch his number one and two.

I do agree that the exec's should be last on the list. In today's times however, they are much akin to the pro athlete whom the owner is willing to pay big bucks to over keeping prices affordable for the fans, so that the fans will keep coming to the games and paying all those high prices.
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Old 01-06-2017, 05:03 PM
Woody's Workshop Woody's Workshop is offline
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The problem is, as with most industries, CEO's, top white collar and some blue collar employees are over payed compared to the rest of the companies work force. We need a generation that will work for a reasonable wage and spend time developing the company, instead of on the gulf coarse.
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  #10  
Old 01-06-2017, 07:21 PM
Initiator001 Initiator001 is offline
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Back to the hobby/rocket industry...

It was already posted on the NAR Facebook page and I can confirm (sadly) that there will be no 2017 Estes catalog.
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