Hi Guys,
I though you might be interested in reading this. A friend sent it to me and I was impressed. Piko’s initial offerings in G scale are really nice. I cant wait to see what other goodies they have coming our way. Anyway here is the blurb I came across
"Piko goes East
…and increases the number of employees at home.
Piko has started to manufacture in Chashan/China with the opening of
the most modern model train manufacturing plant in the world. By year
end, 400 employees are expected to work at that plant.
At the same time, additional staff is required at their home base in
Sonnenberg to handle the growing Garden Railroad production.
Noteworthy is the fact that this is all happening at a time when most
of the large model train manufacturers are struggling (Fleischmann,
LGB, Roco) or can only survive with the help of “finance investors”
(Märklin/Trix) .
Even more amazing is that this new manufacturing plant is owned and
operated by Piko whereas all other model train manufactures have
outsourced their production to a foreign manufacturing organization
and are thus struggling with quality issues and constantly rising prices.
The Chinese firm “SandaKan”, largest model train manufacturer in the
world, now manufactures for almost all leading model train companies,
including Märklin.
Piko now is the only German model train manufacturer with their own
plant in China.
This huge new investment was financed by Piko along with their two
“house banks”, the Commerce Bank and the HypoVereinsbank. Piko is the
only major model train manufacturer in the German speaking region that
does not require the support of a “finance investor”
Source of this information is Piko. Additional details along with many
photographs will be published in the May edition of Modellbahn
Illustrierte (MBI).
MBI emphasizes that the magazine is NOT available on the net."
-Bruce
