Have you read the posted articles?
Doesn’t look like your “White Knight” is as healthy as you seem to think. Even using babelfish one can understand that it looks like more shinanigans are going on at Maerklin than ever went on at EPL!
John (JJ),
I do not expect an answer, so rhetorical question and an inquiry, not a critical comment - are you eBay name ‘lgb51’ from Waco, Texas?
Sheesh Marvin, I usually read that stuff the day it hits the news stand, along with a whole bunch of background information that is on the inner circle track. Nothing new!
As for the “White Knight” and his health, you know what Märklin published last? “All the projected goals and intermediate check points are right on target” (I’m paraphrasing) Same routine as we got from the “Boys” just before and right after the brown stuff hit the fan in September 2006, it’s corporate speak my friend, corporate speak. OTOH, from what I read there is still money flowing in from the backers, which is quite assuring, don’t you think? Nothing like having a backer who has ready access to funds and the means and ways to keep things going, when they need to be kept going. Completely different league from the one the “Boys” played in, eh?
BTW I’m glad you keep on reading the German papers, one day you’ll get proficient enough to skip Google and Bable Fish and still be close to the actual meaning. Maybe even the stuff that we can read between the lines, imagine that!?! 
On another note someone approached me and suggested that I should translate some of the articles. Welllll, I would, but funny things happen sometimes. Right now I’m busy building stuff (every day!) for my layout in the garden, gotta keep those priorities straight! 
Tim Brien said:
John (JJ), I do not expect an answer, so rhetorical question and an inquiry, not a critical comment - are you eBay name ‘lgb51’ from Waco, Texas?
Tim, Funny you should ask! 2+2 = 12 (at least in Marvin’s case it does!)
I’m sure I am going to get drug over the coles for this one. But, why did the courts pick Marklin over LGBoA for the buy out?
It would seem to me that LGBoA would have been a better pick. Just my 2 cents worth.
Aw come on! It has nothing to do with who I am. Get past that. Don’t you want to let your fellow forumites in on what’s going on at Marklin?
Sounds to me like the 2007 projections included sales from 2008 - oops!
When the controller (with the company for 23 years) says something they get thier walking papers.
Is Axel Dietz saying everything is wonderful so that he can sell out after a year and make a healthy profit?
Was the production manager (another long term employee) fired for problems with Zinc?
Did Thier management consultants bilk them for 5 million?
C’mon lets pretend it’s EPL and rake 'em over the coals…
I heard a story that some moron broadcast an e-mail encouraging ventilators to SPAM a certain bank, and he left the full distribution list attached, plus the name of the originator.
I also heard the Bank in question got hold of that (hearsay, of course), and were much less than impressed.
Who, then, killed the deal for LGBoA?
Geoff George said:Geoff,
I'm sure I am going to get drug over the coles for this one. But, why did the courts pick Marklin over LGBoA for the buy out? It would seem to me that LGBoA would have been a better pick. Just my 2 cents worth.
The banks, who held the cards, probably figured that Märklin with their backers were the more secure proposition than LGBoA with their backers. From my perspective it looked like “Gentlemen, there’s the bell. You’re done!” This was after a lot of funny awfully funny moves on all kinds of peoples’ part (I refer to them as the “The Bavarians” that includes the Franconians ). And one contributing factor was LGBoA has no manufacturing expertise. And if they showed that they had some, it is, in my opinion, likely that the banks looked askance at that “expertise”. After all the had just dealt with the Schöntag interlude and it looked that that was plenty for theit taste.
If you’re interested in the background - all nicely detailed from public sources - you find lots of stuff on this forum and other fora to take up hours and hours of your reading time. And it may change your mind as far as certain fits are concerned.
Or maybe the investment group was in bed with the banks.
C’mon guys let’s talk about Marklin’s problems.
EPL/LGB is history.
Did I mention that the articles said that Kingsbridge investment went bankrupt- oops!
BTW the articles are from a very well known and reputable German business magazine.
Curmudgeon said:Funny you should mention that. Yep, I'm sure that Goldman-Sachs and Deutsche Bank were absolutely delighted with the "Ventilators". Lots and lots of wind. Especially since one had to go through a routine to send a message to G-S, which I did. ;) :)
I heard a story that some moron broadcast an e-mail encouraging ventilators to SPAM a certain bank, and he left the full distribution list attached, plus the name of the originator. I also heard the Bank in question got hold of that (hearsay, of course), and were much less than impressed. Who, then, killed the deal for LGBoA?
Marvin,
It is the same routine, you either can’t read German (even rudimentary stuff), your translation service sucks BIG time or you just plain don’t get it!
The CFO Ute Klapdor was let go just recently, however she had only joined Märklin in 2007, i.e. so much for your
JJ Sauer said:Different story with Klaus Kern, the chief designer, who had been there for 23 years. In short: before you blab, check the facts. Check the facts, at least what's out there in the public domain and can be quoted. You seem to have a problem with that.
When the controller (with the company for 23 years) says something they get thier walking papers.
Even the present turmoil (“restructuring” in corporate speak) won’t stop Märklin from sorting out the USA distribution channel, the background info even mentions a target date. Time will tell! From what I hear it isn’t “next week!”
“Restructuring”- that’s a good one!
It’s fun watching the sharks trying to eat one another.
I’d watch for them to start selling things off pretty soon.
And incidentally - I haven’t seen any LGB product arriving at any dealers (Europe or North America) yet.
John Joseph Sauer said:You're not in the right place, in many respects, there have been plenty of reports that "stuff" has arrived at [b]European dealers[/b]. All you need: ability to read! ;) :)
"Restructuring"- that's a good one! It's fun watching the sharks trying to eat one another. I'd watch for them to start selling things off pretty soon. And incidentally - I haven't seen any LGB product arriving at any dealers (Europe or North America) yet.
HJ,
I am quite new to the forum also, but who the heck is Marvin?
Ill be honest, I am getting really tired of all this LGB BS. Why cant this Kingsbride whatever just get thier act together and start making trains? It has been what…over 2 years since anything has been made? I mean, this really shouldnt have been that hard. They bought the company or whatever and then should have just continued as normal without stirring up all this trouble with talks of clsing the factory and shipping all production to China.
I guess it doesnt really matter. People, like myself, are just going to go out and buy other manufacturers trains and then when LGB trains come available, Ill continue to by PIKO! Then the joke will be on them!
-Bruce
Hi Bruce, I’m reminded of an old Irish saying “Is this a Private fight or can anyone join in?”
You dont want to know…trust me, just sit on the sidelines and let these guys take their swings at each other, much more fun, and educational, then to wade into it and get covered in it.
Ill take your advice Vic.
I will agree with you; I think I will just watch as the fists fly. Its very entertaining.
-Bruce
Bruce Hutter said:
HJ,I am quite new to the forum also, but who the heck is Marvin?
Ill be honest, I am getting really tired of all this LGB BS. Why cant this Kingsbride whatever just get thier act together and start making trains? It has been what…over 2 years since anything has been made? I mean, this really shouldnt have been that hard. They bought the company or whatever and then should have just continued as normal without stirring up all this trouble with talks of clsing the factory and shipping all production to China.
I guess it doesnt really matter. People, like myself, are just going to go out and buy other manufacturers trains and then when LGB trains come available, Ill continue to by PIKO! Then the joke will be on them!
-Bruce
Hi Bruce,
Marvin = Marvin Brown, but he uses any number of pseudonyms in the different fora and sometimes more than one pseudonym in the same forum.
On “that other situation”; actually it’s LGB®Märklin who needs to get their act together, Kingsbridge Capital/Hardt Group are just the money guys.
The timeline since Märklin took over (to the best of my understanding!):
-
They had to determine the precise extent of what was actually on location i.e. inventory all assets and ascertain that all awarded assets were present.
-
Same procedure for all assets that were at the Chinese subcontractor’s facility.
-
Negotiate with said subcontractor regarding the release of tooling which had not been paid for by the predecessor company.
-
Organize a rump group of ex-employees to complete items that were partially through the production process, start up a limited production to exhaust raw materials which were on hand. If I remember correctly LGB® was granted an extension for the use of the Saganer Strasse facility to do this.
-
Move all the spare parts and other material which remained in Nürnberg to the new location.
-
Dismantle and pack all of the tooling, machinery and misc. other stuff that was shipped to Györ, Hungary
-
Install same at Györ. It just so happened that the move and the Christmas/New Years holiday season overlapped, additional downtime.
-
Familiarization of personnel with the “new” machinery. Lots of fun if all the manuals are in a foreign language, incomplete or partially missing.
-
Start production of the most urgent and least complicated items - track! Of course this also meant obtaining the rail profile from a supplier, preferably the previous supplier. Would one have to negotiate a new delivery schedule, were there any outstanding payables which needed to be taken care of prior to the supplier agreeing to shipments?
Oh yeah, in the meantime Märklin also signed interim distribution agreements with their distributors and dealers for the balance of 2007. Those agreements were renewed at the start of 2008, apparently with most of the parties - except for LGBoA. (Most of that info is anecdotal i.e. I didn’t see copies of the agreements , but a number of dealers provided input )
I guess by now you get the picture.
Now the good news: LGB® Märklin established a production/delivery schedule some time ago. That has been published on several fora (including here, if I remember correctly). Deliveries of freshly produced items have started to European dealers, both out of Györ as well as out of China.
Bad news: as of yet no distribution agreement for North America. (Maybe next week)
As far as buying PIKO material is concerned, by all means. However as it is, PIKO doesn’t really turn any of the NA fans cranks, what they want is the established LGB stuff or other modern NA items, not to mention the NG crowd. Some of those guys need yet one more Mogul and some cute Porters.
Victor Smith said:
Hi Bruce, I'm reminded of an old Irish saying "Is this a Private fight or can anyone join in?"You dont want to know…trust me, just sit on the sidelines and let these guys take their swings at each other, much more fun, and educational, then to wade into it and get covered in it.
Vic,
You know what happens when the brown stuff hits the “Ventilators” … duck everyone!
Bruce Hutter said:
HJ,I am quite new to the forum also, but who the heck is Marvin?
Ill be honest, I am getting really tired of all this LGB BS. Why cant this Kingsbride whatever just get thier act together and start making trains? It has been what…over 2 years since anything has been made? I mean, this really shouldnt have been that hard. They bought the company or whatever and then should have just continued as normal without stirring up all this trouble with talks of clsing the factory and shipping all production to China.
I guess it doesnt really matter. People, like myself, are just going to go out and buy other manufacturers trains and then when LGB trains come available, Ill continue to by PIKO! Then the joke will be on them!
-Bruce
Bruce,
I think the joke will be on everyone when the investors that purchased Trix, Maerklin and LGB dump it all sometime this year.
The German business press isn’t painting a very pretty picture of thier financial situation.
Oh, did anyone take note of the fact that Kingsbridge investment (who bought the companies) went belly-up?
Victor Smith said:
Hi Bruce, I'm reminded of an old Irish saying "Is this a Private fight or can anyone join in?"You dont want to know…trust me, just sit on the sidelines and let these guys take their swings at each other, much more fun, and educational, then to wade into it and get covered in it.
Just trying to get people up to speed on the Maerklin situation Vic.
When a German business publication like Handelsblatt publishes articles with titles like-
“Maerklin becomes gold pit for advisors”
“Maerklin manager changes to the competition”
“Zinc plague eats at Maerklin’s nerves”
“Maerklin manager under attack”
Makes you wonder if the situation is as rosey and under control as some folks would lead you to believe.