Hornby chief exec builds stake

The chief executive of Hornby Frank Martin has topped up his holding in the train set maker and now has nearly 1% of the company.

He took 20,000 shares at 142p a time, paying a total of £28,400. That takes his holding to 374,092 shares, about 0.97% of the company.

His purchase comes soon after Hornby said it saw sales fall in the year to 31 March, but blamed this on supply issues rather than the tough economic outlook and said it the business is in "great shape."

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Hornby, most famous for train sets, but also the maker of Scaletrix racing sets and Corgi models, said that its largest supplier in China failed to meet the company's product supply requirements. It said it has been working to improve the performance of that supplier and others and to diversify the supply base. Compounding these issues, the wintery weather in Britain in December hurt sales during the Christmas period.

However, Hornby is confident on future prospects and says sales of merchandise for the London 2012 Olympics are gathering momentum.

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