Hornby loses steam as Olympic sales stutter "Whilst, prior to the Games, major account listings for our products were strong, and consumer purchases were encouraging, the major retailers had also purchased substantial quantities of London 2012 merchandise from other licensees," said Hornby in a statement. Faced with lower than expected sales, the major retailers resorted to deep price discounting. The consequence of this for Hornby was that retailers lost confidence in many categories of London 2012 merchandise, and repeat orders for our products were cancelled. As well as disappointing Olympic sales, Hornby had also been hit by disruption to shipments from China as one its significant suppliers overhauled its manufacturing facilities. "This process is ongoing and it is now clear that the disruption to our supplies for the remainder of the financial year will be substantial," said Hornby. The company added that it was making efforts to diversify its suppliers in China and India and the current disruption was "part of a painful process" to arrive at a more balanced supply base for the future. As a result of the disappointing Olympic sales and Chinese disruption, Hornby said it will not achieve its forecasts for the current financial year and that it will about break-even. Hornby added: "Against this challenging background we have redoubled our efforts in innovation and product development, building on our core brand strengths and also extending our reach based on newly developed technologies. At the same time we are implementing a rigorous cost control regime in order to align overheads more closely with our future business.