Hornby is ready for an Olympics boost

After two profit warnings this year the Airfix-to-Scalextric maker Hornby yesterday said sales of its toys and badges for the Olympics were really starting to take off.

Analysts reckon Hornby is on course to sell £7m of Olympic products ranging from Corgi models of London taxis and buses to pin badges of the mascots. These lines have seen Hornby start supplying retailers like WH Smith and Tesco. It hopes to keep these lines open by producing more "pocket money" priced toys.

Profits for the year to March inched up from £4.4m to £4.5m on sales up 2 per cent at £64.4m. The dividend has been cut from 5p to 3.7p.