It looks like E. P. Lehmann may be in for a bit of a rough ride over the next few months, but the good news is that the difficulties shouldn’t affect product availability. Here’s the story we’re about to post:
E. P. Lehmann Patentwerk, manufacturer of LGB trains, today filed for financial protection in a German court. The protection was sought because their bankers had called Lehmann’s loans due in an effort to force a sale of the firm to an investor favored by the bank. As part of the same effort, the banks had prevented Lehmann from shipping finished goods to its customers, including now-independent LGB of America. (Shipments of LGB trains to LGB of America from other suppliers had not been affected.)
“We’re happy they (Lehmann management) have taken aggressive action to protect the company from a hostile takeover. We believe they will begin shipping from again this week. We have plenty of product in our warehouse and are shipping as normal,” according to LGB of America’s David Buffington.
Buffington added, “The LGB brand has tremendous value around the world, and no one is going to let that get away.” – Terry Thompson
But I doubt many here would really care too much. To us big scalers though, this is a HUGE deal… like the discussion of the sale of Athern or MDC. I should have been posted over on GR as well, took care of that already. Thats where the readers who this could impact are.
Works for me. I’ve been mostly an inside HO guy for the last decade or so, but I have some G track and a motley collection of equipment I’d like to set-up now that the backyard is all finished. About 8 years ago. Grad school intervened.
[censored]
I suspect there a lot of people like me that don’t read the GR forum regularly, but would like to know when something significant happens. I’ll leave it up to the editor to decide, but I think it IS model railroad news. And it is something that has similarly affected at least one other, HO scale German model company, IIRC. Could be a trend, but it sounds like it will all likely have little effect on consumers, except no doubt higher prices if the firm changes hands. Of course, fighting off such a takeover attempt can lead to similar cost increases.
But LGB has always been a bit too rich for me, since despite my name, I unfortunately have no financial interest in the company.
[:)]
Yes Mike I can see your point of view, but to post it here and still not an official peep by Kalmbach on the GR forum is as if Kato filed Chapter 11, and it was posted on the Classic Toy Trains forum…doesnt that make you wonder whats going on here? I’m sure that Kalmbach wants to get their info right before saying anything, maybe their in the dark as much as us, maybe they know more than they are willing to say…