Skip to main content

Reply to "Mike Wolf to retire and close MTH"

Menards is a $10-billion-a-year big-box home improvement chain spread over 15 states. The train line exists solely because of the passion of John Menard, who is 80 years old.

Could Menards Inc. afford to buy MTH? Easily. Will it? No way.

The amount of profit generated by MTH or any of the toy train makers is minuscule in comparison to Menards’ operations and requires extensive design, production and quality control steps that frankly make it unattractive to any mass market company.

Could John Menard alone afford to buy MTH? Very likely. Will he? Very unlikely.

While John looks great for 80 and certainly likes to keep working, I sincerely doubt he is interested in taking on a company with the amount of detailed management that MTH would require at this point in his life. And as a renowned business leader, he knows very well how challenging the current O gauge hobby market can be, which is why he focused on a niche idea of traditional trains and fun buildings to satisfy a particular group of hobbyists, and even then merely as a sideline for the company he founded. The headaches involved on scale hobbyists demanding absolute scale fidelity right down to a specific road name? That doesn’t seem to be his thing.

OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

×
×
×
×
×