Asking price: £240,000

Sales revenue: £227,500

Net profit: Undisclosed

Fixtures value: Undisclosed

Stock value: Undisclosed

Business description
Established over forty years ago – acquired by and under the stewardship of its current Owners for the vast majority of this time, this business is one of the leading model shops within the region. Offering everything for the model enthusiast – aeroplanes and boats right through to tanks, helicopters and a myriad of other vehicles, this business is particularly well known for remote control cars. With its own engineering shop which enables it to manufacture its own motors, drive shafts, propellors etc, a huge selection of parts and accessories and an excellent servicing, repair, maintenance and tuning service, this business is truly a one stop shop for the model enthusiast. It can even arrange flying lessons for first time owners of model aircraft.

Representing all of the major brands – and with two major exclusive UK dealerships, this business is anything but just a ‘box seller’, priding itself on its very high levels of product knowledge and customer service whether dealing over the counter, via mail order or e-commerce. With the widest range of stock available, if this business doesn’t have it – it will certainly know where to go to get it. As a result this business draws customers from miles around to its retail outlet and from countries all over the world to its e-commerce site and mail order service.

This business is ideally located in premises purchased by the current Owners of the business some years ago – but will be made available as leasehold to new Owners – easily accessible from across the South of England via very close major motorway links. There’s even a test track adjacent to the outlet enabling ‘would be’ purchasers to test drive their chosen model!

This is a very well established business – a major regional brand in its own right with a very loyal customer following. With turnover for the most recent financial year for which figures are available of approximately £227,500 generating profits available to the owners of the business of approximately £50,000 this represents an excellent opportunity for perhaps a model enthusiast to make a good income from their hobby or an existing operator within this sector an opportunity to acquire a major regional player with excellent growth and expansion prospects.

Key strengths:

Having been established within the sector for nearly forty years this business is very well established and is particularly renowned for its wide range, its competitiveness, its experience, knowledge and expertise – for which it is unrivalled but especially for its loyal and longstanding customer base. This has resulted in customer relations founded on a history of trading satisfaction and not contingent upon the continuing presence of the vendor.

This is a very diverse business and as such is relatively immune to the vagaries of developments in the marketplace. Developed from an engineering base rather than a marketing base this business has many more facilities than would normally be found in a model shop. Retail sales through the shop are supported by e-commerce sales and mail order. As well as sales income this business benefits turnover arising from tuning, repairs, servicing and maintenance.

This business is ideally located – easily accessible for its customers via excellent motorway links, drawn by their confidence that they will always be able to get what they want due to the huge range carried by the business. Buyers are also drawn by the availability of the track adjacent to the outlet which enables them to test drive their purchase and also by the confidence that whatever they purchase from the business, they will get all the assistance, advice and after sales service they could possibly want.

Key opportunities:
There is an outstanding opportunity to build on the existing business levels and customer base of this company. With a strong demand for this business's products and services and a very well established brand in its own right, a new owner contributing fresh ideas, enthusiasm and motivation will have every advantage of building on an excellent platform.
Currently operating purely with manual systems there is no doubt that computerization of the business and in particular in relation to stock control would significantly improve the financial performance of the business and enable the business to respond much more quickly to changes in demand for different models and types.
In the past this business has been involved in manufacturing equipment as well as retailing it. It has its own brand of ship fittings for example and has been involved in manufacturing underwater gear. Whilst these activities have been scaled back, the tooling still exists and this side of the business could very easily be revived.
Whilst this business has an ever improving e-commerce side to the business there can be no doubt that greater investment in search engine optimization techniques to keep the site’s presence in all search engine listings would drive turnover through this very lucrative channel even higher.

Financial information:
All financial discussions will take place directly between the vendor and all interested parties under the auspices of Turner Butler.

Turnover for the most recent financial year for which figures are available was approximately £227,500 generating profits available to the owners of the business of approximately £50,000.

The Asking Price of £240,000 includes stock of approximately £100,000 and tooling conservatively estimated to be in the region of £50,000.

Employees: The Owner of the business is responsible for the day-to-day running of the business supported by one full time Sales Manager together with one additional part-time sales assistant employed on Saturdays.

Trading hours: The retail premises are currently open from 9.30am to 5.30pm six days a week and are closed on Sundays.

Property: Leasehold

Location
The business operates from very well suited premises – though in need of a little refurbishment, situated on a small industrial area on the outskirts of this busy Dorset town, ideally located with easy access via excellent motorway links.
Purchased some time ago by the current Owners of the business, the premises are approximately 3,500 square feet, the vast majority of which is dedicated to retail sales. The premises also include a motor and battery workshop, a machine shop, a woodworking shop and a servicing/re-build area. There is ample off road customer parking available.
The premises will be available leasehold, term and rent to be agreed.

Competition / Market
Having been established for nearly forty years, this business already benefits from very high levels of awareness and by offering the very highest levels of customer service this business enjoys high levels of repeat custom – particularly in relation to service ad maintenance. As a result the business has invested little by way of marketing and advertising in recent times. What advertising the business does is limited to the major consumer magazines during peak trading periods – pre-Christmas for example. The business also greatly benefits from its association with one of the major brands with which it has an exclusive dealership arrangement and which is heavily involved in racing remote control cars – with their Team Drivers wearing branded sweatshirts heightening awareness of the brand – available only through this outlet. The business also has a very well designed and informative e-commerce site which performs well in all of the major search engines for all appropriate search terms.

Support & training
The current Owner will provide full business familiarisation, training and handover to ensure a smooth transfer of the business to new Owners.

Reasons for selling
This is a genuine retirement sale. The current Owner feels the time is right to pass the business on to new Owners to build on the excellent foundations already laid.