Intermountain is Cancelling Reading F7's and more

[haasmarc]

Intermountain is cancelling several models due to lack of orders.  If you want something to be made, speak up now.  Especially if you want Reading F7's!  Check their Upcoming Products List for cancelled models.  I know there are several Reading modelers on this forum.

Marc Haas

[Mark5]

Wow, they are cancelling a crapload of releases!

http://www.imrcmodels.com/newsncomingsoon.html

Virtually all of the FP7 releases have been nixed. All X29s - nixed. More than half the F7s too (Including N&W).

This is not good.

Mark

[C855B]

The pattern I see is all east of the Mississippi (plus anything Mexican, which always hit me as weird, anyway). Kato-itis, maybe?

I wouldn't have minded a BAR F3, but it wasn't high on my list.

[Mark5]

FWIW, I dislike companies that announce stuff and then backpedal.

It leaves a bad PCM taste in my mouth ...

[Puddington]

FWIW, I dislike companies that announce stuff and then backpedal.

It leaves a bad PCM taste in my mouth ...

I understand that feeling but it's a hard situation - if they can't justify the run based on their expected pre ordering pattern can we rightly expect them to take the risk ? That said; they announce the run and we, the consumer expect to have what they offered delivered...

Hard situation all around...............

[C855B]

Monday-morning quarterbacking here, I wonder if the delays and discussed secondary QC process with the Cab Forwards have crimped their cashflow so that they had to ****-or-get-off-the-pot with the factory.

Possibly related - I was watching a serious TV article this week about the credit crunch, where banks are revoking lines of credit for small businesses... just 'cause they can. Seeing that the article featured Colorado banks, I really have to wonder. My heart's with 'em, because I'm sure it was a gut-wrenching decision that they knew full-well was going to result in a negative buzz.

[Mark5]

I understand business "reasons" very well (thank you). I wonder about the marketing impact though.

I won't get excited about Company X's product announcements if there's a looming possibility that Company X will CANCEL it. I can't be alone in this. This can feed into the "self fulfilling prophecy" concept. You can't ignore the psychological impact.

Mark

[C855B]

I understand your angst, but I don't see the same issue with IM as I do with PCM/BLI. PCM has a long track record of over-promising, delaying forever, and then canceling or under-delivering. I have my own BLI issues with their mismanagement of expectations that have cost me real money.

I think it's a rock/hard-place issue for IM. They've apparently also been asked to step up to the plate (either by peers or us modelers) to maintain some continuity with Red Caboose's tooling, and that's not free, either. I had the foreboding sense that something, somewhere had to give, and the other shoe dropped with these cancellations.

Just locker room chat, for whatever that's worth.

[lock4244]

There have been items that IM has delayed awaiting sufficient pre-orders to send to production in the past. Canceling all these items is not really a surprise given the economy... no point in producing them if there isn't demand. Alot of belt tightening going on out there and the hobby gets it first. I'd rather IM do what they must to stay in business rather than expire. I was half expecting this announcement to include cancellation of the SD40-2W project, so they must have sufficient reserves or they are too far along to sit on it.

[Mark5]

I-M's future offerings:

BSNF, UP, SP, ATSF

But seriously - I hope they can modify their business model going forward to avoid MASS CANCELLATIONS like this.

Mark

[asarge]

They did say in their newsletter that if the items could be UNcancelled if demand showed up at a later date. Canceeling products is never good but a sign of the times whether we like it or not. If they can't get enough orders to get close to minimum production totals, they don't want to carry the inventory on the books only to let them guy at firesale prices later on. Loco sales were very ungood earlier in the year which may account for the delays in some loco's like the latest Atlas releases of the GP30/35 and Alco C628/630.

[Mark5]

Realistically they may be in a bit of a cash squeeze with major tooling/projects in the works and thus are less  able to take the risk of inventory on the products with lower "pre-order" levels (all the FP7s!?!).

All of this thread is of course conjecture. No matter how you explain it though it is not a positive thing.

Let's hope I-M gets through this and will avoid this scenario going forward.

[bbussey]

Monday-morning quarterbacking here, I wonder if the delays and discussed secondary QC process with the Cab Forwards have crimped their cashflow so that they had to ****-or-get-off-the-pot with the factory...

That's not it.  If the reservations were there, they would be moving forward.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I actually wish they'd cancel their SD40-2 projects, so that a manufacturer with talent and credibility in the modern diesel market could pick it up instead.

My current N scale nightmare: IM doing the 'correct' CR SD40-2s (right trucks, etc...) in 12 numbers (at $200 a pop) but them all coming out like the yard loaf SD45-2 "fixer uppers".

[oakcreekco]

I actually wish they'd cancel their SD40-2 projects, so that a manufacturer with talent and credibility in the modern diesel market could pick it up instead.

My current N scale nightmare: IM doing the 'correct' CR SD40-2s (right trucks, etc...) in 12 numbers (at $200 a pop) but them all coming out like the yard loaf SD45-2 "fixer uppers".

Ed, with a dozen IM locos, you would surely have plenty of "fixing up" to do