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Axminster update

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Lons

Old Oak
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Bob
Tim Styles has just posted over on the other side explaining what has happened to Axminster Tools and plans going forward. I don't want to post a link to another forum but it makes interesting reading and looks positive.

Edit
They've now moved his post into the existing thread which is a bit confusing.
 
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Looking at their accounts for the year ending March 2024 makes sombre reading. Losses of over £2 million in each of the previous 2 years. Virtually no assets left as current liabilities massively exceed current assets. The strategic report in the accounts explains the problems they’ve been having.

Check out their accounts on the Companies House website.
 
Sorry, slight error. The accounts are made up to 30 April 2024 and current assets exceed current liabilities but not by much.
 
If you read Tim's post he explains that Alan and he have split the company to protect the business and exactly what they've done and intend going forward so in reality their accounts now mean very little.
 
That’s great to hear. I too go back as far as printed catalogues and still have an Axminster mouse mat from when they first went online.
I can only imagine that like so many other business the temptation to expand and diversify during boom times caught up with them post Brexit and the gloabal turmoil that drove up prices afterwards.
They are still my first port of call even if I have to time deliveries to coincide with trips to the UK.
With a daughter now studying in Exeter I hope to make the short journey to their HQ before too long.
 
AndyP said:
That’s great to hear. I too go back as far as printed catalogues and still have an Axminster mouse mat from when they first went online.
I can only imagine that like so many other business the temptation to expand and diversify during boom times caught up with them post Brexit and the gloabal turmoil that drove up prices afterwards.
They are still my first port of call even if I have to time deliveries to coincide with trips to the UK.
With a daughter now studying in Exeter I hope to make the short journey to their HQ before too long.
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Call in for a cuppa and I'll come with you. :)
 
The issue going forward will be demand. Young people are not taking up woodwork, and they have no money for machinery anyway. People like us on the forum already have too much gear. So we don't buy much and we probably all price check on line. Ax was losing money hand over fist before - though closing all the stores will have limited the property and headcount outgoings - and it leaves me wondering how they can make money now. Creditors will be severely rattled. Still, I hope they find a way to keep going and protect some jobs.
 
Now that Tim has posted the current 'state of play' I can reveal that I was in AxHQ on Wednesday and spoke at length both to Tim and Ian Styles as well as my old boss, Simon Baulch. Tim and Simon recounted at some length the difficulties the company had been through over the last couple of years and it didn't make for pleasant listening. They came it appears, very, very close to the wire but both were full of confidence that the new re-structuring of the old company into two entirely new and separate ones (as of 5pm on the 21st Oct, so I was told) promised a new and sunnier way forward. One or three new product ranges being introduced as well, both for hand tool wood manglers and those who prefer a 'tail' - Rob
 
I thought you would be in the know Rob.
I hope their plans work out and I'll be looking at their products with interest. When it came to the shops I guess it was the old story of use it or lose it and many of the times I was in the Newcastle shop it was almost deserted.
 
Dr.Al said:
I was curious about the manufacturing side (which really covered in Tim Styles' post). I don't have a facebook account, but it let me see enough to extract this, which might be of interest to others:

View attachment 36456

and...

View attachment 36455


That seems to imply that they'll still be UK made, which is great to see.
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The current shop at AxHQ was in fact the old machine shop, where their CNC machines, steel stock etc once were. Apparently these machines have been moved literally across the road to the new company where all the lathe turning stuff, UJK kit etc etc will be manufactured.

Once upon a decade(s) ago I bought some Ax brass 'gauge blocks' which I now find very handy. I sent Tim this pic:

IMG_5846 2.jpeg

...last week as it seems that he wants to re-introduce them but this time CNC machined in stainless steel, presented in a smart plastic box of some description. Stuff is happening though current stock levels in the shop are very low - Rob
 
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Thought I’d have a look a Nuco tools, it’s unfortunate that there are a lot of different companies using the Nuco name, and I couldn’t find the one selling tools, perhaps I missed it?
Certainly need a better presence with a website. Wish them and Axminster well, I ordered a pile of handtools to be sent to the US a couple of years ago and the service and the price was excellent.
 
Cabinetman said:
Thought I’d have a look a Nuco tools, it’s unfortunate that there are a lot of different companies using the Nuco name, and I couldn’t find the one selling tools, perhaps I missed it?
Certainly need a better presence with a website. Wish them and Axminster well, I ordered a pile of handtools to be sent to the US a couple of years ago and the service and the price was excellent.
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This is the company registration: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/16736790

I'm sure they'll get a website in due course. To be fair to them, the company was only created in the last month or so and I can't imagine making a new website from scratch is a quick exercise.
 
This video cropped up in my You Tube feed and it made me think about the difference between D&M and Axminster. The former seems to be thriving according to their accounts.


Perhaps just concentrating on a variety of branded goods geared towards the trades and having a shop in the London area was a better business model.

Looking at the Administrator’s winding-up report, as probably expected, all the assets of the old Axminster Tools were sold to the new companies, Newhow Limited and Nuco Tools, with Newhow now trading as Axminster Tools. However, according to the Administrator’s report, having paid off the secured bank loan, there won’t be enough for HMRC and the unsecured creditors, mostly their Chinese and Taiwanese suppliers, were left with £7.18m owing to them.
 
If so, then as I anticipated elsewhere - a phoenix liquidation - an excuse to dump the debt and start again - the shareholders gain everyone else loses… doesn’t encourage a relationship with them…
 
MartinF said:
This video cropped up in my You Tube feed and it made me think about the difference between D&M and Axminster. The former seems to be thriving according to their accounts.
Click to expand...

It's probably down to Axminster expanding too widely and not being able to maintain it in recent years due to a lower amount of hobbyists taking up woodwork. They had several premises, including a manufacturing arm, whereas D&M only have the one shop and just sell tools as far as I'm aware. I imagine the difference in overheads between the two companies would have been massive a couple of years ago before Axminster closed several of their shops.

I read the other day that Silverline have gone into administration as well, they've probably been affected massively by the likes of TEMU taking a large portion of the cheap tat tool market.

https://www.business-sale.com/news/...ols-supplier-falls-into-administration-228583
 
I think it’s far easier to point out the failings of a business strategy with the benefit of hindsight than predicting what will ( as opposed to could) go wrong in advance. Axminster undoubtedly called some things wrong but perhaps being both a manufacturer and retailer were hit hard by the supply chain issues resulting from Covid.

I’d prefer they were still selling Clifton, Henry Taylor, Sorby and Lie Nielsen chisels etc as they were in the last paper catalogue I have - we’ll never know if they’d stuck to that model if it would have worked.

Hopefully they can make their offering work for the future.
 
Trevanion said:
It's probably down to Axminster expanding too widely and not being able to maintain it in recent years due to a lower amount of hobbyists taking up woodwork.

https://www.business-sale.com/news/...ols-supplier-falls-into-administration-228583
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In conversation with Tim in October, this is precisely one of the things he mentioned ie; too many fingers in too many pies, and not just the lack of perceived hobbyists taking up woodwork, which then begs the question of why firms like Workshop Heaven and Classic Hand Tools (to name two) are thriving?
Blackswanwood said:
I’d prefer they were still selling Clifton, Henry Taylor, Sorby and Lie Nielsen chisels etc as they were in the last paper catalogue I have - we’ll never know if they’d stuck to that model if it would have worked.
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The diversity of stuff they used to sell without question IMO added to their eventual demise. When I was working for them, their stock range was well in excess of 17,000 products! Referring to chisels for example, they now have their own Rider brand (Narex by another name), Narex 'Richter' and Veritas as a premium product, so there's basic, middling and a top end brand. Much the same with planes; their own Indian made, bedrock range (better than the appalling 'Rider' things) and a limited selection of Veritas models - Rob

Edit: as far as I recollect, they didn't have a happy time during the Covid crisis
 
Woodbloke said:
which then begs the question of why firms like Workshop Heaven and Classic Hand Tools (to name two) are thriving?
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It's employees, Rob.

As much of a horrid thing it is to say, employees have really become the death of business. It's not the employees' fault, but for most businesses, having employees is just too costly due to wages and other factors. Axminster must employ several times the number of people that both WH and CHT employ combined, so their overheads are just on a completely different level, as you need to shift a lot of stock to justify a single employee on the minimum wage of around £25,000 a year, let alone a dozen or more per store as Axminster had.

I wonder how Axminster is doing now behind the scenes, as looking through their site there is a significant amount of their stock marked as "out of stock".
 
Unless new people get into wood / craft work then tool sales is a bad business to be in. Guys like us already have enough tools and have probably upgraded to premium brands like Clifton etc over the years. We also tend to snap up the good stuff on auction sites - which helps tool retailers not at all. We only buy machines every decade or so if we already have a PT and bandsaw. The DIY sheds adequately cover low end including a range of Chinese power tools that are cheap and cheerful. Lidlaldi get the impulse tool buys.

Not sure I would be risking any money in the likes of Axminster. None of the big asian suppliers will offer unsecured credit after the losses in the Administration. Re-stocking will be tough.
 
I was in the Axminster shop back in September for a 1 day bowl turning course (long story), as it had been a long time since I was last in a physical Axminster store (Sittingbourne) I took a good look around. Very dissapointed that I can no longer get replacement blades for my 2012 CT330 thicknesser and the shelves were quite bare even then.
 
Trevanion said:
It's employees, Rob.

As much of a horrid thing it is to say, employees have really become the death of business. It's not the employees' fault, but for most businesses, having employees is just too costly due to wages and other factors. Axminster must employ several times the number of people that both WH and CHT employ combined, so their overheads are just on a completely different level, as you need to shift a lot of stock to justify a single employee on the minimum wage of around £25,000 a year, let alone a dozen or more per store as Axminster had.

I wonder how Axminster is doing now behind the scenes, as looking through their site there is a significant amount of their stock marked as "out of stock".
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Even at the current shop (which was the old machine shop) when I visited, there were at least half a dozen blokes loafing round the till drinking coffee. Couple that with a shop devoid of customers (except me and couple of others) and I see your point. When I was at Ax there were upwards of 230 employees in the business!

Agree as well about their website; now very little for sale and much stock marked 'out of stock' or 'available to order'. TBH, I can't see them lasting another twelve months - Rob
 
AJB Temple said:
Unless new people get into wood / craft work then tool sales is a bad business to be in. Guys like us already have enough tools and have probably upgraded to premium brands like Clifton etc over the years. We also tend to snap up the good stuff on auction sites - which helps tool retailers not at all. We only buy machines every decade or so if we already have a PT and bandsaw. The DIY sheds adequately cover low end including a range of Chinese power tools that are cheap and cheerful. Lidlaldi get the impulse tool buys.

Not sure I would be risking any money in the likes of Axminster. None of the big asian suppliers will offer unsecured credit after the losses in the Administration. Re-stocking will be tough.
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This exactly.

I've just made a career change and moved from hobbyist to a commercial workshop. I'm fairly confident that my veritas LA block plane is the only one in the building. Obviously the older guys have long established tool collections but the younger lads also use mostly hand-me-down record or Stanley planes- nothing fancy and some better cared for than others. As the basic rate is a couple of points above minimum I can't see anyone springing for Lie Nielson chisels etc if they can get something functional from Lidl just down the road. I'm going to be selective about which of my tools move into the workshop full time and which get a cheap clone from my tool allowance.

They seem like neither fish nor fowl, caught in no man's land between the likes of screwfix and WH/CHT. I do hope they can find a way to thrive as the UJK stuff seems fairly well thought out and I'm invested in the axminster chuck system
 
Woodbloke said:
Even at the current shop (which was the old machine shop) when I visited, there were at least half a dozen blokes loafing round the till drinking coffee. Couple that with a shop devoid of customers (except me and couple of others) and I see your point. When I was at Ax there were upwards of 230 employees in the business!
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It’s just doesn’t work in this day and age when your main competitors are online “fulfilment centre” style businesses that Amazon pioneered. You have companies like ITS, PowerToolMate, D&M, etc… who have a big warehouse full of tools ready to go and the employees are running around all day fulfilling orders as they come in and sending them out the same day, their shops are secondary or even non-existent compared to the online business. Those employees are earning far more for those companies than those working in Axminster that are sat around all day waiting for customers to come through the door, this is the same problem with all high street businesses at the moment.

Of course, Axminster were also doing this and were probably one of the earliest woodworking hobby specialists in the country to have a strong online presence, but as we said, too many fingers in too many pies.
 
I’ll be in Exeter for a couple of days in a couple of weeks and was half contemplating a trip to Axminster. Just had a look at the stuff I would want, chestnut finishing stuff and a few other bits, all not in stock……
 
AndyP said:
I’ll be in Exeter for a couple of days in a couple of weeks and was half contemplating a trip to Axminster. Just had a look at the stuff I would want, chestnut finishing stuff and a few other bits, all not in stock……
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Prepare to be disappointed Andy. There is stock to pick over, but it's not a lot.....

Trevanion said:
It’s just doesn’t work in this day and age when your main competitors are online “fulfilment centre” style businesses that Amazon pioneered. You have companies like ITS, PowerToolMate, D&M, etc… who have a big warehouse full of tools ready to go and the employees are running around all day fulfilling orders as they come in and sending them out the same day, their shops are secondary or even non-existent compared to the online business. Those employees are earning far more for those companies than those working in Axminster that are sat around all day waiting for customers to come through the door, this is the same problem with all high street businesses at the moment.

Of course, Axminster were also doing this and were probably one of the earliest woodworking hobby specialists in the country to have a strong online presence, but as we said, too many fingers in too many pies.
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I suspect that if the shop were to go and they then concentrated solely on an online business (aka WH, CHT et al) with a drastically reduced staff they may well be in a position to survive but as is, I would be surprised (and chuffed!) if they made it through to next Christmas - Rob
 
Real shame as they were a top, top outfit a number of years ago, but (and I say this with no authority whatsoever) it looks like they maybe tried to expand too far, too soon, and the post Covid fad for woodwork crashed and has taken them with it.

Really sad as they were my go to place when I started out in my woodworking journey and were great value for money and fantastic customer service focussed. Sadly the need for people to get as cheap as possible is defeating the ability to provide real quality, because too few of us are willing to pay the price!

It took me far too long to truly understand the buy cheap buy multiple times philosophy, but then again that realisation also came with increased disposable income, so perhaps understandable.

I'm trying to educate my kids that saving to buy the better quality version of the 'thing' they want is better than the cheap one then having to pay the same again in 1/2/3 years time, or then spending on the original good quality one. It's hard....

It will be a real shame if Ax (and their new variants) do go down though, both for the owners and the staff, as well as for us customers. Here's hoping their reshuffle can help them get both sides back onto an even trading keel and keep them alive for years to come.
 
TrimTheKing said:
It will be a real shame if Ax (and their new variants) do go down though, both for the owners and the staff, as well as for us customers. Here's hoping their reshuffle can help them get both sides back onto an even trading keel and keep them alive for years to come.
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Not that the likes of Axminster are likely to be in my 'Needs' horizon in the future, I really regret the demise of such outlets over the last 40+ years.

But I can only think that unpaid suppliers and distributers left to pick up the unpaid bills after such trading fails/mismanagement will only treat any restarts with a serious coating of looking at before offering any future support.
 
I bought my first machine mail order from Axminster in the late eighties and have been a regular if not prolific customer ever since. When they opened the North Shields branch I supported that whenever possible but it was clear from the start that there wasn't enough footfall to make financial sense. Many times there were more staff than customers and on occasions I was the only one. :oops:

It looks as though the only way to handle tools and machinery prior to buying will be the shows and I suspect that they are likely to decline even more in time as well. It's tough for those of us with none or only a single show within reasonable distance that we can attend especially with the increasing costs of motoring.

There are likely to be very few of us who haven't bought cheap on line so we only have ourselves to blame in the end.
 
I think they will struggle - for example I hope to spend c. £1k on a saw stop table saw this coming year- middle of the road payment, not huge, but not small… would I risk buying from a company already shown to have had financial difficulties where I might get reduced support should anything go wrong - not a chance!

I would buy things that can’t have issues - screwdrivers / consumables / etc but def. Would not be spending on the expensive machinery they sell - too risky… will make it challenging for them to rebuild that trust…
 
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