Arrma Durango Ltd Becomes Part of the Hobbico Group
Jason Dearden, the managing director of Arrma Durango Ltd has produced this open letter to clarify the situation after the announcement that Hobbico has purchased the Arrma and Durango brands:
Arrma Durango Ltd becomes part of the Hobbico group
As a friend of Arrma, Team Durango or dBoots we are sure you have heard the exciting news that Arrma and Team Durango have combined to form Arrma Durango Ltd under the ownership of Hobbico, the world’s largest company in the radio control hobby industry.
This major step forward is good news for the staff, suppliers, distributors, shops and, of course, our most valued end users and racers.
Our goal continues to be to bring RC enthusiasts the very best and most exciting products possible; as always they will be designed in-house, manufactured in the best factories under our close supervision, and supported in the way that RC fans should be treated.
Hobbico’s investment will make that journey more rapid and exciting. All our staff and customers will be retained and all projects will continue. In fact several more exciting projects can now we added, but essentially it’s business as usual.
This deal is all about consolidation of the growth we saw in 2011, with more growth and improved supply for the long-term future. 2011 was a massive year for all our brands. Arrma had a very successful launch in the US – Hobbico clearly liked our designs and what we have been able to do with their GP Wholesale division so much they bought the company. Enough said.
dBoots focusing on off-road tyres for multi surface indoor and outdoor off-road tracks, went from strength to strength as we added to the range, and racers saw the benefits. dBoots is proud to be the official race tyre for the 2012 European Off-road Series (EOS).
Team Durango is where we saw the biggest growth in 2011. We completely revised our revolutionary DEX410 4WD buggy which has been a big sales hit and on track success, narrowly missing retaining the IFMAR world title. We started 2011 with another revolutionary car, the DNX408, our first nitro racecar. It has proved its pace at numerous events including Neo’11 and Psycho Nitro with Ryan Lutz and the tire/weather war at the Euros at Sand in Germany where we got two cars in the final and running at the front; not bad for nitro newbie’s, but that was just the start. We were one of the first companies to introduce a 4WD Short Course competition car, the DESC410R, its light and fast and has been winning a lot. At the end of the year we shipped our designed for purpose DEX408 electric 1:8 buggy and early feedback has been great. However, the biggest step for Team Durango in 2011 was the launch of the patented DEX210 2WD buggy. Its unique design ensures its fast on any type of track and in any conditions, summer, winter, north or south. Like many of our cars it’s selling faster than we can get it; gauging demand and meeting supply has been our biggest challenge over the last year and this is one area where the new investment and expertise will help. In 2011 we also expanded our UK design and support staff, so there is sure there is much more good stuff to come for 2012 and beyond.
Thanks
Everyone at Arrma Durango would like to thank you for your contribution in getting us this far and we will very much value your continued support going forward into an even more exciting future. A new era of growth begins!
Jason Dearden
Managing Director, Arrma Durango Ltd
Source: Arrma Durango Ltd