Alistair Houghton meets CHRISTINE HATTON, of Hatton’s Model Railways

EVERYONE who travels through south Liverpool knows Hatton’s model train shop – and everyone is surprised when they realise just how big a business it is.

The model train shop, with its huge yellow signs and image of a rosy-cheeked young chap playing with a train set, is a landmark to travellers in Smithdown Road, near the busy junction with Penny Lane.

But Hatton’s is more than a shop – it’s a global mail order business that turns over more than £8m a year and is the largest independent model train retailer in the country.

It has kept growing despite the recession and despite the death of managing director Keith Hatton, who fell from a balcony in Spain, in 2008.

His sister, Christine Hatton, took over the family firm and has continued its growth, even opening a new warehouse to help it cope with demand for its trains.

And she is proud that the family firm, founded by her father just after World War II, is a household name with model rail fans across the globe.

She said: “We sell all over the world, with something like 89% of sales in the EU. The largest country we sell to is Australia. A lot of expats live there and want to be reminded of home by buying British trains.

“We sell to all age groups. And they seem to come from all backgrounds and socio-economic groups. But the customer base is almost exclusively male.”

In 1946, Norman Hatton, newly demobbed from the Army, decided to buy a small store in Smithdown Road.

According to Christine, her father sold “anything that was in demand after the war”, including firewood, fireworks and toys.

But he soon discovered that one product in particular would help his shop stand out from the crowd.

“One day,” said Christine, “someone in the shop pointed out a model train that he had on display and was selling for a few pounds. They said it was a collector’s item worth hundreds and hundreds of pounds.

“My father thought ‘maybe there’s something in this’. So he started specialising in model railways.”

Norman grew the business by advertising to customers nationwide – a foretaste, perhaps, of the success his children would find by selling online.

In 1958, he moved the firm to a larger shop in Smithdown Road – where he led the business for another 40 years.

In 1998, Christine said, Norman “semi-retired” and passed on the business to the next generation.

“My father still came into the shop,” she said. “He was serving customers. But he brought Keith in to take over.

“My brother was responsible for the company’s emergence as the largest independent retailer in our sector in the country.”

Christine had worked “on and off” at the family firm since she was 17.

She studied engineering at Lancaster University before joining British Aerospace, where she became a design technician working on Airbus aircraft.

In 1998, she returned to Liverpool to join the family firm on a full-tie basis, working alongside her brother.

They launched the Hatton’s website in 1999, and orders started flooding in from all over the world.

“Keith got computers into the shop,” said Christine. “My dad was old-school – he didn’t know about them.

“Keith got us on the internet, and set up our website. That growth and expansion of the business has come from online ordering.”

As Hatton’s grew, its old store was too small for its needs. So, in 2001, Keith moved the business down Smithdown Road to its current home near the Penny Lane junction.

That year, our sister paper the Echo reported, turnover broke the £1m barrier for the first time, and the business kept growing as more and more people visited its site.

But, in 2008, tragedy struck when Keith, 49, died after an accidental fall from a balcony while on holiday in Ibiza.

Friends and family paid warm tribute to Keith, who was also a well-known face in Merseyside’s athletics scene as a member of Liverpool Harriers Athletics Club.

Asked how she was affected by her brother’s death, Christine fell silent: “It was a horrible shock,” she said eventually.

“There were a lot of tributes. We got a lot of letters and cards of condolence.”

“And,” she added, “I realised I would have to take over the business.”

Unsurprisingly, Christine was “overwhelmed” at the task in hand. But, together with the company’s loyal staff, she prepared to lead the firm into a new era.

Christine said: “My brother was very good at buying and selling – he knew what items to buy at what price. He had a flair for those things, and a lot of it was in his head.

“So there was a learning curve not just for me, but for Richard Davies, who is the business development manager and my right-hand man.”

The company opened a new warehouse a year ago to help it process orders more efficiently. Some 90% of sales at Hatton’s come through the website or by mail order.

It has also refitted its shop, formerly piled with boxes piled in higgledy-piggledy fashion, to make it more welcoming.

“I went on a leadership and management programme at the university,” said Christine. “When my shadow on that programme came to the shop, he said that the shop was badly in need of a refit and didn’t promote itself well. He was right.

“He said we were putting black locomotives, often in black boxes, in a dark case.

“So we now have cabinets with internal lights, and we’ve started to display the models outside the boxes to make them easier to see.

“People have remarked on how much better the shop looks. It gives a much better impression.”

Since taking charge, Christine has put a new emphasis on training, sending retail and warehouse employees on NVQ courses and introducing an appraisal system for staff.

Hatton’s employs 30 full-time staff, with another 14 part-timers. Several staff members are model rail enthusiasts, delighted they have found a dream job.

The recent investment hit profits in the last financial year, but, with sales still rising, Christine is confident it is an investment that will pay off. The downturn, meanwhile, has largely passed the company by as clients have continued to invest in their hobby.

“A lot of our customers,” she said, “are older people whose finances are more settled.”

That customer base includes celebrities, including Cheshire-based music mogul Pete Waterman, and has even included Royalty.

“My father once got a letter from the Duke of Gloucester,” smiled Christine. “He framed it and put it in a shop window, but the sun faded it.”

Christine’s long-term ambition is to make Hatton’s a “tourist attraction” for model enthusiasts.

“I hope eventually we will get everyone back on one site again,” she said, “with retail, customer services, and warehousing all back under one roof and nearer Liverpool.”

Hatton’s will remain focused on selling model trains, but it has recently widened its product range.

Christine said: “We’ve started selling things like Airfix kits for building model aircraft and ships.

“We’ve started to sell more scenery materials and tools. We want people to think of us as a model shop.”

And that new product range has brought back memories for Christine.

She said: “I’ve recently taken home one of our Airfix kits to build myself – it’s a lunar landing module. I used to build them as a child.”