Problems at Heller

[Brizio]

After Revell, now Heller is having some issues... 

 Link in French

The article translated by Google:

Cessation d’activité quasi complète pour l’entreprise Heller Joustra de Trun, à proximité d’Argentan

Les salariés de l’entreprise Heller Joustra, basée à Trun, ont appris que la société qui les avait rachetés en 2016, Maped, a décidé une cessation d’activité quasi complète.

 

Very bad news for the company Heller Joustra, based in Trun in the country of Argentan. In a statement, the staff representatives announced the decision of the Maped group, which had bought the company in 2016, a virtually complete cessation of activity. READ ALSO: Pays d'Argentan. After difficult years, Heller turns 60 "No need of employees" The group will continue to market and distribute Heller plastic models and Joustra games and toys. The press release states that the group does not have: however, there is no need for employees and will relocate almost all productions abroad. " Employees denounce: To date, no social measures accompanying this restructuring have been implemented. " 22 dismissals Gaëlle Baribaud, one of the staff representatives, is indignant at this decision. "They only want to keep three people for Heller in Trun. All Joustra will be relocated. We will only do injections to Trun. "

The blow is hard to cash for this delegate: 22 people at once ... Maped used us to get the name of Joustra. " To be heard, the 25 employees of the company will demonstrate in Chambois at the May 1 party at 11 am. Meanwhile, it is an emblematic company of Trun and Orne which is on the verge of serious difficulties.

[Atmobil]

Wow, only a couple of years since the last time. To bad too see them go. I guess we will be buying Chineese knock-offs of old Heller kits pretty soon.

[Mike999]

I guess they never got the 1/24 scale Renault Estafette van issued.  A search on the Heller website doesn't show it.  Even though it was announced in 2016, but one vendor is showing it as "new for 2018."  Too bad, I would have really liked that police version.  Guess I'll build the Airtrax resin Estafette I bought a few years ago.   My skills should be up to it around 2097...

 

[High octane]

I've never had a Heller kit if I recall and didn't plan on getting any either. Some guys have hundreds or thousands of kits in their stash and are worried 'bout this company going broke or that company going broke. Reminds me of "chicken little."

[Rob Hall]

13 minutes ago, High octane said:

I've never had a Heller kit if I recall and didn't plan on getting any either. Some guys have hundreds or thousands of kits in their stash and are worried 'bout this company going broke or that company going broke. Reminds me of "chicken little."

I only have maybe a dozen Heller kits out of the thousands of kits in my stash...still sad to see a kit company going under... 

[ChrisBcritter]

Really wanted to try that Estafette as a "fish-out-of-water" US version.

Hope it gets into production somewhere.

 

Edited April 27, 2018 by ChrisBcritter

[niteowl7710]

Sounds like Heller name and kits will go on, just not "Made in France" anymore.  Be interesting to see if the Estefette actually gets released since the tooling for it was done back in 2016.  If they're going to outsource the production, someone just needs to run plastic through that tooling already and start counting the money.

[Aaronw]

It is hard to sell kits that consumers can not find. Distribution seems to be an issue for them. Most of the vendors I've checked for Heller kits don't actually have many in stock.

Heller has some good kits, and had a lot of interesting subjects in the works so I hope this isn't too big of a bump in the road for the future of the company.

 

The google translation is a little weird, but I gather the parent company wants to dump its French connections and move production someplace cheap. 

[ZTony8]

The Heller kits that I have vary widely in detail level, the older kits generally being better. I have an old issue of their Ferrari 330P and a Testor re-box of the Heller Porsche 917  and they're both more detailed than the later Fujimi versions. But their later rally car kits and their Peugeot 905 are very simplistic and lacking in detail and correctness. The decals are also problematic as some are too transparent while others are fine- and you can't tell which is which until you try using them.