Horizon Hobby buys Proline Racing

[Topher Builds]

Whoa. Didn’t see this one coming. No idea what to expect from this acquisition but it’s interesting for sure.

Seems like proline value would be relatively high right now with the no prep drag racing taking off and crawling staying relatively popular.

August 10, 2020
Champaign, Illinois — Horizon Hobby is excited to announce the acquisition of Pro-Line Racing, the leading innovator in the RC performance and customization accessory market.

“Pro-Line Racing is one of the strongest RC brands in the world, with over 38 years of providing innovative products,” Chris Dickerson, Horizon’s President, said. “Horizon has a longstanding partnership with Pro-Line. Throughout our relationship, we’ve always admired Pro-Line’s commitment to expanding the customer experience through innovative product design.” Dickerson continued, “Beyond the product, we’ve always admired the Pro-Line team’s passion and feel they share the same values as Horizon. We are very confident this will be a strong cultural fit.”

Todd Mattson, Chief Executive Officer and Owner of Pro-Line, said, “For over 38 years, Pro-Line Racing has created unforgettable memories for the everyday backyard hero and won 12 IFMAR World Championship titles. We are proud to have built a strong brand with Pro-Line that is known for innovation and quality. Our partnership with Horizon creates significant opportunity for us to take Pro-Line to the next level by leveraging Horizon’s resources, such as global marketing and distribution channels.”

Dickerson added, “Horizon strives to provide the best brands in RC to its customers. By bringing Pro-Line into our family of proprietary brands, we take an important step forward in continuing on that commitment. We feel that by aligning our development and marketing resources, we’ll find new ways to innovate and create exceptional customer experiences. Further, Pro-Line manufactures in the United States and will help Horizon expand our manufacturing experience.”

Pro-Line will continue to operate at their facility in Banning, CA. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Pro-Line Racing was founded in 1982 and is a passionate team of American innovators bonded by vision and determination. They are a US manufacturer and 12-Time World Champion, with the goal to always satisfy their RC customers through cutting edge and high-performance accessory products for a wide variety of classes and scales of RC surface vehicles. Pro-Line is based in Banning, California.

The Undisputed Leader in Radio Control
Horizon Hobby, LLC was founded in 1985. Since then, Horizon has become the undisputed global leader in radio control products and accessories. Forging strong relationships with hobby manufacturers, retailers and consumers around the world, the company features the best brands in the industry. Horizon is committed to delivering innovative products and providing an exceptional customer experience. With employees around the globe, Horizon Hobby is an international company with locations in the United States, Germany, England, and China. The company is headquartered in Champaign, Illinois.

https://www.horizonhobby.com/blog-pr...NTcSpA9xFyC8lw

[durok]

Damn, Topher - you are on TOP of things lately!



Interesting - wonder if Axial/Losi kit and RTR tires will eventually be in updated compounds and what this might do to the licensed bodies coming from Axial...

[Topher Builds]

Originally Posted by durok

Damn, Topher - you are on TOP of things lately!



Interesting - wonder if Axial/Losi kit and RTR tires will eventually be in updated compounds and what this might do to the licensed bodies coming from Axial...

Lol thanks Durok. All my social media I have left is 100% RC so I see this stuff relatively quick sometimes.

I certainly hope it’s the horizon compounds that get updated and that the proline compounds don’t change. Tempted to stock pile some tires here soon.

[B-MOW71]

Wow! I didn't see that coming either!

Looks like Horizon is shooting for world domination in the R/C world!

Thanks for the update TB!

[GA Dawg]

I don't like this much consolidation. Horizon is doing well right now, but some bad management down the road could really wreck this hobby.

[Panther6834]

Could be a "good" thing, could be a "bad" thing...hopefully, it's a "good" thing. Pro-Line makes great tires (tho their foams are on the 'questionable' side), which I have on the great majority of my vehicles. With Horizon taking over ownership, this should not only increase distribution channels, but also (hopefully) increase availability.


~ More peace, love, laughter, & kindness would make the world a MUCH better place

[mikemcE]

Was at my LHS when this hit, “supposedly “ PL had a couple of containers “lost in transit” and were cash strapped..... I’m not buying that as most of these deals don’t happen quickly with low profit margins in the RC industry. Time will tell all.


Hang up and Drive

[soze]

I'm not sure I like this too much. This is almost kind of potentially shaping up to be another Hobbico if something happens to go wrong.

[Greatscott]

This interesting. Makes me wonder what will happen with the Slash-compatible offerings PL has. Traxxas and Horizon/Tower have not been on speaking terms for quite a while. Maybe soon they'll bury the hatchet and we'll be able to buy Traxxas on Tower again, not holding my breath for this one... but it would be nice.

The thing that worries me about takeovers like this is when the market downturns and these big mega-companies take a hit and have to file for Ch11, or worse, Ch13.

[Jim85IROC]

interesting, and unexpected. It seems like Proline has been a strong business, and not necessarily one that was ripe for a buyout. I'm nervous about what Horizon will do to make this purchase profitable for them, but maybe owning the OEM that you use to source your bodies & tires might be advantageous. Hopefully it doesn't mean that production gets moved over seas.

[Col_Sanders]

Originally Posted by GA Dawg

I don't like this much consolidation. Horizon is doing well right now, but some bad management down the road could really wreck this hobby.

Yeah, this could be bad later.

[Kingmeow]

Originally Posted by GA Dawg

I don't like this much consolidation. Horizon is doing well right now, but some bad management down the road could really wreck this hobby.

Originally Posted by soze

I'm not sure I like this too much. This is almost kind of potentially shaping up to be another Hobbico if something happens to go wrong.

Originally Posted by Greatscott

The thing that worries me about takeovers like this is when the market downturns and these big mega-companies take a hit and have to file for Ch11, or worse, Ch13.

Originally Posted by Col_Sanders

Yeah, this could be bad later.

Look what happened to Tower/Hobbico/Great Planes when HH gobbled them up. A lot of stuff that you used to be able to buy from Tower (not necessarily Tower brand) are no longer stocked.

Time will tell as to what HH will do with the ProLine line.

[Col_Sanders]

Originally Posted by Kingmeow

Look what happened to Tower/Hobbico/Great Planes when HH gobbled them up. A lot of stuff that you used to be able to buy from Tower (not necessarily Tower brand) are no longer stocked.

Time will tell as to what HH will do with the ProLine line.

If you're referring to Traxxas, I think they cut off hobbico back when they were not paying their debts, then decided to cut off distributors all together so hobby shops buy direct?

[HumboldtEF]

I agree this isnt great. Seems like an odd fit for an OEM to have an aftermarket brand, but maybe that will be a good thing since it might not be competing with another in house brand.

I also wonder about how this will effect events that Proline used to hold like by the fire?

And maybe on the bright side, could this mean that proline kits might have a longer life span maybe?

[durok]

Duratrax used to make R/C vehicles...

[Kingmeow]

Originally Posted by Col_Sanders

If you're referring to Traxxas, I think they cut off hobbico back when they were not paying their debts, then decided to cut off distributors all together so hobby shops buy direct?

No I wasn't but that's interesting to know about the relationship with Traxxas.

I'm more of an airplane guy and a lot of Tower's brand, e.g., Flyzone, were phased out once HH took over. It was obvious that will happen as HH has E-Flite and Tower had Flyzone.

The entire line of Parma seems to have disappeared too (paint mask, Faskolor, etc.) and their Tactic line has been reduced to skeletons.

[JatoTheRipper]

I'm trying to stay positive with this one, but it's difficult. Hopefully Rich can chime in soon. My initial thoughts are as follows.

I should be all for this since I'm a huge fan of Horizon and a big fan of Proline, although that has been waning over the years because of ho-hum body releases and the resistance to deviate from the 4.75" tires (until very recently), but I actually don't like this acquisition at all.

Proline does bodies and tires well. Companies that specialize in a limited number of products can do a few things very well and Proline does just that currently. As a whole, they nail bodies and tires better than anybody else on the market. Horizon does excellent bodies as well, but their wheelhouse is vehicles. Horizon used to make some nice tires, but I haven't found any from them that I've liked in the past 5 years or so because of either tread pattern or poor compound. I sincerely hope Proline keeps operating as a separate entity without any intervention from Horizon, but I'm afraid that won't happen. Even if it starts out running as a separate entity, just think about how often that's happened and how often it's changed down the road after companies have been taken over. When a company is bought by a larger entity, they almost always have to answer to the new parent in some way. That can occur in lots of ways including having to meet profit margins, sales targets or some other metric.

Imagine RTR's with "Proline" tires that suck as much as R35. That would tarnish the Proline brand name and if you water down a brand name and product line enough you eventually start putting nails in the coffin. Now if Horizon RTR's get G8 compound that would be amazing, but I seriously doubt that will happen. Putting G8 tires on RTR's would almost certainly limit aftermarket tire sales to RTR guys.

Too many things can go wrong here. It also seems like Horizon is trying to build a "monopoly" of sorts and get their hands in every part of RC. I think there's way more potential for bad than there is for good on both the consumer end and on the business side of things. But that's my two cents looking through the window from afar. My analysis may be as "accurate" as your local weatherman's monthly forecast.

Oh and as Jim said, I seriously hope Horizon doesn't move Proline to Asia in search for more profits. Obviously, Proline is profitable and sustainable as-is and it has been for decades now.

[mikemcE]

Paging Mr. Rich Trujillo to the white courtesy phone!!


Hang up and Drive

[GA Dawg]

Originally Posted by mikemcE

Paging Mr. Rich Trujillo to the white courtesy phone!!


Hang up and Drive

Generally speaking, I like Rich, but he's going to toe the company line and paint this as a match made in heaven. Plus, I can never forget him saying that the Ascender wasn't going anywhere right before it was discontinued.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by GA Dawg

Generally speaking, I like Rich, but he's going to toe the company line and paint this as a match made in heaven. Plus, I can never forget him saying that the Ascender wasn't going anywhere right before it was discontinued.

He posted this news on one of the unsocial media sites he said he knew as much as we do.