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    Horizon Hobby® Acquires Pro-Line® Racing

    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-pro-line-acquisition.html




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    8 minutes ago, Tug said:

    Wow! 

     

    Is this good or bad? 🤔

     

    I don't think it will make much difference to be honest, all the same supply chain too.

     

    Proline are huge in the USA, for sponsoring events and races too.

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    I just hope they don't try to cut costs and reduce the quality. Proline have always proudly manufactured their tyres in the US - hopefully they don't sell themselves out to China in a bid to cut costs!

     

    Never been overly impressed with their models, they should just stick to tyres and shells IMO.

    Edited by J.K
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    rip proline. get wallets ready for £100 sets of standard tyres with spektrum smart technology :P  but could also be good if they make all the arrma, axial and losi model come with proline tryres as standard. 

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    3 hours ago, J.K said:

    I just hope they don't try to cut costs and reduce the quality. Proline have always proudly manufactured their tyres in the US - hopefully they don't sell themselves out to China in a bid to cut costs!

     

    Never been overly impressed with their models, they should just stick to tyres and shells IMO.

    I'm in the UK. They can do whatever they want to reduce costs. Paying a 20% mark up because of tariffs sucks anyway.

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    The shells have always been good. The tyres I'm not such a fan of, oversized and too soft. 

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    I dont like the sound of it. Does this mean proline was failing atleast to a point or the owner just wanted to retire was the proline rcs a bite to far. If they keep proline as is no problem but if they and probably will go corporate with it damn. 

     

    It might be cool for the horizon kits to come with proline parts as standard mayb they'll do specials too. Like traxxas does special bodies. Arrma can now  loosely not so loosely copy proline tires treads all they want lol. 

     

    Mayb theyll have pro models for everything that just include proline body, wheels and tires. That might be cool.  Especially if the body is clear or has a clear option. 

    Edited by RCbutcher

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    2 hours ago, RCbutcher said:

    I dont like the sound of it. Does this mean proline was failing atleast to a point or the owner just wanted to retire was the proline rcs a bite to far. If they keep proline as is no problem but if they and probably will go corporate with it damn. 

     

    It might be cool for the horizon kits to come with proline parts as standard mayb they'll do specials too. Like traxxas does special bodies. Arrma can now  loosely not so loosely copy proline tires treads all they want lol. 

     

    Mayb theyll have pro models for everything that just include proline body, wheels and tires. That might be cool.  Especially if the body is clear or has a clear option. 

    You don't normally buy a business that's failing XD you buy one that's doing well and make them an offer they can't refuse. 

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    On 10/08/2020 at 20:21, Jumper said:

    rip proline. get wallets ready for £100 sets of standard tyres with spektrum smart technology :P  but could also be good if they make all the arrma, axial and losi model come with proline tryres as standard. 

     

    I hope to god they don't put 💩💩y pro-line tyres on Arrma's, in my opinion most of the Arrma DBoots tyres are far superior, Backflip LP's anyone..😉

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    27 minutes ago, BashingBrian said:

     

    I hope to god they don't put 💩💩y pro-line tyres on Arrma's, in my opinion most of the Arrma DBoots tyres are far superior, Backflip LP's anyone..😉

    what is wrong with proline tyres? i have found them to be great. 

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    16 hours ago, Tug said:

    The shells have always been good. The tyres I'm not such a fan of, oversized and too soft. 

    The scale/crawler tyres are some of the best though.

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    7 minutes ago, mond said:

    The scale/crawler tyres are some of the best though.

     

    7 minutes ago, mond said:

    The scale/crawler tyres are of the best though.

     

    That's fair enough, but only if you're into that side of the hobby. 

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    i have badlands, shockwaves in 3.8 and the mx28 in 2.8 and they are all great. 

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    9 hours ago, mond said:

    The scale/crawler tyres are some of the best though.

     

    9 hours ago, Tug said:

     

     

    That's fair enough, but only if you're into that side of the hobby. 

     

    I have no experience with their crawler stuff, I was only talking about the bashing stuff..

     

    If you think their stuff is good, well that's up to you...

    My brand new MX buggy tyres didn't even get five minutes into using them and two of the tyres decided to part company with the wheels..!!😩

     

    Everything is fine if you live in the states as they just warranty them quite easily ......

     

    Oh and don't even start me on the standard badlands, I have had those split on me, come off the rims etc etc..😩

     

    Does that mean CML will lose the distribution rights..?? and now LogicRC will take over... more bad news for us in the UK..😢

    Edited by BashingBrian

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    9 hours ago, Tug said:

     

     

    That's fair enough, but only if you're into that side of the hobby. 

    Their racing tyres aren't bad either at any scale. 

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    36 minutes ago, BashingBrian said:

     

     

    I have no experience with their crawler stuff, I was only talking about the bashing stuff..

     

    If you think their stuff is good, well that's up to you...

    My brand new MX buggy tyres didn't even get five minutes into using them and two of the tyres decided to part company with the wheels..!!😩

     

    Everything is fine if you live in the states as they just warranty them quite easily ......

     

    Oh and don't even start me on the standard badlands, I have had those split on me, come off the rims etc etc..😩

     

    Does that mean CML will lose the distribution rights..?? and now LogicRC will take over... more bad news for us in the UK..😢

    fair enough. mine have come unglued on 6s, but its not really a big deal i just glued them back on again and they have been fine since. not had any of them split that would be annoying. 

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    One possible good outcome is that Pro-Line now has access to all the licences that Horizon had previously negotiated, namely Chevrolet and Toyota amongst others. 

    Edited by Garry
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    On 11/08/2020 at 18:38, Jumper said:

    You don't normally buy a business that's failing XD you buy one that's doing well and make them an offer they can't refuse. 

    People always buy a failing business if they believe you can turn it around? Its very common practice. Theres potentially more risk buying a company doing well?

    Edited by Guns

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    12 minutes ago, Guns said:

    People always buy a failing business if they believe you can turn it around? Its very common practice. Theres potentially more risk buying a company doing well?

    That doesn't happen very often at all. You might buy one after it's already failed for the resources it held. The reason you might see it is because when it does work everyone points it out. What you don't see is the 99% of fails that nobody wants to buy. 

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    6 hours ago, Guns said:

    People always buy a failing business if they believe you can turn it around? Its very common practice. Theres potentially more risk buying a company doing well?

    That's often to asset strip. There's lots of reasons to buy other businesses doing do well and badly.  In this instance I would say it's mainly for the name/brand.  If horizon products start appearing with proline tyres at no additional cost to us, that's a good thing.

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