We are tapping into what we see as a lucrative adult collector market as opposed to purely selling these products to children

Frank Martin, Hornby chief executive

The model maker says switching emphasis from the children's market, where it faces tough competition from computer games, to middle-aged men with large disposable incomes has helped increase sales by 15%.

Pre-tax profits at the company, which makes model railway sets and the toy racing car range Scalextric, were �2.3m for the year to 31 March, up 63% on the previous year.

More than half of that increase came from Hornby's wholly owned US subsidiary Scalextric USA.

Childhood fantasies

Moving production to China has not only been crucial in helping it cut costs but Hornby claims it has helped them achieve the improvements in quality needed to target the adult collector market.

Scalextric sales have taken off in the US

Hornby chief executive Frank Martin told BBC Radio 5's Wake Up to Money that its new customers typically grew up in the 1950s and '60s.

They might have "wanted a really big Hornby lay-out as their major Christmas present", he added, or a big Scalextric lay-out, but perhaps their families could not afford it at the time.

"These people are now in their 40s and 50s. They are finding themselves with more disposable income than they could ever have dreamed of, and more leisure time as well."

Video games

"We are tapping into what we see as a lucrative adult collector market as opposed to purely selling these products to children," Mr Martin said.

The growth of video games had made it increasingly difficult to get children excited about Hornby's products, Mr Martin added.

But he played down talk of a sale to a big foreign toymaker, such as the world leader Mattel.

"When a product such as Hornby or Scalextric pass into the hands of a major American or Japanese firm, they really don't know how to handle it.

"There is a passion involved, which doesn't sit easily with distant ownership," he said.

The company has recently launched a "virtual railway" CD Rom, which allows enthusiasts to plan their model railway lay-outs on their PCs.

Hornby shares jumped 22.5p, or 22%, to 153.75, on Wednesday, on news of the profit boost.

The company proposed a final dividend of 10p per share, bringing the total dividend for the year to 12p, compared to 7p the previous year.