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CEO admits Marks Business Is Unsustainable
Marks & Spencer MKS CEO Steve Rowe openly admits in todays strategic update that Marks business is not sustainable and needs to be built into one that is and one which will also delight its customers. If its stores in Greece are anything to go by he is dead right and it is going to take a lot of work to make them anything like sustainable and pleasing.
How can you make a profit if you can not bother to open up until 9am. when you are within 100 m. of a Lidl which opens and has queues from 8a.m. and 50 m from one of Greeces largest supermarkets which like most shops also opens at 8a.m. The M&S staff in the clothing store are so unsupervised that they go and sit on the steps outside and smoke whilst customers queue because of unattended check outs and are told if they want to be served quicker they must go upstairs. it is in the backwoods of a business that management weaknesses are exposed not in stores within a stones throw of head office.
Food sales for the half year to 1st October did rise by 4% and made good progress but like for like sales still fell by 0.9% despite outperforming the market. Clothing and Home fell by 5.3% or 5.9% on a like for like basis. In the UK like for like sales fell by 3.0%. Basic earnings per share for the half year slumped by 90.5%, statutory profit before tax by 88%. and on an underlying basis profit before tax was down by over 18%
Punch Taverns PUB Average profit per pub rose by 4% during the year to 20th August as strategic disposals came to an end. The year produced a strong set of results but nowhere near strong enough to reinstate a final dividend. Underlying profit before tax was down from £60m to £53m. but last years loss of £105m was transformed into an actual profit before tax of £60m.
GETECH GTC Profit before tax fell by nearly two thirds during the year to 31st July and earnings per share were down from 5.77p to 3.25p. However steps taken in the first half strengthened considerably the performance in the second half. The backdrop to the company’s performance remained challenging as oil prices remained low and volatile.
Aviva AV. is raising its interim dividend for the half year to the 30th September by 117% to 13p but it is only doing this so that full year dividends are re weighted towards the interim dividend. I winder how the final dividend will be re weighted. The full year outlook is in line.
Telit Communications TCM expects to finish the current year strongly, with double digit growth anticipated in EBITDA and earnings per share.
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Punch Plays Cards Close To Its Chest
Punch Taverns PUB Todays trading statement for the year to 20th August omits virtually any mention of its trading statistics It says it has produced a solid set of results following completion of its strategic disposal programme but fails to back that up with any meaningful figures, save to say that average profit per pub has risen by 4% and like for like net income from the core estate is up by 1% and the retail divisions 97 pubs are operating ahead of expectations. No doubt all will be revealed in the fullness of time.
Churchill China CHH produced yet another strong performance with profit before tax up by 29% for the half year to 30th June. Group revenue rose by 12% and basic earnings per share by 30%. The interim dividend is to be increased by 12%.
Fisher (James) FSJ is definitely ex growth for the time being , although that has not stopped it raising the interim dividend by 10% and it does expect to see growth resume in the second half, with new contracts and good demand for ship to ship services. Group revenue for the half year to the 30th June was down by some 2% and statutory profit before tax declined slightly from £17.9 to £17.4m. Strong growth was experienced in Marine Support, Tankships and Specialist Technical but this was offset, perhaps not surprisingly, by poor results from Offshore Oil.
HSS Hire Group HSS produced revenue growth of 13.5% in the half year to 2nd July and adjusted EBITDA rose by 11.1% which all helped to bring down the loss before tax from £14.1m to £9.8m and most of that, says the company, was due to what it euphemistically calls “strategy execution”. The interim dividend remains unchanged and the third quarter has started off ahead of last year.
Chemring Group plc CHG Revenue in the three months to the 31st July rose by 20% and the order book was up by 12.6% but £50m of this was due to the collapse of sterling which defintely did not help the company’s US dollar debt.
Surgical Innovations SUN Revenue for the six months to 30th June was robust rising by 16%, led by exports and a particularly strong performance in the US. Increased productivity helped margins rise by 26.6% and the company returned to profitability at the operating level. By the end of the half year net bank borrowings had been eliminated.
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GKN – Headmaster’s Report; Can do Better, Must Do Better
GKN plc GKN The collapse of sterling was to bring a new dawn for what was left of British Industry, lied Diddy David and the rest of his old Etonian clique of rulers. Well the truth is that it hasnt, at least not yet. All it has done is help companies to mask performances which are downright unacceptable. Thus for its first quarter, sales are up by 12%, trumpets GKN. Looks great that, dunnit, until you see that two thirds of that came from acquisitions and a quarter of it from beneficial currency movements. A mere 1% came from like for like growth which means that GKN just failed to take advantage of the opportunities which a collapsing pound were supposed to bring. GKN land systems led the decline with like for like sales down 6% even after taking into account a 3% currency benefit. Headmaster comments – can do better, must do better.
Rentokil Initial RTO First quarter revenue grew by 11% but 9% came from acquisition and only 2.8% from like for like growth. Pest control in North America had a great three months with 54% growth but, wait a minute, most of this so called growth came from acquisitions and only 6.4% from like for like growth. Not surprisingly the company does not offer any hope of beating expectations for the full year. Management seems to think it best not to give any reasons for this.
Punch Taverns PUB The big Punch pub sale has continued apace during the 28 weeks to 5th March and it is so beneficial to the company that it is ahead of target on this front. What is a welcome change is that underlying retail profits and sales are also ahead of expectations. EBITDA is down by some 10% following 18 months of strategic disposals but average profit per pub is up by 3%. Amazing really that what was one of the countries largest pub owners was so bad at managing its estate that it had to sell a lot of it off in the hope that it could make a profit out of what was left. Obviously the buyers of all these pubs, thought they could make a better job of running them, than Punch had.
ARM Holdings ARM Poor old sterling. It can’t do right for doing wrong. Now ARM claims its first quarter results have been impacted by the weakness of sterling, whereas nearly everybody else has been cursing the pound for its continued strength over the past year or so. First quarter revenue rose by 14% in US$ terms or 22% in pounds. There was strong demand for the company;s most advanced technology and the number of chips shipped rose by 10% to 4.1 billion
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