A DAY IN THE LIFE:

Anyway, Langton left a sunny Ludlow yesterday pretty impressed with the town but, it has to be said, the populace really doesn’t know how to riot.
Because there was a demonstration yesterday evening against some sort of changes to the parking rules in the town and the straw boaters outnumbered the black balaclavas by perhaps 100 to zero and there wasn’t a petrol bomb in sight.
And there was a similar lack of violence in the air in Stow-on-the-Wold where we pitched up next and where first contact with the natives was to have a car slow down & tell me that I was parking in a stupid place.
I pointed out that I wasn’t parking, I was dithering, and that there was a fricking difference. But I was treated to a ‘here’s five pence, buy another string for your dog’ look, which was clearly meant to either turn me into stone or return me to Yorkshire via the power of thought.
And then it was boy-from-Hull gets a rude awakening when I tried to pay for a £16.80 round of drinks with a tenner and was asked to pay £12.80 for 7 sausage rolls.
Well I was hungry but, as I paid with a few pound coins and a bag of musty, lint-covered copper, I was then led away apparently muttering something about ‘four for a quid in Morrison’s’ to general tutting from the Rees-Mogg set and their assorted hangers on.

Further south still, tomorrow. On to the news:

• Diageo has reported preliminary results for the year ending 30 June 2018, with the group’s net sales up 0.9% to £12.2bn and operating profit climbing 3.7% to £3.7bn. The group’s basic EPS has increased 14.8% to 121.7p, while the board has approved a share buyback programme to return up to £2bn to shareholders.

• There has been large increase in the number of publicans citing beer ties as the biggest factor negatively affecting their turnover in the last 12 months, the MCA has reported. The MCA’s Pub Market Report has found that 26% of respondents who have seen their turnover fall have blamed beer ties, up 16% on last year.

• Marks & Spencer is to end its Lunch To You operations as the group looks to simplify operations. The service had offered van-based delivery in partnership with Greenore to office parks.

• Compass Group have reported Q3 organic growth up 5.7%, with the group citing strong trading in North America as an acceleration in Europe as the main contributors. Compass have stated their expectations for the rest of the year remains unchanged at around 4-6% organic growth.

• Pub operator and brewer Brakspear has relaunched the Frogmill in Gloucestershire. The redevelopment has cost £3.5m and is the largest the group has taken on.

• CEO of Fever-Tree, Tim Warrillow has stated that as a result of the group’s recent strong results, he ‘anticipates that the outcome for the full year will be comfortably ahead of its expectations’. Investec have increased projected full year revenue for the group at around £220m, up £15 million on previous estimates.

• Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy reports group revenue up 10% to €21.8bn in H1 2018 with the US, Europe and Asia reporting profit from recurring operations was €4.6 million, up 28% yoy. The Wine & Spirits division reported revenue down 1% yoy to €2.2m but showed organic revenue growth of 7%. Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH, commented on the group’s performance: ‘The excellent results of the first half of the year attest to the strong desirability of our brands and the effectiveness of our strategy. The performance of the first half is even more remarkable given the unfavourable currency environment.’

• UKHospitality welcomes the inclusion of the Agent of Change principle which provides protection for music venues. Chief Executive Kate Nicholls said ‘Nightclubs and gig venues are some of our most important assets in communities in every region of the country. It is absolutely vital that their status and ability to act as important economic and social assets be recognised and safeguarded.’

• UKHospitality supports the Home Office toolkit designed to help EU citizens apply for settled status in the UK. Chief Executive Kate Nicholls said: ‘Dissemination of information to employees is going to be absolutely crucial as we move towards Brexit. Members have consistently told us they need information from Government to reassure their EU staff they are welcome in the UK and so this is a big step forward.’

• Anthony Pender will stand down as chairman of the British Institute of Innkeeping shortly, with a spokesman saying ‘During the four years of his tenure, Anthony has led the way in making the organisation financially stable and sustainable and, in conjunction with chief executive Mike Clist, has restructured the membership programme and underpinned organisational structure.’

Travel

• Marriott announces a $500m Ritz development in Manhattan, New York, scheduled to open in 2021.

• Ryanair announces cuts to its Dublin-based fleet from 30 planes to 24 in winter 2018, putting 300 jobs at risk. About 100 pilots and 200 cabin crew have been given notice. Ryanair blamed a downturn in forward bookings and airfares in the Republic of Ireland, partly as a result of recent rolling strikes by Irish pilots.

OTHER LEISURE

• Per MCA, All Star Lanes managing director Christian Rose has stepped down following a decision to take the firm, which was previously assessing strategic options, off the market. Rose joined the group in 2015 overseeing its turnaround.

• Facebook reported its number of users at 2.23bn at the end of June, up 11% yoy, its slowest growth in more than two years. Shares fell by more than 20% yesterday on the poor figures, with the company reporting revenue gains to slow.

Yesterday’s song was Thunderstruck by AC/DC. Today, who sang:

He stands like a statue,

Becomes part of the machine

Feeling all the bumpers

Feeling all the bumpers

RETAIL NEWS WITH NICK BUBB:

• Howden: Many “white van men” have either been in Russia watching the World Cup or have simply found it too hot to work, so the trade kitchens business Howden could have been excused a slightly cautious outlook statement today with the interims (for the 24 weeks to June 16th), but the company has said that gross UK sales have been up 5.3% in the first 4 weeks of the second half and full year expectations are unchanged. In the first half UK revenue grew by 12.1% gross and by 10.7% on a same depot basis, albeit off the back of reduced gross margins, to leave PBT up to £68.8m from £65.6m.

• Inchcape: We saw on Twitter yesterday a wag saying that countries having to stockpile food ahead of a possible hard Brexit are probably not target markets for German luxury car makers…but the Motor group Inchcape has many International strings to its bow and today’s interims flag that although first half Retail profits were hit hard by “very challenging conditions for Vehicles in our UK and Australia Retail businesses” Inchcape is doing well in Russia…

• Bonmarche: Ahead of today’s AGM, the struggling fashion chain for more elderly ladies, Bonmarche, has issued a better -looking update, flagging that sales in Q1 (the 13 weeks to June 30th) grew by 2.7%, with Online sales up 27.3% and store LFL sales down by only 1.2%. Helen Connolly, the Chief Executive Officer of Bonmarché, says: “The improved sales performance during the first quarter, achieved in a clothing market which, whilst helped to some extent by more seasonal weather, remains challenging, underpins our confidence in the strategy, and the Board’s expectations for the full year remain unchanged.”

• Mothercare: To ratify the much-needed £32.5m share placing/fund raising, the beleaguered Mothercare has to get approval from shareholders at an EGM at 10am today and ahead of that it has said that existing shareholders accounted for 78% of the placing at 19p.

• Intu Properties: Having been embraced and then cast aside by its embattled rival Hammerson back in the spring, against a background of escalating CVA’s in the High Street, the shopping centre giant Intu Properties (the owner of Manchester Trafford, Lakeside and Metrocentre, inter alia) had a difficult balance to strike with its interims today and the headline is “Winning Destinations Drive A  Resilient Performance In A Challenging Market”. Intu highlight that all 4 of their House of Fraser stores will stay open under the CVA plan, with only a small rent reduction on 1 store, but the main focus is going to be on the sharp fall in NAV, from 349p to 309p, as yields hardened.