Young & Co H1, more on JDW, read-across, Wendy’s, Disney & other:

A DAY IN THE LIFE:

We commented last week that certain words, such as ‘clearly’ and ‘literally’ get used to much.

Maybe, they should be banned. Or rationed or at least only used by people who have got their Word Badge because the one suggests a degree of certainty that is probably a figment of the speaker’s imagination and the second implies an absolute state of affairs that is virtually never present.

For example: ‘He’s clearly clever, his head is literally the size of a planet.’

The above not referring to me and ‘excited’ and ‘delighted’ are also a little suspect. They imply a degree of frenzied, swivel-eyed glee that likely isn’t present when a company says it’s ‘excited’ to be opening a new server room or ‘delighted’ that it’s to be heated (or should that be cooled) by a heat pump.

Still – and as always – hypocrisy is alive and well and living in Langton’s house.

Because we use all of the above words when we’re either fighting for those few milliseconds to gather our thoughts or simply can’t think of a more appropriate word to use. And our politicians use them freely (as in ‘I’m sure you, and indeed your viewers at home, would clearly agree…’) in order to eat up the seconds and shy away from every having to say what they really think.

Anyway, enough of that. Let’s move on to this news:

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YOUNG & CO – H1 NUMBERS:

The group says it has seen ‘strong trading benefitting from last year’s capex programme & pent up demand’. It says it is ‘well positioned for long term growth…’

Young & Co has updated on trading for the period between its year end and its AGM (today) and our comments on the transaction are set out below:

Headline numbers:

• Total revenue for the period from continuing operations was £149.6 million, with an adjusted EBITDA of £42.7 million.

• The group is reporting a profit from continuing operations of £22.2m (2020: loss £22.2m). Basic EPS is 17.96p, up from a loss of 36.45p in the same period last year.

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JD WETHERSPOON READ ACROSS FOR THE SECTOR:

JD Wetherspoon shares fell by more than 7% yesterday on the back of its Q1 trading update. More detail from the conference call is below but here a brief comment on the implications for the wider sector. Arguably, uncertainty – ahead of what we hope will be a busy Christmas period – has increased. London is still sluggish. JDW is cutting some prices in order to tempt back some (older) customers and this, and other issues, will have a read-across for other pub and restaurant companies.

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JD WETHERSPOON – Q1 TRADING UPDATE:

Following its update on Q1 trading, JD Wetherspoon hosted a conference call for analysts and our comments thereon are set out below. The main issues: the company walked back forecasts, said it would hit level LfL sales – but not until the end of the financial year, older customers were proving hard to entice back, it wasn’t going to rush to invest in new or refurbished units just now, supply was OK, costs were OK, labour was OK – but getting more expensive and the price differential between JDW and its competitors, if anything, was widening:

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COMPANY & OTHER NEWS:

JD Wetherspoon’s shares fell by 7% yesterday following the company’s update on trading for the first 15wks of the current financial year.

Wendy’s has reported Q3 numbers, saying that for the period ended Oct. 3 it earned net income of $41.2 million, or 18 cents a share (up from $39.8 million, or 17 cents a share, in the same period last year). Sales in the quarter rose 4%, to $470.3 million, from $452.2 million in last year’s quarter. The company reports that same-store sales in the quarter were up 2.1% in the United States and up 14.7% in international markets for a combined global increase of 3.3% over the prior-year quarter.

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The Guardian reports that bonuses of up to £2,000 to recruit Christmas workers in order to combat staff shortages. According to the analysis of more than 1.2m job postings from the Adzuna website, employers are gearing up to hire an army of more than 130,000 additional staff this winter. UKH has said that the hospitality sector is short of as many as 200,000 workers. Competition for staff looks as though it could be hot in the run up to and over the festive period.

JD Wetherspoon has appointed CBRE and Savills to dispose of the Hope & Champion in Beaconsfield. The pub is part of the Extra Motorway Service Area, situated just off the M40 Motorway at junction 2.

Gordon Ramsay Restaurants has acquired a 6,000 sq ft space at Liverpool ONE. The 195-cover site will bring the group to six sites, joining four restaurants in London and a site in Edinburgh.

The CMA reported that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the undertakings offered by Admiral might be accepted by the authority. This means Admiral Taverns’ £222m acquisition of Hawthorn has moved a step forward.

DoorDash will acquire food delivery company Wolt for €7bn, with founder Tony Xu saying the move ‘will accelerate our product development, bring greater focus to each of our markets and improve the value we provide to consumers, merchants, as well as Dashers and couriers around the world.’

R200 Restaurant Awards 2021 named Eataly’s Broadgate site as the Best New Opening, with Marugame Udon’s Liverpool Street site named as One to Watch.

Walkers has said it is ‘very sorry’ for the continuing shortages of its crisps after a problem with an IT system upgrade disrupted production.  

LEISURE TRAVEL & HOTELS:

Brittany Ferries booking data shows 188,878 passengers had booked travel by the end of October for the July to September 2022 period. That represents a 48% rise on the 127,517 who had booked for the 2020 summer season at the end of October 2019. UK-France reservations were up 40%, UK-Spain up 35% and France-Ireland up 234%.   ’

OTHER LEISURE:

Disney has reported Q3 numbers, saying that total company revenue rose by 26% year-on-year to $18.53 billion. Net income was $160 million against a loss of $710 million the same quarter last year. The numbers missed analyst’s forecasts. The group’s theme parks, although ahead of 2020, continue to be impacted by Covid. For that division, the company says operating income  was $640 million against a loss of $945 million last year. Disney says ‘Covid-19 and measures to prevent its spread has impacted our segments in a number of ways, most significantly at the Disney parks, experiences and products segment where our theme parks and resorts were closed and cruise ship sailings and guided tours were suspended.’

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The Supreme Court has blocked a planned £3bn British class action against Google over allegations that Google secretly took more than five million Apple iPhone users’ personal data between 2011 and 2012.   

FINANCE & MARKETS:

The consumer price index in the US shows prices rising at 6.2% in the last 12mths (the period to October). This is the highest rate in thirty years. Food and fuel, largely unavoidable costs, were doing the damage.

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Sterling weaker at $1.3415 and €1.1689. Oil lower at $82.70. UK 10yr gilt yield up 9bps at 0.92%. World markets mixed yesterday and London set to open up around 8pts as at 7am.

RETAIL WITH NICK BUBB:

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