Compass Group, TUI, Hostelworld, business & consumer confidence etc.:

A DAY IN THE LIFE:

We had one of those days yesterday. One of those that too many owners of relatively old dogs owners will be familiar with.

Anyway, we’ve reintroduced Start the Day. It’s on the right in bold (or at the bottom if you receive the Word version of this email). It features:

• Start the Day with a Song (back after its Covid shutdown. Suggestions, especially more recent releases, welcome),

• Quotey McQuoteface (a Quote & general knowledge quiz),

• A Little Birdie Told Us (interesting stuff whispered in our shell-like – comments & contributions welcome)

• And Yesterday’s Tweets (which does what it says on the tin).

On to the news:

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CONSUMER CONFIDENCE:

In addition to comments from the BRC and Barclaycard, Accountant Deloitte has added its voice and reported its latest Consumer Confidence Index suggesting that ‘consumer confidence fell for the third consecutive quarter in Q1 2022.’ It says real incomes fell and interest rates rose. Stark though the comment is, it will not come as new news to many.

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Elsewhere, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research has said that it believes the UK will fall into recession later this year.

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COMMENT ON THE QUEEN’S SPEECH:

Prince Charles yesterday read the Queen’s speech in parliament.

UK Hospitality CEO Kate Nicholls comments ‘the measures in today’s speech will do little to bring immediate relief to the pains that hospitality businesses are feeling in the short term…Making pavement licences permanent is a really positive move…’

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The CBI commented, saying the Queen’s Speech focus on ‘infrastructure, energy security, and skills all lay the foundations for sustainable, longer-term growth…what’s needed now is a relentless focus on delivery.’

The BCC responded to the Queen’s Speech by saying it welcomes the ‘measures for business, but unless the Government takes immediate action on the economy, they will come too late to help many firms.’

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PUBS & RESTAURANTS:

Supply issues:

The president of the European Investment Bank has said that around £6.8bn of wheat is currently in Ukraine, but cannot be exported.

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Christie & Co’s hospitality team completed six individual pub sales across the home counties during March alone. Christie & Co said there was a good mix of buyers seeking opportunities outside of city-centres, a trend which has arisen from the pandemic.

Company confidence:

Bibby Financial Services has produced its annual SME Confidence Tracker survey of 500 UK SME owners and decision makers and has found that 81 per cent would right now consider some sort of cash injection from external sources to support them. It says that 12% would consider crowd funding.

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COMPANY NEWS:

Compass Group has reported H1 numbers saying that revenue in the half year rose by 37.9% to £11.6bn with operating profit up by 134.5% at £673m.

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Rosa’s Thai will open its first site in York on 1 June, located on Coney Street. The opening marks the 29th restaurant for the group.

HOLIDAYS & LEISURE TRAVEL:

TUI has reported Q2 numbers.

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Hostelworld, which will host its AGM later today, has updated on trading saying ‘the strong start experienced in the first 12 weeks of 2022 has continued through April and into early May. In particular in week 18 net bookings reached 73% of 2019 levels and, due to higher booking values, revenue reached 97%.’

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A study by Skyscanner has found that 86% of travellers plan to spend more or the same on international travel than they did in pre-pandemic 2019, with half planning to spend more. Of those spending more, 48% are putting money towards longer trips and 43% on accommodation upgrades.

Martin Alcock, owner and director of the Trade Travel Consultancy, speaking at the Barclays 2022 Travel Forum, claims that the holiday booking window had begun to lengthen ‘in the last couple of weeks’ with customers starting to book further out.

Tui Airways announces that food and drink will be served on its flights, in a U-turn from the advice it issued over the weekend. Previously the airline had recommended passengers should bring their own food and drink on board as it was suffering from staff shortages in its catering supplier.

Sabre CEO Sean Menke claims that business travel is now closing the gap on leisure travel demand. The difference in recovery between Sabre’s ‘domestic TMC’ and ‘non-TMC’ bookings closed to just 7% in April, down from 37% the year prior.

Heathrow  has increased its 2022 passenger number forecast by 16% from 45.5 million to nearly 53 million. The forecast means Heathrow expects passenger numbers to reach 65% of pre-pandemic levels this year. Heathrow expects to remain loss-making through the year and does not forecast paying dividends to shareholders in 2022.

OTHER LEISURE:

Hindenburg Research, a US firm known for shorting stocks, has said Elon Musk could submit a lower bid for Twitter, owing to a slump in tech stocks and a weak financial performance at the social media platform.

Meanwhile, soon-to-be Twitter owner and the world’s richest man Elon Musk has said that he will reverse Donald Trump’s ban from the platform once he takes control. He said banning former president Trump was a ‘morally bad decision and foolish in the extreme.’

FINANCE & MARKETS:

Toyota and Tesla have been impacted by shutdowns in China. Shanghai is under restrictions for the sixth week. Tesla is reported to have suspended most of its manufacturing operation in the city.

Sterling mixed at $1.2331 and €1.1696. Oil price lower at $104.88. UK 10yr gilt yield down sharply at 1.85% (off 10bps). World markets a shade better yesterday and London set to open up around 37pts as at 6.30am.

RETAIL WITH NICK BUBB:

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