A Day in the Life:

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It’ll be interesting to see if this email goes out OK because a serious chunk of Langton Capital is currently mid-Atlantic & is due to touch down at Heathrow around 8am. The time difference has been a bit of a problem the last couple of weeks or so. The Day in the Life has been somewhat sporadic and there will be no Daily Wrap for a couple more days.

The News:

Pub, Restaurant & Drinks Producer News:

• Glendola Leisure has secured a site in Glasgow which it intends to turn into its first brewpub. Managing director Alex Salussolia told the M&C that its collaboration with Scottish brewer Drygate will be its first foray into the craft beer market.

• Hawksmoor is preparing to open two more sites in London under its Foxlow neighbourhood-style restaurant format.

• The Bulldog Hotel Group is changing its name to the Coaching Inn Group to better reflect its food and drink business mix. The group plans to add at least another two sites to its current eight-strong portfolio this year.

• Café and deli group Filmore & Union has exceeded its fundraising target by £431,960 after receiving substantial interest.

• Adnams has reported a 12% rise in H1 operating profit to £962,000 despite a 5% slide in beer volumes and a 3% fall in turnover to £29.1m. The Suffolk-based brewer sold three pubs in the period and has disposed of another two since, with three currently on the market.

• Just Eat H1 sales were up 54% to £107.8m following ‘another period of excellent growth’ and underlying EBITDA jumped 62% to £25.8m. Active users of the digital takeaway marketplace were up 59% to 11m following a surge in smartphone orders to 60% of total orders. The group’s smartphone app has over 1m downloads on Google’s Play Store and has a higher user rating than rival Hungry House. The platform processed orders worth more than £700m for its takeaway restaurants, up from £465m in the first half of 2014.

• Just Eat CEO Dave Buttress commented: ‘We have seen the success of our ongoing strategy to reinvest profits above target to drive additional growth. I am particularly pleased to see the results of our mobile strategy which has already created a much improved experience for our app and mobile users. We have acquired market-leading operations in three new rapidly growing markets of scale: Mexico, Australia and New Zealand.

• More from Just Eat: ‘Our focus on driving incremental revenue by further investing in technology and marketing is expected to continue into the second half of the year, alongside additional investment into the exciting early-stage Brazilian and Mexican markets. As a result of the additional orders delivered by this extra investment, management now expects revenue for 2015 of around £230 million, with such revenue over-performance expected to continue into 2016.’

• More from Just Eat: The UK business delivered a 49% jump in year-on-year order growth to £30.7m and an improved underlying EBITDA margin of 44%, despite significant ongoing investment. UK turnover climbed 48% to £76.9m. The company said the business model was highly profitable at scale when clear local market-leadership was achieved, and it remained committed to investing to deliver this across all its markets as rapidly as possible while remaining disciplined and focused on profit generation.

• Square Pie will serve ‘canapies’ at Twickenham over the course of the Rugby World Cup. The group, currently crowdfunding, is set to open a restaurant in Birmingham this September and has announced that year-on-year sales were up 57% in July.

• Punch Taverns seems to remain in talks to sell 150 pubs to NewRiver Retail for £50m. NewRiver bought 200 pubs from Marston’s for £90m in 2013.

• Stonegate Pub Company has opened a hidden underground concept bar on Greek Street in Leeds called ‘7’. Guests can enter the establishment upon dialling the correct number on a certain telephone box.

• ONS data indicates that poultry prices have risen slower than other types of meat and fish at just 1.6% p.a. over the past 27 years.

• The Scotch Whisky Association has hailed the free-trade agreement announced between the EU and Vietnam after ‘intense’ negotiations.

• Thatchers Cider has opened the Railway Inn, Cider House and Kitchen, near Thatchers cider mill at Myrtle Farm in Sandford.

• ASK Italian has launched a social media campaign #ServingUpSmiles to promote the launch of its new children’s menu.

• D&D London will open several cafés, restaurants and bars at the German Gymnasium building in King’s Cross in November.

• Jagermeister has acquired Sidney Frank Importing Company, its American importer since 1974.

• Chase Distillery has signed a distribution deal to sell its potato vodka at bars and spirits shops in Russia.

• UK wine distributor Enotria has bought Coe Vintners in what the company calls ‘a strong statement of intent.’

Leisure Travel:

• Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings has posted a 30% revenue increase for next year as booking levels continue to outpace last year.

• American leisure travellers are taking more trips, for longer average durations and are spending more money while away. Research from Phocuswright has found ‘the largest pool in the US of leisure travellers since prerecession.’

• Thomas Cook UK and Ireland is to move its headquarters from Bretton to Peterborough.

• Data from Hotelbeds shows that Greece is still the third most popular destination for British travellers.

• Bmi Regional and Loganair have joined under a new holding company called Airline Investments Limited to be run by CEO Peter Simpson. The company will have 46 aircraft, carrying around 1.5 million passengers a year with an estimated turnover of £200 million. It will employ 960 people, flying 47 routes across 10 countries.

Finance & Markets:

• US$ up, stocks + bonds down on back of Fed comments. Market expectations re rate rise firmed up. Oil edges up.

Retail Roundup from Nick Bubb:

Travis Perkins:
The headline of yesterday’s  interim results from Travis Perkins, the leading builder’s merchant group, starts with “Strong momentum” and there isn’t too much wrong with 5.7% LFL sales growth, but ex-property operating profits are only up 9% at £182m, which looks slightly disappointing. The only area of Divisional weakness, however, was in Plumbing and Heating and that was mostly in Q1. Interestingly, Travis Perkins say that “the RMI market experienced some weakness in Q2 2015 as it lagged a dip in mortgage approval rates in Q3 of 2014, coupled with the effects of uncertainty related to the May General Election. Stronger mortgage approvals in early 2015 provide confidence that stronger growth will resume in the second half of the year”. The Wickes DIY transformation plan and good growth in both the Toolstation and Tile Giant operations
contributed to the continued above market growth in the Consumer division, with overall LFL sales growth above 6% in both Q1 and Q2. Travis Perkins’ views on the economy are always worth listening to and their view is unequivocal: “The overall economic outlook remains encouraging, with falling unemployment, low interest rates and low inflation contributing to rises in real wages and increased consumer confidence”. And CEO John Carter says “We continue to anticipate a full year result in line with expectations and delivering against our targets including low double-digit profit growth and sales outperformance of our markets”.

Pendragon:
The first bullet point in yesterday’s interim results statement from Pendragon, the leading motor dealer, is “Anticipated outturn for the full year is comfortably ahead of expectations” and that is probably all you need to know, although the company does not go on to quantify that view. Total revenue was nearly 11% up in H1 to £2.29bn, which is not that much less than Travis Perkins, funnily enough. Underlying operating profits in H1 were up 17% to £56m, despite a fall in the gross margin to 12.4%, and overall PBT was up 23%, despite the still somewhat punitive interest charge edging up. Trevor Finn, the veteran CEO, says that “Our business continues to perform strongly across all sectors, owing to a combination of our strategy, market leading initiatives and favourable market conditions”. Pendragon’s great rival, Lookers, reports its interims on
Wednesday next week.

John Lewis Sales Watch: As we flagged last Friday, John Lewis have been helped by the shift to cooler weather, as that is always good for “indoor” products like Home , and although the weather warmed up at the end of last week, John Lewis should have had enough momentum for last week to have seen reasonable trade. Ahead of Friday’s official sales figures, we would expect to hear that sales were perhaps c3%-4% up LFL in w/e August 1st (a bit ahead of the c2% LFL cumulative growth run-rate, to end the first half on a firm note).

Yesterday’s  Press and News: There’s not a lot of Retail news around, although the opening of Selfridges’ Xmas Shop inevitably gets a lot of coverage…and there are a few snippets, eg in CityAM, about the upbeat “HART” shopping centre sales tracker from Hammerson yesterday, which detected a big rise in sales of toys and games as the school holiday season got under way…

Nick Bubb – nicholas_bubb@hotmail.com