Britvic, Escape Hunt, DPP & other

Rather annoyingly, the below didn’t save this morning and therefore wasn’t included in the daily email:

Trade demonstrates against increased regulation:

• HospoDemo founder Rachel Harty commented ‘to see so many from our industry come together on Parliament Square this morning was extremely powerful. We’ve been dealt some heavy blows over the past six months and we are looking at a bleak future if the Government does not revise its policies relating to the hospitality industry.’

Impact on Sales:

• S4labour has reported that hospitality sales were down 26.3% last week compared with last year with food down 9.8% and drink down 37.1%. The company reports that ‘early indicative figures show a clear correlation between the Tier levels and a sales decline with Tier’s 1,2 and 3 having a week on week decline of 6.2%, 18.2% and 46.2% respectively, Thursday to Sunday.’

• S4 says ‘the dramatic decline in sales comes in the wake of raft of new measures introduced by the government to curb the number of Covid-19 cases. A better understanding of the effect of the impositions will be visualised in the numbers next week.’ It says ‘despite it being early days it’s clear to see the impact these measures are having on people’s confidence to eat and drink out.’

Company & other news:

• DP Poland yesterday updated on its planned acquisition of Dominium saying that ‘approval has been granted by the Polish Competition Authority in respect of the possible acquisition.’ It says ‘the Acquisition is expected to constitute a reverse takeover of the Company under AIM Rule 14. As a result of the Acquisition, it is anticipated that Dominium’s largest shareholder, Accession Mezzanine Capital III L.P., will acquire direct or indirect majority control of the Company’s shares.’ The company says further announcements will be made in due course.

• Britvic has announced a ‘new and exclusive Pepsico bottling agreement’. The company says it has ‘reached agreement with PepsiCo for a new and exclusive 20-year franchise bottling agreement for the production, distribution, marketing and sales of its carbonated soft drink brands – including Pepsi, 7UP and Mountain Dew – in Great Britain. The new agreement extends the relationship, which commenced in 1987, to 31 December 2040 and includes the Rockstar energy brand, for which Britvic will take responsibility from 1 November this year.’

• CEO Simon Litherland says ‘I am delighted that we have formally extended our relationship with PepsiCo in Great Britain for a further 20 years. The powerful combination of the Britvic-owned and PepsiCo portfolio offers customers and consumers a broad range of great-tasting, trusted brands for any occasion. We are excited to add Rockstar to our offering and look forward to working together to grow the brand.’

• Britvic has also updated on trading saying that ‘following better than expected trading across the peak summer period, Britvic’s adjusted EBIT for the full year 2020 is anticipated to be slightly ahead of current market consensus. Trading has benefited from both the limited re-opening of the UK hospitality sector since early July and continued strong trading in the at-home channel across its markets.’

• The company says ‘looking forward, the economic outlook for 2021 remains uncertain. The re-introduction of further lockdown restrictions and the impact of social distancing measures on capacity in the hospitality sector will, undoubtedly, continue to have an impact on Britvic’s performance in 2021.’

• Abokado is to be bought out of administration but 150 jobs are to be lost. Abokado has 19 stores in central London. A dearth of office workers has hit sales. Five stores have closed and the future of the remaining 14 is unclear.

Other Leisure:

• Escape Hunt has announced that it has completed the acquisition of its Middle East master franchise partner, Escape Hunt Entertainment LLC. CEO Richard Harpham says ‘we are excited about the prospects for the region and believe the Dubai site in particular has the potential to deliver very attractive returns from a high quality, attractive venue in the Galleria Mall.’

Finance & Markets

• Sterling mixed at $1.2943 and €1.0986. Oil lower at $42.46. UK 10yr gilt yield unchanged at 0.18%. World markets lower yesterday with London set to open down around 25pts.