Langton Capital – 2021-02-09 – Uncertainty, expansion, consumers, meal kits, TUI etc.:
Uncertainty, expansion, consumers, meal kits, TUI etc.:A DAY IN THE LIFE: Bright and clear this morning, minus three in the garden and a covering of snow. Proper winter and all that. Bit busy this morning so on to the news: ADVERTISE WITH US: Langton’s free email now carries adverts. See front page of website for today’s copy & contact us for further details. LANGTON PREMIUM EMAIL: Langton produces a premium email alongside the free version that you receive. It’s longer than the free version (depending on what’s going on) and inc. analysis and opinion. If you would like an example, please let us know. Corporate Offer: Annual subscription just £295 (plus VAT) for a single subscriber or £495 (plus VAT) for multiple subscribers. Drop us a line to get involved. Retail Offer: Easy in, easy out. £30 per month (inclusive of VAT, £25 net) via PayPal. Email us for details or check: IN TODAY’S PREMIUM EMAIL: Here we consider the hot topics & hope to analyse as well as report. Today, we consider uncertainty. There’s a lot of it about. THE UNCERTAINTIES: Introduction: • We mention in Pubs & Restaurants below that corporate activity may pick up once some of the uncertainties in the sector are removed. See premium email. PUBS & RESTAURANTS: Potential corporate activity: • Franco Manca owner The Fulham Shore yesterday said that it had cash available for expansion and today, foodservice analyst Peter Backman says ‘money is being mobilised to invest in the sector and is waiting for the off.’ There may be more action when a definitive re-opening date has been announced. There are perhaps just too many uncertainties at present – see premium email. • There have been some moves (Platinum has tabled an indicative offer for Marston’s & others, such as Rooney Anand and former managed house directors elsewhere have raised money to buy freeholds) but much remains to be committed. It doesn’t help that the assets for sale are not attractive to buyers and the assets desired for buyers are not for sale. The consumer: • The Bank of England seems keen on the ‘wall of money’ argument saying that savers will, at some point, feel the need to spend. Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey says that consumers will ‘go for it’ when the economy reopens. • Foodservice analyst Peter Backman points out that the ONS’s index of Happiness, slipped in the last six months, despite there being some light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. • Barclaycard has reported that spending on takeaway meals has shot up over the last year. Given lockdown action over the period, that is perhaps hardly surprising. Barclaycard says that home cooking had also taken share of spend. Barclaycard says that, overall, spending was down by 16.3pc year-on-year in January. • Barclaycard says that meal kit spend was up by 92.1pc and grocery spend was up with online grocery spending up by almost double. It says that nearly four in 10 Britons have reported struggling to land delivery slots. The card provider says ‘from meal kits and subscription services, to online grocery shopping, Brits have continued habits they formed in the first lockdown.’ Company & other news: • Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality is to raise $250 million in an initial public offering for a Special Purpose Vehicle that will look to make investments in the restaurant space. On the SPAC’s advisory board are Clarence Otis, former CEO of Olive Garden parent Darden Restaurants Inc. reports Nations Restaurant News. • DoorDash Inc has bought Chowbotics, the fresh food robotics company. DoorDash says ‘with the Chowbotics team on board, we can explore new use cases and customers, providing another service to help our merchants grow.’ It says ‘bringing Chowbotics’ technology into the DoorDash platform gives us a new opportunity to help merchants expand their current menu offerings and reach new customers in new markets — which is a fundamental part of our merchant-first approach to empowering local economies.’ • Sky reports that Cain International, which owns Prezzo, is considering ‘an insolvency process amid continued uncertainty about the industry’s reopening timetable.’ Sky says Cain, working with FTI Consulting, is ‘in discussions with scores of landlords about future rent arrangements and the payment of arrears.’ • Cain only bought into Prezzo last December. At the time, CEO Jonathan Goldstein said ‘we firmly believe that strong hospitality and leisure brands with disciplined leadership will thrive in a post-COVID landscape.’ He said ‘Prezzo has a clear vision for how to best serve its customers and communities and I am confident that the combination of Cain’s operational and financial expertise, the exceptional management team led by Karen [Jones], and the commitment of Prezzo’s entire workforce will enable the business to realise its full potential.’ • Elsewhere, Big Table Group, which owns the former Casual Dining Group brands Las Iguanas, Bella Italia and Café Rouge, is reported to have agreed a new long-term partnership deal with Center Parcs. It is said that the deal will include a significant investment program across its 12 restaurant locations. • Drinks Business comments on AB InBev’s desire to spend US$1 billion on relatively new markets including Hard Seltzers. It points out that ‘the biggest loser in the drinks spectrum over the past year has been beer’ and, for AB InBev, that is something of a problem. • DB points out that ‘in 2018 hard seltzers accounted for just 0.85% of alcohol volume sales in the US: a year later it was 2.6%, and IWSR predicted that by 2023, demand would more than triple.’ Re the UK market, DB says ‘hard seltzers are in their infancy in the UK but even so IWSR predicts the category will witness the highest growth rate within the UK’s ready-to-drink sector, with a forecast volume compound annual growth rate of 71.7% up to 2024.’ • Punch Pubs are offering two and three course Valentine’s Day meals in a box for £16.99 and £19.99 respectively. A single rose bottle of Prosecco is £12 extra. • The Telegraph reports that landlords are left with ‘a hole’ now that the empty Arcadia shops on the High Street are no longer paying rent. HOTELS & LEISURE TRAVEL: • TUI has reported Q1 numbers to end-Dec saying that it has completed its third support package for €1.8bn including fully subscribed rights issue and now sees ‘liquidity bridged to Summer 2021 travel recovery.’ It says ‘Q1 result reflects minimal operations due to extended travel restrictions.’ • TUI Q1 revenue is down 87.8% at €468.1m with the group making an underlying loss before tax of €709m. The loss per share is 136c. TUI says 116 hotels were open (last year 229 hotels) and the cruise operation was down to five ships. Re liquidity, TUI says it has ‘pro forma cash and available facilities as at 3 February 2021, including third support package, would amount to €2.1bn (post €300m senior notes redemption).’ It says ‘our assumption for Q2 FY 2021, is for working capital development to correlate with vaccine programme rollout and lifting of travel restrictions, with significant upside anticipated should travel restrictions be lifted ahead of Easter (early April 2020). We anticipate net cash fixed costs outflow to be in the range of €250m to €300m per month.’ • The group expects ‘significant positive working capital inflow and net costs moving towards cash break-even as both operations and bookings begin to normalise’ in Q3 this year. Winter 20/21 bookings are down 89%. Summer 21 bookings are down 44%. • TUI concludes ‘our strong customer base and scale gives us an advantage in terms of brand awareness and distribution, securing attractive terms from suppliers, and in gaining greater insight into customer behaviour. In addition, selling into a range of source markets helps to diversify our customer base, meaning we are not reliant on a single market.’ • There have been calls for tighter border checks ahead of the imposition of quarantine regs next Monday. Sky News reports Matt Hancock will say in a Commons statement that, from next Monday (February 15), all passengers arriving in the UK will be required take a test on days two and eight of their isolation. • Professor Jonathan Van-Tam has said it is too early to say whether it is too early to be making summer holiday plans. • A study carried out by the University of Aberdeen has suggested that international travel was the major factor behind the severity of the first wave of Covid-19 infections in spring last year. This may be stating the obvious to some extent because, since the virus didn’t originate in the UK, it had to get here somehow. • The study found a 3.4 per cent increase in the mean mortality rate due to Covid for every 1 million increase in the number of international arrivals.’ • STR says that events will prove to be something of a bright spot for UK hotels. Of course, there are precious few events out there. One, the UN Climate Change conference, is said to be responsible for pushing Glasgow’s hotel occupancy to around 90%. • Intercontinental Hotels has reported that 50% of travellers intend to re-book, or have already re-booked, cancelled trips from last year, this year. It says 60% of travellers cancelled between 1 and 4 trips last year. It quotes 40% of travellers as saying that they need a trip to look forward to. And 50% of business travellers ‘miss creating meaningful relationships through work travel’. Not the parties, then? • IHG says ‘travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer’ and adds ‘our survey results prove that people are hungry for those rich experiences again. But the world has changed, and travel decisions must be made more thoughtfully.’ • Leeds Bradford Airport aims to provide its own hydrogen via a new industry partnership with ITM Power. Leeds Bradford aims to be ‘a carbon net zero airport for ground-based operations.’ OTHER LEISURE: • Pragma Consulting reports ‘online gaming [not gambling] has undergone an explosion during the pandemic and gaming lounges are now a significant opportunity for high street and commercial locations.’ This may be a longer term play but, in the short term, gatherings are not possible. • Pragma says ‘smaller gaming lounges or arenas have been increasingly appearing throughout the UK, with large brands such as Game now operating 25 Belong Esports locations across the UK. Venues likes these are popular among novice and experienced gamers and allow them to try their hand at the latest games and consoles within a social and fun environment.’ FINANCE & MARKETS: • The NIESR has cut its forecast of UK economic growth in 2021 to 3.4% from 5.9%. This after a decline of 9.9% last year. • NIESR says ‘early indications are that the lockdown in the first quarter is having a larger impact on activity than in November, but a smaller impact than the Spring 2020 lockdown.’ • The NIESR says ‘by 2025, the level of GDP is forecast to be around 6 per cent lower compared with pre-Covid19 expectations.’ This reflects ‘lower consumption caused by higher unemployment’ and increased barriers to trade. • The Road Haulage Association says exports to the EU are down 68%. The government says they are running at 95% of normal. They can’t both be right. The government yesterday announced a trade deal with Albania. The deal will allow terms on a par with those the UK had pre-Brexit. • Sterling stronger at $1.378 and €1.1408. Oil up at $61.18. UK 10yr gilt yield down 2bps at 0.48%. World markets better yesterday but London set to open around 10pts lower. RETAIL WITH NICK BUBB:
Today’s News: On top of the Ocado finals for y/e Nov (which are headlined “Further strong progress supporting our partners”), there has been a surprise announcement from the fashion lifestyle brand Joules, about the acquisition of an upmarket Online business called Garden Trading. In y/e Nov, Garden Trading did revenue of less than £17m, so the upfront cost of £9m (in cash and shares), rising to a possible £12.5m dependent on this year’s results, seems a tad high and, although Nick Jones, the CEO of Joules, says that Garden Trading “is a fast-growing and highly complementary brand to Joules in the attractive home, garden & outdoor category” management are holding an analyst call at 8.30am to talk about it. On a more cosmic level, as Ocado is capitalised at £20.6bn vs £170m for Joules…Ocado has announced improved Group EBITDA of £73m, reflecting the strong revenue growth and
BRC-KPMG Retail Sales survey for January (the 4 weeks to Jan 30th): As has been the case in recent months, “Food good/Non-Food bad” was always likely to be the main theme of today’s figures and that was certainly the case, but the overall figures were a bit weaker than might have been expected, with total sales down 1.3% (after 1.8% growth in December), despite further strong Online sales growth. The exact Food/Non-Food split of total sales last month is buried within the 3-month moving averages (of +7.9% and -5.6% respectively), but it looks to us as if total Food sales growth was at least 8% and that total Non-Food sales were over 10.5% down. As usual, the overall weak Non-Food performance masked further good growth in Home-related sub-sectors like Computing, TV/Gaming and Electrical Appliances, but was pulled down by poor Clothing and Footwear sales, as well as by weak Health and Upcoming results are set out below: • 11 Feb 21 Coca Cola HBC FY numbers • 11 Feb 21 Pepsi FY numbers • 18 Feb 21 Texas Roadhouse Q4 numbers • 18 Feb 21 Marriott FY numbers • 24 Feb 21 William Hill FY numbers • 25 Feb 21 Shake Shack Q4 & full year • 26 Feb 21 Marston’s Platinum put up or shut up deadline • Est 28 Feb 21 – Various Eateries FY numbers • 2 Mar 21 PPHE FY results • 3 Mar 21 Nichols FY numbers • 3 Mar 21 Government Budget Statement • 11 Mar 21 Playtech FY numbers • 15 Mar 21 Carlsberg AGM • 16 Mar 21 Gregg’s FY numbers • 18 Mar 21 Fever Tree FY numbers • 24 Mar 21 M&B AGM • 25 Mar 21 Compass Group H1 update • 30 Mar 21 AG Barr FY numbers • 8 Apr 21 Sportech FY numbers • 28 Apr 21 Carlsberg Q1 numbers • 12 May 21 Compass Group H1 numbers • 12 May 21 Stock Spirits H1 numbers • 18 May 21 Britvic H1 numbers • 18 Aug 21 Carlsberg H1 numbers LANGTON CAPITAL: Made in Hull. Like all the best things. Langton Capital is a financial advisory company providing insightful views on the UK and global leisure industry and the wider consumer sector in general. Subscription to the daily email is free. Unsubscribing is painless. We provide daily off the shelf and bespoke research. We have helped with transactions, fund-raisings, disposals and other corporate issues. We have a good ear, we are impartial, independent and not half bad at what we do. If you think that we could help you or your business, drop us a line. |
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