Surveys & stats, Adnams, the consumer, Gregg’s, EasyHotel etc.:

A DAY IN THE LIFE:

Well, we got the grass cut yesterday afternoon and evening and concluded that, whilst it looks tidier, it’s three hours of our lives that we’ll never get back.

And the day jobs just mounted up so we’re a little behind at the moment. 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)

It’s Friday the 13th today but we won’t let that stop us; on to the news:

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SURVEYS & STATS…:

Herewith a bit more news on yesterday’s surveys & stats. See also Finance & Markets below. There’s no shortage of surveys out there. Many find what their sponsors want them to find but most are now consistently pointing to a sharp drop in consumer confidence.

YouGov and CEBR survey:

• YouGov and the Centre for Economics and Business Research have produced a survey showing that there has been a major further fall in confidence over the last month. The survey suggests that concern about the cost of living has hit a record high.

Further detail:

• The survey reports that UK households believe that they are continuing to “bear the brunt” of the hit to the economy caused by Brexit, Covid and the war in Ukraine.

YouGov & other comment:

• YouGov’s Darren Yaxley says ‘with the cost-of-living crisis continuing to rumble on, this data suggests that, perhaps unsurprisingly, consumers’ household finances are bearing the brunt.’

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PUBS & RESTAURANTS:

Licensing solicitor Poppleston Allen reports that the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill, which proposes to make the regime for Pavement Licences issued under the Business and Planning act permanent, has been tabled in the House of Commons.

Barclays UK Consumer Spending Report for April says that the month ‘continued the positive trend for bricks and mortar retailers across the UK as Face-to-face spend grew 8.8%, the largest growth for in-person spend since September.’

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A number of supermarkets and sandwich shops have taken multiple chicken products from their shelves after supplier Cranswick said it was working with the Food Standards Agency to investigate a salmonella find in its Hull facility and said it was looking the “possible cause of the contamination”.

Tesco has announced a trial JV with serviced office provider IWG to provide work stations on a test basis in its New Malden store in London.

COMPANY NEWS:

Adnams yesterday updated on trading at its AGM.

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Puttshack is reported to have signed a new lease at Village on the Parkway, an open-air shopping destination in Dallas. Puttshack says its ‘Dallas location will be a unique, high-energy space with multiple floors and include brand-new features for our tech-infused mini golf experience.’

A reported 64 Starbucks stores in the US have voted to unionise. The company has been reported to the federal district court for the alleged unlawful termination of seven employees in Memphis who sought to form a union.

Deliveroo has signed a recognition deal with trade union GMB.

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Greggs is facing a potential shareholder revolt over high pay for its executives, with bonus payouts for its outgoing CEO, Roger Whiteside, amounting to more than double his basic salary of £575,209, taking his total package to £1.9m including benefits.

Brakspear has reopened The Bull on Bell Street in Henley-on-Thames after an extensive refurbishment.

Chipotle Mexican Grill CFO Jack Hartung has said that a recent pause in the rise in costs of food was perhaps temporary and a “shallow victory.”

Wendy’s UK achieved ‘solid results’ in its Q1 to 3 April.

Aspall Cyder has received £16m investment from Molson Coors, completing a £13m renovation of Aspall Cyder House with the remaining £3m being channelled into a new advertising campaign. Molson Coors took ownership of Aspall Cyder for £40m in 2018 from the Chevallier Guild family.

HOLIDAYS & LEISURE TRAVEL:

Easyhotel has reported summer bookings up 10% and says that trade has exceeded pre-Covid levels. The group has added 208 rooms to its estate this year and has plans to double the estate in the coming years.

European airports association ACI Europe and the Airport Services Association (ASA) representing ground handlers last week warned that delays at airports are set to continue. The aviation bodies blamed low wages and shift work enforced by airline cost-cutting.

Airbnb will allow travellers to split their holiday between two properties to facilitate longer stays. By offering ‘split stays’, Airbnb said travellers can work around availability of homes, some of which may not be available for long-term stays which can last up to six months. The move is an attempt to capitalise on the remote and hybrid working trend.

Both Virgin and BA-owner IAG have hit out at Heathrow after the airport asked the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to allow it to hike passenger fees. Heathrow lobbied the CAA – who set the charges – for fees to go up from £19 per passenger to as high as £43 per passenger. Virgin Atlantic’s boss said Heathrow was ‘abusing its monopoly to fleece passengers.’ 

GetHenry, a startup that provides electric last-mile delivery bikes to couriers and logistics companies, has raised $17.4 million as it aims to expand across Europe.

Norwegian Cruise Line has pulled more voyages in the Baltic as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The Trump International Hotel in Washington DC is reported to have sold for $375m.

OTHER LEISURE:

BT is launching a joint venture with Warner Bros Discovery, creating a pay-TV sport business, which will bring together rights to sports including the Premier League, the Champions League and the Olympics, worth as much as £633m to the telecoms operator.

Two senior Twitter employees are reported to be leaving the company ahead of the takeover by Elon Musk. The employees, Kayvon Beykpour and Bruce Falck, both tweeted yesterday that it had not been their idea to leave the company.

FINANCE & MARKETS:

The ONS reported yesterday that the UK economy contracted in March. GDP fell by 0.1% in the month and the figure for February was revised from +0.1% to zero. The economy grew by 0.8% in Q1 as a whole, down from 1.3% in Q4 last year. Pressure is said to be growing for a summer mini-Budget.

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The UK’s trade deficit for goods and services with the rest of the world worsened to a record 5.3 per cent of nominal GDP in Q1 reports the ONS. It says imports rose by 9.3% and exports fell by 4.9%.

In the month of March, exports rose. The BCC says ‘March 2022 saw a modest but welcome rise in UK exports, led by an increase in sales of fuel.’ It cautions that ‘any trade war with the EU could threaten this nascent recovery.’

Cryptocurrency values took another beating yesterday with Bitcoin hitting a 20mth low. TerraUSD, which is an algorithmic so-called stablecoin, managed to fall further.

MPC member Sir Dave Ramsden has said that the Bank of England will have to continue to raise interest rates to control inflation despite negative growth.

Sterling up at $1.2213 and €1.175. Oil price higher at $109.36. UK 10yr gilt yield down 17bps on recession fears. Markets weaker yesterday but the Far East up in Friday trade. London set to open up around 69pts as at 7am.

YESTERDAY’S TWEETS:

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RETAIL WITH NICK BUBB:

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