Langton Capital – 2022-12-22 – Spending squeeze, labour, MARS, CINE, Twitter, travel disruption etc.:
Spending squeeze, labour, MARS, CINE, Twitter, travel disruption etc.:A DAY IN THE LIFE: When asked what I wanted for Christmas, apparently I’m hard to buy for, I said I could do with a new hat, scarf, some gloves and a pair of shoes and, when told that would be £38, I said I considered that to be good value. However, when informed that the £38 was just for the scarf, I had to revise my opinion and, as I let slip that you could get enough wool to make a floor to ceiling scarf from the barbed wire round our neighbour’s field full of sheep, it was suggested that I was an out of touch, ungrateful, cheapskate and currently scarf-less ruffian of some sort or other. Which is a fair shout but, if a scarf costs as much as forty bottles of beer, admittedly you have to shop around, there’s something a bit amiss. And, not that I’m particularly keen on having a cold neck but the price thereof relative to beer makes it something of a no-brainer. Anyway, we’ll put an email of sorts out tomorrow morning but, for those who might not be around to read it, we’d like to wish readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. And here’s hoping that 2023 will end on a more prosperous note than it’s set to begin. On to the news: LANGTON EMAIL: The Free Email is now written in short form. Extended versions of many stories (after the ellipses) are in the Premium Email. Reply to this email if you would like to upgrade. Prices for the Premium at time of writing are £345 for one subscription, £595 for multiple, both plus VAT. Or sign up for easy in, easy out monthly option HERE https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=87YUG2Z5W7PSN PUBS & RESTAURANTS: Cost of living squeeze: Which? reports that 1.9 million households have defaulted on at least one significant bill (mortgage, rent, loan, credit card or other bill payment) in the run-up to Christmas… • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £345, multiple £595. Limited time offer: PayPal monthly £25 + VAT. Easy in, easy out. Spending: Spending may have flickered back into life in the approach to Christmas. The CBI’s monthly retail sales numbers for December saw something of an unexpected rebound in sales, though the CBI did say ‘but any festive cheer is expected to be short-lived…’ • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £345, multiple £595. Limited time offer: PayPal monthly £25 + VAT. Easy in, easy out. The Nationwide has reported that essential spending across the base of its own customers rose 9% in November (vs 2021) whilst spending on non-essentials rose by 8%… World Cup The MCA comments on the World Cup saying it gave the pub and bar industry a much-needed short-term injection after a tough summer… Labour costs: Indeed Flex data shows that average hourly pay for temporary chefs has increased by up to 20% in some parts of the UK, driven by staff shortages. Chef job postings on the recruitment website are up 97% on average YoY. Other news: Homelessness charity Only A Pavement Away reports great success at getting prison leavers, veterans and those facing homelessness back into employment in the hospitality industry. Sample of one. Mystery shopper visit to national coffee chain on a retail park outside Hull and it had no coffee… YouGov has reported that as many as 93% of Americans polled ‘say they have felt the impact of high inflation on their own life…’ COMPANY NEWS: Marston’s PLC yesterday confirmed that it had ‘secured financial covenant amendments to its Bank and Private Placement facilities for the period up to and including 31 March 2023.’ Cooks Coffee Company yesterday announced that it had issued 4,647,445 ordinary shares of no par value at 18p to raise approximately £836,540. The company says this is ‘pursuant to a shortfall placement associated with the Company’s previously announced rights issue.’ Per MCA, Uber Eats general manager Matthew Price claims the platform has added 1,300 partners in the last three months, including 15 national enterprise brands… Lemon Pepper Holdings, the UK master franchisee and brand partner of Wingstop Restaurants reports turnover up 182% YoY to £21.3m with group EBITDA of £0.8m… • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £345, multiple £595. Limited time offer: PayPal monthly £25 + VAT. Easy in, easy out. HOLIDAYS & LEISURE TRAVEL: Steve Dann, chief operating officer, a senior official at Border Force, has warned travellers to expect disruption over Christmas due to planned strikes. The strikes, which will affect arrivals into the UK, will take place on 23-26 and 28-31 December… • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £345, multiple £595. Limited time offer: PayPal monthly £25 + VAT. Easy in, easy out. Stansted predicts it will see more than 1.2 million people travel through the airport over the Christmas period, compared to 300k people last year. The airport expects 650k departures and 550k arrivals between 16 December and 3 January. Dan Beauchamp, American Express Global Business Travel head of global business consulting in Europe, said that ‘Hotels have increased salaries 10%, 15%, even 20% and we’re seeing that feed through in rates.’ OTHER LEISURE: The Times reports that the American owner of the Odeon cinema chain has confirmed that it held talks to acquire at least part of Cineworld, its troubled competitor, but says these have been discontinued… Elon Musk has said that Twitter is a “plane that is headed towards the ground at high speed” after revealing that the company was losing some $3 billion a year. The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has said that sharing passwords for online streaming services such as Netflix breaks copyright law, telling the BBC that it is both a criminal and civil matter. FINANCE & MARKETS: The CEBR reports that Brexit is now costing UK residents some £470 per person per year or around over £1,400 per household. The economy is thought to be 5.5 per cent smaller (and everyone in it consequently 5.5 per cent worse off) than it would have been if the country had remained inside the EU… • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £345, multiple £595. Limited time offer: PayPal monthly £25 + VAT. Easy in, easy out. The CBI reports that ‘77% of firms, for which the [existing] Brexit deal is applicable, say it is not helping them increase sales or grow their business.’ It goes on to say that ‘a high proportion of businesses say they are still having major problems trying to use the deal to trade with Europe.’ The CBI reports that ‘private sector activity continued to fall in the three months to December’ to give a balance of minus 13%… • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £345, multiple £595. Limited time offer: PayPal monthly £25 + VAT. Easy in, easy out. Sterling weaker at ‘$1.2118 and €1.1387. Oil up at $82.46. UK 10yr gilt yield down 3bps at 3.57%. World markets better yesterday and London set to open up some 21pts as at 6.30am. RETAIL WITH NICK BUBB: • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £345, multiple £595. Limited time offer: PayPal monthly £25 + VAT. Easy in, easy out. |
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