AG Barr, 888 Holdings, regional trading, business optimism & more:

A DAY IN THE LIFE:

Was dealing with our December quarter VAT return yesterday and that, for those who manage to avoid such things, is pretty much the poster boy for ‘unpleasant tasks that you have to pay for the pleasure of doing’. Hence, short of time. 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:

Regional trading:

The new ‘Top Cities’ report from CGA by NielsenIQ and Wireless Social has reported that ‘pubs, restaurants and bars in Britain’s top cities enjoyed a promising end to 2022 as consumers returned for the first normal Christmas for three years.’ The first Winter World Cup will have helped wet sales…

• See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £345, multiple £595. Limited time offer: PayPal monthly £25 + VAT. Easy in, easy out.

Landlords:

In what might be a sign of things to come this side of the Atlantic, the FT reports that landlord ‘Blackstone has filed eviction lawsuits against hundreds of tenants across the US as it winds down one of the real estate industry’s most generous pandemic-era forbearance programmes…’

Current trading:

CGA’s latest Drinks Recovery Tracker shows that ‘Britain’s On Premise has recorded a third week of inflation-beating drinks sales growth—thanks in part to strong soft drinks spending during ‘Dry January’. It was January in January last year as well, of course. Drink sales as a whole were up 11% after growth of 24% in the first week of Jan and 13% growth in the second. The numbers are up against Omicron comps…

• See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £345, multiple £595. Limited time offer: PayPal monthly £25 + VAT. Easy in, easy out.

West End trading:

Several operators have commented that, train strikes and office-heavy area malaise notwithstanding, tourists are ‘back’. Shaftesbury and Capco, which are set to complete their merger in Q1 this year, said as much yesterday. Shaftesbury said ‘London’s West End has seen buoyant footfall and trading throughout the important festive period, with occupier trading, on average, ahead of levels seen prior to the pandemic. This strong performance is in stark contrast to the more subdued spending and consumer confidence reported nationally…’

• See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £345, multiple £595. Limited time offer: PayPal monthly £25 + VAT. Easy in, easy out.

General trading::

Contrasting somewhat with reports coming in from other trade and economic bodies, Lloyds Bank’s latest business barometer has suggested that ‘business confidence increased for a second month in a row, rising 5 points in January to a six-month high of 22%.’ The long term average is 28%. See Finance & Markets for IMF survey.

Footfall:

Springboard has commented on footfall saying that its High Street index for week 4 / 2023 (the week to 28 Jan) showed footfall up 14.7% versus last year but still down 10.9% versus 2019. It was up 4.3% compared with the prior week…

• See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £345, multiple £595. Limited time offer: PayPal monthly £25 + VAT. Easy in, easy out.

In a similar vein, Pragma Consulting reports that ‘Christmas turned out a lot better than expected…’

• See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £345, multiple £595. Limited time offer: PayPal monthly £25 + VAT. Easy in, easy out.

Inflation:

Lumina Intelligence’s Menu Tracker Quarterly Report for Q4 2022 suggests that the average price of food items across menus rose by 4.1% between Q3 and Q4 2022. It says menu inflation between quarters two and three was only 0.9%.

Other news:

ONS data shows that the average weekly wage for full-time hospitality staff has risen by 53% over the last 10yrs.

IRI reports that alcohol sales in Europe fell by €2.7 billion across all channels in total in 2022. IRI says this represented a 4% decline…

• See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £345, multiple £595. Limited time offer: PayPal monthly £25 + VAT. Easy in, easy out.

UKH has created a guide in partnership with the Strategic Development Network to show how ‘investing in skills and talent at an education level can help businesses discover new talent, develop their existing team, create new partnerships and increase their work within the community.’

The Institute of Brewing & Distilling has announced that Tom Shelston has taken on the role of Chief Executive Officer.

COMPANY NEWS:

AG Barr generally upbeat. Profits to be ‘slightly ahead of current market expectations. The company has updated on full year trading (the 52wks to 29 Jan 2023 saying that revenues will be up by around 17% at c£315m. The company reports ‘the positive sales momentum reported in the first half of 2022/23 continued across the balance of the financial year, with full year revenue growth expected to be c.17% on a reported basis and c.15% on a like-for-like basis.’

AG Barr continues ‘the prior financial year included an extra week’s trading*, while revenue for the year ended 29 January 2023 was strengthened by an 8-week contribution from the Boost brand, which was acquired by A.G. BARR on 5 December 2022, and a full year of MOMA.’ It says ‘our core brands have once again proven their strength and relevance to consumers….’

• See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £345, multiple £595. Limited time offer: PayPal monthly £25 + VAT. Easy in, easy out.

numbers today saying that it has had a ‘very strong first half’ with demand resilient and selling prices markedly higher due to inflationary pressure.

TriSpan has taken a stake in Mowgli Street Food as existing investor Foresight exits the business.

Whilst Pret a Manger is to close most of its Veggie Pret sites, it will retain a unit in Oxford’s city centre.

Caffe Nero has reported ‘strong trading for its half-year (June 2022-November 2022) in the UK, including strong like for like sales growth.’ The company reports that sales were up 17% on last year and stood at 104% of pre-pandemic levels for H1 as a whole. It reports that ‘sales during the key Christmas trading month of December 2022 reached 110% of pre-pandemic levels, a 9.5% like for like increase compared to December 2021…’

• 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:

Travel Weekly reports that Barrhead Travel has had the ‘best month in its history’ this month with its “best ever sales day” at the weekend just past. The previous best-ever day was also in January this year.

OTHER LEISURE:

888 Holdings. Although details were not given in the RNS that announced CEO Itai Pazner was to leave the company immediately, 888 shortly thereafter announced that it had suspended its VIP customer accounts in the Middle East…

Kantar has reported that UK consumers cut back on video streaming services last year with the number of paid-for video streaming subscriptions in the country down by two million, from 30.5 million to 28.5 million…

FINANCE & MARKETS:

The IMF has predicted that the UK economy will perform worse than any other advanced economy this year. It says the UK will shrink by 0.6% in 2023, rather than grow slightly (by 0.3%) as it had previously predicted. The IMF says consumers will be squeezed as mortgage rates rise.

Sterling down at $1.234 and €1.1379. Oil lower at $84.85. UK 10yr gilt yield unchanged at 3.33%. World markets heading lower yesterday and London set to open down around 27pts 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.