Langton Capital – 2023-03-30 – Tasty, Time Out, comments by NEXT, consumers, labour, holidays etc.:
Tasty, Time Out, comments by NEXT, consumers, labour, holidays etc.:A DAY IN THE LIFE: Playing around with Chat GPT and asked it to apologise for late homework in the style of Boris Johnson. Seemed pompous, demeaning, repetitive, boring & not entirely believable. So, spot on. ‘Well, blimey! I must apologize profusely for the tardiness of my homework, old chap. I’m afraid I got myself into a bit of a pickle and lost track of time. You see, I was busily engaged in a heated game of cricket with some jolly good chaps, when suddenly the sun started setting and I realized that I had completely forgotten about my homework. But fear not, my dear professor! I am ever so sorry for my tardiness and I promise to make it up to you with some absolutely cracking work. I’ll put my nose to the grindstone and get it done with all the efficiency and speed of a London bus. So please forgive my tardiness, and I hope you’ll still think me a top-notch student, despite my blunder. Cheers, and pip pip! 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 are £395 for one subscription, £695 for multiple, £995 for very large subscribers, all plus VAT. Or sign up for easy in, easy out monthly option per subscriber HERE https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=87YUG2Z5W7PSN PUBS & RESTAURANTS: Footfall: Springboard Marketing and Insights director, Diane Wehrle, forecasts Easter weekend footfall to be +5.1% higher than over the same three trading days in the week before. This forecast uplift is a contrast with Easter 2022 when footfall over the Easter weekend was -0.1% lower than the same days in the week before… • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £395, multiple £695. Limited time offer: PayPal alternative monthly £25 + VAT per sub. Easy in, easy out. Trading: Lumina Intelligence’s Eating and Drinking Out Panel Quarterly reports that lunch now makes up 26.6% of all occasions, compared to dinner occasions at 29% and breakfast at 3.7%, in the 12 weeks to 19 February 2023… Labour issues: The BCC says that access to labour remains a problem. It says ‘64% of SMEs believe they don’t have access to sufficient skilled labour in their local area’ and adds that ‘more than one in four (27%) SMEs expect their turnover to decrease over the next year, while less than a third (30%) plan to increase investment in technology and R&D…’ The government is expected to announce a reversal of the earlier suggestion that it would bring forward the date the state pension age is due to rise to 68. The state pension age is 66 and is due to rise to 68 from 2046… Energy support. The Federation of Small Businesses comments that, as the Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) will cease at the end of this month, there will be a threat to the future of hundreds of thousands of small firms. It says the scheme has been an essential support for thousands of firms dealing with rising costs… • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £395, multiple £695. Limited time offer: PayPal alternative monthly £25 + VAT per sub. Easy in, easy out. The consumer: A few surveys suggesting that, despite the fact that some financial shocks have yet to be felt (re-fixing mortgages at a higher cost, tax increases, etc.) the consumer is feeling a little more buoyant. The CEBR alongside YouGov says ‘good times for a change? Well, we might not go that far. But consumer confidence increased from 98.3 to 100.4 (+2.1) in February 2023. It says there has been ‘positive movement across almost every measure…’ • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £395, multiple £695. Limited time offer: PayPal alternative monthly £25 + VAT per sub. Easy in, easy out. Meanwhile the CBI reports its sees ‘signs of green shoots despite [the] eighth consecutive rolling quarter of falling private sector activity.’ It says activity across the private sector ‘fell slightly in the three months to March, broadly matching the pace of last month’s contraction (-4% from -6% in February).’ It adds ‘the fall in private sector activity largely reflects weakness in the service sector, with declines in both business & professional (-5%) and consumer services (-11%) volumes….’ • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £395, multiple £695. Limited time offer: PayPal alternative monthly £25 + VAT per sub. Easy in, easy out. READ ACROSS FROM RETAIL: NEXT yesterday released its FY results, with some possible read across to hospitality cropping up in the commentary Introduction: NEXT’s FY results reported today includes useful insights into areas such as costs, consumer confidence, consumer behaviour & regional differences. While retail and hospitality have clear differences, this insightful commentary could have some level of read across between the sectors. Below we will examine some of the trends/charts produced by NXT and the implications these could have on hospitality. Real vs Temporary: The company states that ‘Over the last eight years, the Company has endured three considerable shocks: the structural shift in shopping… • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £395, multiple £695. Limited time offer: PayPal alternative monthly £25 + VAT per sub. Easy in, easy out. COMPANY NEWS: Time Out has reported H1 numbers for the six months to end-December saying that revenue rose by 68% to £53.8m with adjusted EBITDA up to £2.4m from a £0.8m loss in the prior year. The group reports a loss before tax of £12.5m up from a loss of £10.5m in the prior year, the difference being largely driven by higher finance and exceptional costs… • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £395, multiple £695. Limited time offer: PayPal alternative monthly £25 + VAT per sub. Easy in, easy out. Tasty has reported full year numbers for the 52 weeks to 25 December saying that revenue rose 26% to £44.0m with adjusted EBITDA of £2.6m versus £8.0m last year. The loss after tax is £6.4m (post tax & pose IFRS16) compared with a profit of £1.2m in the prior year. The company is currently trading from 52 restaurants… • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £395, multiple £695. Limited time offer: PayPal alternative monthly £25 + VAT per sub. Easy in, easy out. The Daily Mirror reports that McDonald’s has raised prices for the second time in only six weeks. It reports ‘the fast food chain only gave one exact example – its black/white coffee, which is going up in price by 20p, from 99p to £1.19….’ Loungers’ chairman Alex Reilley tweets that the company has opened its 184th Lounge (& 220th site overall) in Neath, marking its 18th site in Wales. BrewDog co-founder & CEO James Watt is set to launch a concept that will give entrepreneurs a method of raising start-up finance born from rejection on Dragons’ Den…. Deliveroo has launched two new dark stores to serve its rapid grocery service Hop, one in partnership with Waitrose and the other in partnership with Morrisons. The Waitrose Acton Hop will offer around 1,300 SKUs and the Morrisons Norbury Hop around 1,600. Gordon Ramsay has closed his London House restaurant in Battersea, which had been operating since 2014. Fleurets is offering the site for a rent of £60,000 a year with no premium. FINANCE & MARKETS: The Bank of England yesterday reported that ‘net mortgage lending to individuals decreased from £2.0 billion to £0.7 billion in February.’ It points out that, excluding March 2020, this is the lowest level of net borrowing since April 2016 (also £0.7 billion). Regarding consumer credit, the Bank reports that ‘consumers borrowed an additional £1.4 billion in consumer credit in February, on net, compared with £1.7 billion borrowed during January. This was split between £0.6 billion of borrowing on credit cards and £0.8 billion of borrowing through other forms of consumer credit…’ The Bank of England reports that ‘the effective interest rate on interest-charging overdrafts in February rose by 42 basis points, to 21.27%….’ The SMMT reports that UK car production rose 13.1% year-on-year in February, driven by a rise in export numbers… Sterling weaker at $1.2306 and €1.1354. Oil lower at $77.98. UK 10yr gilt yield unchanged at 3.46%. World markets broadly better yesterday. London set to open around 24pts higher as at 6.30am. RETAIL WITH NICK BUBB: • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £395, multiple £695. Limited time offer: PayPal alternative monthly £25 + VAT per sub. Easy in, easy out. |
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