DPEU, TUI, WINE, T17, Odeon, Twitter, consumers, closures, rates etc.:

A DAY IN THE LIFE:

So yesterday was a bit of a challenge because of admin.

It got in the way, clogged us up, cost us time, money and mental energy and left little room for much else.

Because, even as a microscopic dot of a company, Langton still finds itself producing PAYE details monthly, P60s summarising it all yearly, VAT returns quarterly, FCA returns also quarterly and FCA financial projections whenever demanded.

Which seems to be ‘frequently’.

And we also have to produce annual accounts for the FCA within three months of our year end and then spruce them up for Companies House within nine months.

HMRC also wants to see them within nine months if there is tax to pay or within 12 months if there isn’t.

There isn’t.

Indeed, a chance to pay tax on profits would be a fine thing but then Companies House feels left out and demands a confirmation statement (on capital structure) whether there have been changes to ownership or not.

Answer = not, but it charges us £13 for the privilege of saying n/c.

We then have to produce personal tax docs by the January and, though there are bound to be some returns, documents and filings that I’ve forgotten, that’s all quite a task.

Anyway, though September seems to be a kind of triple-witching month, we’ve squashed it all back into its box for the time being. 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:

Business confidence:

Lumina Intelligences 2023 Top of Mind report shows that 49% of industry leaders have the squeeze on household budgets at the forefront of their minds. Not far behind, 43% of industry leaders saw value consciousness among consumers as the most important trend…

• 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.

Pub closures:

Altus Group data shows that 383 pubs closed during the first six months of the year at an average of 51 pubs a month in Q1, rising to 77 a month in Q2. There were 39,404 pubs remaining at the end of June, down from 39,787 at the end of 2022….

An insight into the leisure property market:

Christie & Co, whose shares are listed on AIM, yesterday reported H1 numbers and updated on the state of the hospitality property market. The company says it ‘experienced a disappointing H1 as a result of delays in transactions brokered by its agency and advisory business.’ It said ‘this slowdown reflected lower activity levels and sentiment in the wider market. While some uncertainty remains as to the precise timing of transactions….’

• 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.

Business rates:

The Federation for Small Businesses has called on the UK government to extend the current 75% business rates relief discount for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in order to give them a further breather and manage 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.

WFH:

Mastercard looks a WFH trends saying that there have been winners and losers. It says that office workers are less likely to take a lunch near their office than they had been pre-Pandemic with numbers down around 18%. Work breakfasts are down 18%. It says spending in The City and Canary Wharf is down 16.6%. Some areas, such as Covent Garden and Bloomsbury, have become more popular….

Current trading:

The Oxford Partnership reports that good weather and the start of the Rugby World Cup helped boost drink spending last week. It says pubs and bars sales were up 6.1% on Friday and Saturday with footfall and dwell time both up. Given the good weather, pubs with outdoor areas that also showed sport performed most strongly….

Other news:

Driving trade. Whitbread’s Beefeater is offering 30% off mains till 28 Sept. M&B’s Nicolson’s and Sizzling Pub Co are reminding would-be customers that Christmas falls in December. Others are marketing along similar lines.

Springboard reports that high street footfall was down by 0.6% in week 37 (the week to 16 September) compared with week 36.

COMPANY NEWS:

DP Eurasia has reported H1 numbers saying that revenue by 24.7% to 1.58bn TRY with net income from continuing operations up 50.2% at 229m TRY. The company reports LfL growth in revenue of 26.5% in Turkey. DPEU announced on 21 August 2023 that it was to initiate bankruptcy proceedings for its Russian subsidiary. It says ‘no sales process has occurred since this announcement, and bankruptcy proceedings are currently underway….’

• 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 FT reports that Big Mamma group has sold a majority stake to private equity company McWin. It says funding will be used to fund an expansion push in the US and the Middle East.

Naked Wines has reported 53-week numbers to 3 April 2023 saying that total sales were up 1% to £354m (but were down 8% on a 52-week comp.) It says adjusted EBIT was up to £17.4m from £2.0m but the company reports a loss before tax of £15.0m (2022: profit £2.9m) due to write-offs…

• 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.

Heineken has acquired a minority stake in Served, a cocktail-in-a-can brand founded by Ellie Goulding. The brand produces pre made mojitos and pina coladas, as well as alcoholic sparkling water Hard Seltzer – priced at around £3 per can.

Tim Hortons is planning to grow rapidly in the UK under its franchising model….

Aldi has launched its first pizza delivery service in the UK saying it will launch across three cities – Cardiff, Manchester and Edinburgh – to deliver pizzas from its new Ultimate Takeaway range.

In the US, DoorDash has extended its partnership with Aldi, announcing that consumers can now order on-demand alcohol delivery from more than 1,200 ALDI locations across 21 states. 

Market Halls, which is backed by The Gees Court Partnership, has reported a ‘strong full year performance’ for the 12mths to end-July with sales up 155% to £22m and LfL sales up by 40%. The company, which plans to open 2-3 sites per year, says ‘while the increase [in sales] is in part attributable to Covid-related soft trading in the previous financial year, it also demonstrates strong underlying growth…’

HOTELS & LEISURE TRAVEL:

TUI (year end September) has updated on trading saying that it can confirm ‘expectations for a strong Summer 2023 with bookings in final month of season well ahead of Summer 2022.’ It says ‘we are pleased to see the positive momentum continuing into Winter 2023/24 supported by higher prices. TUI is well positioned to achieve the results target for FY 2023.’

• 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.

Tui has reassured customers that it is closely monitoring the ‘unusual adverse weather conditions’ in Europe after several destinations have been hit by delays, including Rhodes, Skiathos and the Balearics.

Club Med reports business volume up 32% YoY to €1.06m between January 1 and August 6, up 20% compared to 2019 levels…

The UK’s Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) comes into force next month, with the government set to increase some of its immigration and nationality fees. From 4 October a visa for a visit of up to six months will go up by £15 to £115, while student visas from outside the UK will go up to £490.

OTHER LEISURE:

Elon Musk has suggested that Twitter, now X, could go behind a paywall. He says ‘we’re moving to having a small monthly payment for use of the system.’ The BBC is pushing for details but currently has no further information. Mr Musk says the move would be intended to deal with bots. Advertising revenue, which currently accounts for the vast majority of the company’s income, could slip if users abandoned the platform.

Games company Team 17 has reported H1 numbers saying that revenue rose by 31% to £69.7m with PBT down to £8.1m from £11.2m. The company reports EPS of 3.9p vs 6.5p last year. The company says its ‘strong H1 revenue performance de-risks FY23 delivery with a reduced H2 weighting’ and adds ‘we expect H2 EBITDA to benefit from more favourable phasing of costs, planned cost efficiencies and controls, which together with the second half pipeline of new title releases and content updates, will deliver second half weighted results….’

• 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.

Gravity Fitness, which operates leisure and fitness activity parks under the Gravity Active Entertainment brand, reports revenue up 75% YoY to £25m for the year to 31 December 2022, with a profit before tax edging slightly down to £383k from £386k the year prior….

Odeon Cinemas Ltd has reported its FY numbers for the period ended 31 December 2022 to Companies House. Market attendance increased to 117 million in 2022, up 43 million YoY on 2021’s figure of 74 million and a material recovery from 2020’s figure of 44 million. Odeon’s attendance increased by 57.9% YoY to 15.0 million in 2022….

• 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.

FINANCE & MARKETS:

Make UK reports that UK manufacturers are cutting back on new recruitment and are “battening down the hatches” as they have seen a sharp drop in activity…

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said his party will aim for a major rewrite of the flimsy Brexit agreed by former PM but one, Boris Johnson.

A poll undertaken by Opinium has found that current PM Rishi Sunak is seen as less competent than all of his immediate Tory predecessors other than Liz Truss. Only 10% of respondents believed Ms Truss performed well…

Short-lived former PM Liz says 25 years of economic consensus has put Britain in a tough spot (rather than her, Brexit, Covid and the war in Ukraine. She says ‘it is vital that we…shatter that economic consensus…’

• 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.

Sterling weaker at $1.2378 and €1.1584. Oil price up at $96.05. UK 10yr gilt yield up 4bps at 4.40%. World markets mixed yesterday. London set to open down around 3pts 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.