Langton Capital – 2025-07-15 – DPP, Dalata, Darwin & Wallace, SBUX, Cake Box, change of use & other:
DPP, Dalata, Darwin & Wallace, SBUX, Cake Box, change of use & other:A DAY IN THE LIFE: So, yesterday felt like quite a productive day but, when I was asked what I’d achieved, the answer was very little to catch the eye. But I’d stopped things from going wrong and, over time, the absence of bad stuff must be good, right? However, as with football, where the strikers get the plaudits and the defenders get the occasional begrudging nod, it doesn’t always feel like it. Nonetheless, with more challenging long balls coming our way this week and next, it pays to keep your eye in the game. Bit cryptic but nothing really mysterious. VAT returns, negotiations with landlords, chasing debtors and paying subs that could lead to ugly IT outages and the like. Let’s move 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: Change of use. The hospitality industry has seen ‘change of use’ move both ways with a host of banks and some shops, cinemas and the like being repurposed as licensed outlets and a large swathe of smaller, suburban boozers moving back to residential use. In addition, creative studio Bompas & Parr suggests that excess office space could be utilised as hospitality hubs, saying that occupancy across offices is not yet back to pre-Covid levels and, in some commercial areas such as the City of London, there are few residents likely to complain about the noise… • 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. Other news: Trump tariffs. Hard to keep up with the chopping and changing but President Donald Trump is now threatening 50% tariffs against EU exports from 1 August… Extended responsibility. Wales may roll out its own Deposit Return Scheme by October 2027. The Welsh government says this is to tackle littering. Keep Wales Tidy says that drinks-related litter was found on 43.6% of Welsh streets in 2023–24. COMPANY NEWS: Bar restaurant company Darwin & Wallace, which currently operates from five sites and which has changed its year-end to coincide with that of its new parent, Portobello Starboard Ltd, has reported results for the 16-month period to end-September 2024 to Companies House. Whilst the numbers are understandably hard to interpret due to the changed year-end, the company reports 16-month revenues of £20.7m (FY23 – 12 months: £17.8m. D&W reports an operating loss of £584k (FY23: loss £799k) and, after a series of exceptional costs, it discloses a loss before tax of £11.3m against a loss in the prior year of £1.9m… • 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. Starbucks has told its corporate workers that they will need to be in the office for at least four days a week. It is offering cash compensation to employees who want to leave the company instead… • 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. Cake Box Holdings has reported full year numbers to 30 March saying that revenue rose by 13% to £42.8m with underlying EBITDA up 17% at £8,73m and underlying PBT up by 17.4% at £7.1m. Underlying EPS is up by 19.4% at 13.2p and the dividend is up 11.5% at 6.8p… • 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. Honest Burger has appointed Matt Brandon as CEO. Mr Brandon is currently the group’s Chief Financial Officer…. DP POLAND – INVESTOR PRESENTATION: DPP yesterday hosted a presentation on its FY24 numbers, its H1 update and its April purchase of Pizzeria 105. For FY24, losses were markedly reduced from £4.9m to £0.5m. Numbers, though very satisfactory, are dated due to Pizzeria 105 acquisition. In Poland: Customer numbers, order frequency and ticket values all increased year on year. Over 60% of stores were profitable during the year and more than a third broke even. Only 14% were loss making (FY22: 29%). Around 214 extra orders per store over two years allowed EBITDA margin to rise by 5pps. And in Croatia, the business continues to perform strongly. Digital orders up 16.8%. Will have 7 stores trading shortly. The company ended the year debt-free with cash of some £11.3m. • 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. HOLIDAYS & LEISURE TRAVEL: Pandox AB and Eiendomsspar AS have announced that a newly incorporated and wholly-owned company, Pandox Ireland Tuck Ltd, is to make a recommended cash offer at €6.45 for the Dalata Hotel Group. The price represents ‘a 35.5% premium to the Dalata share price preceding the launch of the Strategic Review and Formal Sale Process, a 49.7% premium to the twelve-month volume-weighted average Dalata share price, and an acquisition equity value of €1.4 billion…’ • 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. Marriott International has reported that after 26 years with the company, Leeny Oberg, Marriott’s Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President, Development, has decided to retire effective March 31, 2026. It says that ‘two long-time Marriott veterans have been named her successors. Next year, Jen Mason will become the company’s Chief Financial Officer and Shawn Hill will take on the role of Chief Development Officer.’ Southend Airport remains closed after a light aircraft crashed there on Sunday. The airport says ‘all flights to and from the airport have been cancelled while police, emergency services and air accident investigators are attending the incident.’ OTHER LEISURE: Sky News reports that ‘the owner of Brentford Football Club has clinched a deal to sell a minority stake in the Premier League side to new investors at a valuation of roughly £400m.’ it says it has ‘learnt that an agreement that will involve current owner Matthew Benham offloading a chunk of his holding to Gary Lubner – the wealthy businessman who ran Autoglass-owner Belron – is expected to be announced as early as Tuesday.’ Meta is reported set to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on building AI data centres in the US. Writing on Threads, Mark Zuckerberg says ‘we’re building multiple more titan clusters as well. Just one of these covers a significant part of the footprint of Manhattan.’ Skate Hut Ltd, a West Midlands-based skateboard retailer, has been rescued out of administration by SkatePro UK Limited… • 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: China has reported a record trade surplus of c$586 billion for H1 as a whole. Exports rose by 5.8% in June from a year earlier to $325 billion. Shipments to the US fell 16.1% from a year earlier. China has reported that its GDP grew at an annual rate of 5.2% in Q1 this year. Sterling lower at $1.3430 and €1.1506. Oil lower at $69.08. UK 10 year gilt yield down 4 basis points at 4.59%. World markets mostly better yesterday and London set to open around 19 points better as at 6.30am. RETAIL WITH NICK BUBB: • See premium. Reply for sample or to upgrade. Single £395, multiple £695. 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