Greggs - FY23 profit expectations reiterated

Greggs continues to generate premium sales growth through a combination of volume, including market share gains as distribution increases, and price growth. The strength of underlying trading in Q323 is highlighted by management’s confirmation of consensus FY23 PBT expectations despite the addition of new costs for expanding the company’s delivery offer to a second platform and a slight delay in some store openings from the end of the year into FY24.

Carr's Group - Progressing to plan

FY23 trading has continued according to the early August update, demonstrating the benefit of two unrelated activities at Carr’s Group: the Engineering division’s strength countering the weakness seen in the Speciality Agriculture business. Both have underlying longer-term growth attractions to drive earnings, along with the recovery potential in the agriculture end-markets.

Carr's Group - A new team to take the group forward

Carr’s Group has announced a fully refreshed executive team, none having been in-situ at the start of 2023. This will enable the executives to have an uninhibited view of the operations, enabling the development and implementation of a strategy reflecting the different opportunities and challenges facing the Engineering and Speciality Agriculture divisions.

Taking the Upper Brand: Brands Sector Overview

The earliest dated brand has long been contested; the majority point to Kongō Gumi, a family run construction company that specialised in Buddhist temples in Japan; its documented record of ownership goes back to 578 AD. Like Kongō Gumi, several different brands have withstood the test of time, albeit without then same degree of longevity. The term brand originates from the 1500s and means "to burn" in Ancient Norse and was initially used to mark cattle for ownership. This practice can be consid

SP Angel Morning View: Risk sentiment pulls back on geopolitical tensions and concerns over Chinese property market

Wynnstay Group+ (WYN, House Stock, 430p) - Tough H2 –FY23F downgrades - FY24F recovery

Morning Note – 11 September 2023

Carr's Group - Optimising value for shareholders

Over several decades Carr’s Group has diversified both within and outside the UK agricultural market. This has reduced the group’s exposure to the vagaries of the British climate, farming policy and volatile commodity prices and taken it into activities that generate substantially higher margins and present opportunities for stronger growth than the traditional agriculture sector in individual countries. However, while the board sees potential for growth in each of the three divisions, there are

Carr's Group - Initial look at FY22 performance

Carr’s Group has issued a detailed trading update giving some preliminary financial metrics on FY22 performance. These show both continuing divisions (Speciality Agriculture and Engineering) beating our EBIT estimates, following a strong finish to the year. The shares remain suspended until management finishes the final stages of the audit process, which it believes are ‘essentially complete’. Our note is based on the initial information in the trading update. We will publish a follow-on update

THE MONTHLY March 2020

Much of the UK’s privatisation programme took place between the early 1980s and the mid-1990s: subsequent sales have been few. Undoubtedly, privatisation attracted many private investors to the market, many for the first time.

THE MONTHLY April 2020

The Monthly May 2020

There has been much comment on the fact that equity markets in the US and Europe have been shrinking for some years now, certainly in terms of the number of quoted companies, if not in total market capitalisation (MCap). This paper has been written with the assistance of the Quoted Companies Alliance (QCA) and focuses on the evidence for such in the London market and, in particular, that for smaller and midcap companies. It assesses that evidence and considers explanations. Finally, we ask why i

The Monthly June 2020

Much has been written about the effects of the virus on the world and on the stock market. Here is one analyst’s take on some of the likely impacts on the way we should look at companies. This article was originally produced as a blog, “10 Changes Post Virus”, which was published a few weeks ago.

THE MONTHLY July 2020

A number of REITs have the ability to thrive in current market conditions and thereafter. Not only do they hold assets that will remain in strong demand, but they have focus and transparency. The leases and underlying rents are structured in a manner to provide long visibility, growth and security. Hardman & Co defined an investment universe of REITs that we considered provided security and “safer harbours”. We introduced this universe with our report published in March 2019: “Secure income” REI

UK Food to Go

Ongoing labour cost challenges, higher input costs, sustained brisk organic sales volume growth and further room for innovation at both product and distribution level were the key investment features of the 2018 British Sandwich & Food to Go Association AGM and Conference, which was held in London yesterday. Moreover, the association had strong messages on food waste reduction and CSR, both of which are important as the industry body continues to lobby the UK government hard ahead of Brexit. The