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I was at Lord's last week where Marston's have a partnership with England Cricket board. It was clear that everyone was avoiding the Pedigree, Hobgoblin and Banks and paying more per pint (and walking further) to get the independent craft ale. BTW I tried the three Marston's ales that some of our group had mistakenly bought and OMG it was shockingly bad. The craft ale was so much better and needless to say, all of our group were on the craft after 11am.
I think my post re other pub companies a few weeks back has now been justified. MAB.L have done very well. Their prospects are good and FSTA will catch them up over next year. Both far better value than MARS.
Wolfwatch, a vast amount of sympathy with your comments, a shake - up is certainly required !! As I have previously stated the problem lies with debt, debt, debt, coupled with minimum wage hikes, electricity and gas prices, and pressure upon customers wallets ! Why do you suspect that Mars have at least 15 pubs for sale in West Midlands alone ? Why was I purchasing bottled Pedigree only 2 months ago for less than £1.00 per bottle ( bought 36 bottles ) - I would suspect ( if I did not know ) that cash flow was seriously lacking ! The estate stands at around 1400 public Houses, I believe , rent and rates have to be paid monthly - draw your own conclusions !!! As I have already said I am a large shareholder in Mars who wants the group to suceed, but if it dont work it wont work ask Debenhams !!!!! By the way, I have no amazing solution of my own - Just trapped,
Looks like this will be around 26p in next weeks, maybe even days at this rate. (And this in summer with lots drinking..) Comparing it with covid sp with all closed down, one must wonder why this business is staying open, except to service debt and keep some fat cats on the gravy train..
Sackings certainly need to take place on the board, and indeed with the CEO, before it is run even more into the ground.
Sharps - worth a read from the recent management releases, etc. They have over 1400 pubs, the management have said some that have reported most of their trade during the day, or early evening (maybe family pubs) and can close early at quiet periods to save costs, where business is light. Others may be busier in the evenings and will stay open longer but the Managers at each location will have the ability to make decisions. It makes sense. Warmer weather will help now all of the establishments and home drinking especially with an FA Cup final. Train strikes will affect Marston less (who have locals) rather than other groups reliant on trains that are set in towns. Maybe have another drive on the same route earlier or at the w/end after the FA Cup! Or it could be the pubs mentioned are already sold? GLA.DYOR.
Whilst driving home last night at 9.30 pm ,I passed four Marstons public Houses all of which were devoid of custom , with full lights blaring and not a soul in sight !!! Now I confess that they were all set in rural settings and it is quite feasable that they have traded reasonably during the evening , but then as a considerable shareholder I dont see much initiative expressed by the managers or leaseholders to develop their businesses and by the way ensure their continued lively hood. Its a tough game at the moment, especially when posters try to compare Mars with M & B and Witherspoons and Fullers as mostly the afore mentioned all have large exposure inside towns & cities ! Does any Board member ever pay unrecorded visits to these places to progress the company - probably not - they are more concerned with the poor financial position of the business - one of their making I might add A seriously disgruntled Shareholder
Jed, I bought in here at 19p in 2020 so it’s not at all time lows yet. Wetherspoons and fullers both went below covid. Can see it happening here as well unless interest rates come down quicker than forecasts suggest.
I am with you .... had a bit of a windfall so decided to dig deeper..... ha ha. Now holding more than 3 times what I used to think of as my core holding.
At least my average holding price is lower....
I may be becoming an expert straw clutcher.
At about 30p
I'd wait, 10p at the end of the month at this rate, shocking !
Low share price will make this share volatile and they are only a 1/3rd of the NPV on sentiment. Last Results were "only" up to 1/4/23 (quietest time with no benefit of summer sales). We should expect growth throughout the summer and we see they have reported positive cash "inflows" now to change help the results be positive. I regret they said sales are back to normality (they should as defined this as pre-pandemic) as they have recovered -but they didn't - so I see a set of results being played down. I may be wrong but dyor. this is what I see up until April. They will have tax benefits with plant purchases this tax yr where they are fully tax deductible, they want sales growth to be double any debt :-
Underlying figs Totals
2023 2022 2023 2022
Total revenue £407.0m £369.7m £407.0m £369.7m
Pub operating profit £43.1m £39.9m £43.1m £45.9m
Assocts Inc/(loss) £2.2m £(2.0)m £2.2m £(2.0)m
Profit/(loss) before Tax £(3.6)m £(7.5)m £(38.1)m** £25.6m
Net profit/(loss) £(2.9)m £(6.1)m £(28.8)m £19.4m
Earnings/(loss) per share 0.5)p (1.0)p ( 4.5)p 3.1p
Net cash inflow/(outflow)£11.5m £(8.9)m
NAV per share £0.98 £0.71
A new all time low, must be worth buying more !!!!
They issued a statement to say they felt EU rates would still rise based on their inflation, I see this as a way to try and raise their currency. However we are talking small amounts now anyway. Uk Rates are in the same position although Food inflation is slightly down. I am just being patient whilst the sun is out we will be making good sales. Also I read an article to say less people will go abroad this year (up to a 1/3 less) and this will help summer sales too. I may even buy some more soon looking at this as an opportunity!
Hope you are wrong about the fall, but this daily hammering is depressing .. can't blame the yanks today.
The largest have over 30m shares - Major shareholders now :- Capital Group Companies Inc, Brewin Dolphin Ltd, Dimensional Fund Advisors Ltd, BlackRock Inc, Royal London Asset Management Ltd, Standard Life Aberdeen PLC, Vanguard Group Inc, The Wellcome Trust Limited, Aberforth Partners LLP, HSBC Holdings PLC, Morgan Stanley & Co International PLC, Momentum Global Investment Mgmt Ltd, ClearBridge Investments, LLC, The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. DYOR
This company exists for one purpose only - not to grow, or reward shareholders but to pay down (very slowly) its debt. There is absolutely no investment case for it. The long term chart is suggesting a breakdown and fall of 20-25% very soon.
The weather we’ve had of late can only be a good thing and hopefully the investment made into various beers gardens will be reaping the rewards
Sorry max cashback allowed £30.
A fat finger on previous post !
I just noticed that Halifax bank has added Marstons to its reward programme.
Current offer is a once only 10% off drinks & food with the maximum cashback allowed of £300.
Offer expires 14 June.
Any posters with a Halifax a/c just needs to register for Halifax rewards and then pay on either a debit or credit card.
Agree warmer weather is what we wish for. Looks good for the w/end where I'm standing!
This years winter has dragged on to be honest! -last years was early -so lets hope we are finally here!
Fund managers and traders are waiting to see if the debt ceiling issue is sorted in the USA - & looks like they the US Govt are going to borrow more money and this will keep the Feds rates in check. We just need to be patient.
Hope it happens.. but atm 32p all pubs open and summer is here.. vs 26p all pubs closed, country in lock down. Why are we bothering.. ?
Markets nervous over US debt ceiling but it is just a pantomime, analyst's say we will see a green run across the markets once they lift the ceiling, analyst's predict 45p short term, they've highlighted hostile takeover rumours at an opportunistic 75p, they also claim of an unnamed fund seeking to take or increase by 5%.
Bought around 10k each , Markets don't seem impressed at 32p at the start of summer..
So that's 2 sofar, do they know good news is coming down the line soon.?
One think for sure this is good drinking weather, beer gardens and bars should be well in demand.