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Cheapshareboy
Ocado Retail plan to reopen Andover and a a new CFC at Purfleet later this summer, into Autumn and another mini CFC at Bicester next year - all this will increase capacity by 50% - more CFC are planned for 2023.
Full picture is here -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZx7PRAN7Gk&list=PL_ch00M8hFvq0r9kclH3rOPGNkAvKCoIc
With news this will be over £2
Yep the Morrison bid means mks should be at 170p minimum now. Alas need to get rid of a dump seller.
Share price should be breaching 139.5p resistance shortly, hopefully today, then head off from there.
Mks sales should have gone up significantly with reduced competition on high street. This sort of mini pandemic continuation is only going to benefit mks as people still will shop for food whilst perhaps some avoiding bigger department stores. Well you can do both in mks so....
There is also the future increase from ocado on the cards as they expand. I take it ocado UK expansion happens in the second half of this year?
Indeed poker chips ! They were trying to copy woolco I think and companies like Carrefour. The other error was selling Homebase and yet they bought Argos!
Admittedly those deals were timely and ended up as property profits. Argos retail integration has been a disaster according to 3 of their ex regional directors I know.
What does Argos and Sainsbury’s have in common? Brands so far apart and let’s face it what did JS really know about electrical??(there’s a lot of snobbery in the big brands like Sony/Phillips)
Nearly 30% of electro was temp out of stock in Argos after 6 months of January owning them.
Increased bid for Morrisons again today at 270p. Very surprised to see this languishing still. Not helped by Norges being a seller...only a matter of time until this is back in 160 region imo.
Neil
Thanks for your comments.... JS worst move ever was investing £100m into some idea in Egypt !..you remember when they had "Savacentres ? ".. big Hypermarkets than did well in the good times but were a struggle in recessionary times...they ditched that idea
China now sells direct to customers through the likes of Shein...horrible .. the cheap end ..like BooHoo...but getting away with poor disclosures and using TikTok to lure the youngsters
https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/exclusive-chinese-retailer-shein-lacks-disclosures-made-false-statements-about-2021-08-06/
Finished on day high 139.4. Maybe since Norges finished selling the price will start to move back up.
On line international is a completely different beast to stores overseas - much cheaper and easier to set up - I guess that they use a logistics partner to process and dispatch orders - main market would probably be British expats - nice little earner trading on the M&S brand.
https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/companies/sainsbury-sells-shaws-in-the-us/92489.article
On the international theme pokerchips, the only successful UK international expansion was Sainsbury who purchased a supermarket group in New England called Shaws, it contributed hundreds of millions in net profit to JS and they made a property fortune by selling to Alberstons. A huge disaster by the non family JS CEO at the time. He sold it to help fight against Tesco and lost both ways.
But Shaws still stands in my mind as the only international success story for UK retail.
I hope companies like M&S will look closely and take action to remove clothing manufacturing from China , and bring it back to UK or closer.
In the 1970/80’s China was a struggling economy and wages cheap/still are. Companies thought they can improve commercial gross (they did) and support a poor country.
Problem though is now clear that not only did increased jobs help people out of poverty but fuelled a population explosion. 1970 827,000 people in China now in 2021 1.4 b
We source our clothing and home products from around 1,000 factories and our top countries by number of supplier sites are: China, Cambodia, Vietnam, India, Turkey, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Huge upside for M&S digitally if they keep their brand exposure, quality and build back a clothing durability so clothing that lasts, together with generous cut in tailoring to allow customers to extend clothing, especially for kids.
Shoes are changing fast but lead times are 12-24 months. Shoe soles are being manufactured so they can be changed (bolt on/off) enabling customer to replace just the sole because of wear, or fashion.
Alternative leather uppers and vegetable linings have been on the design table for two years now and will appear through the supply chain I believe shortly.
Big changes coming in vegetable clothing and natural fabrics that are biodegradable and require zero landfill.
Clothing labelling laws shortly to be introduced that show the carbon emissions value.
Thankfully M&S are keeping on top of this and leadership.
Downside to international is supply chain timing into hubs and start points with currency exchange rate costs that M&S have to get better at.
Google analytics and digital rush to the top, together with pure play are critical together with bill board communication.
Example of US M&S digital.
https://www.marksandspencer.com/us/
Thanks Neil that's interesting information
As I understand it the stores have been realigned in much the same way as the UK by increasing food space by 1/3rd at the expense of clothing, and trebled the food sku’s to enable a broader shopping trip for Customers.
Asia continues to be a growth market with high demand for British goods. There are millions of expats out there who have settled, I know dozens who now consider Asia as home.
M&S lessons I hope! Are minimal capital spend, Asia is their largest market and successfully executed through local JV’s, although there is a 50|50 property partnership to help local entrepreneurs.
The international digital growth in 21 over 20 was +75% and this year announcing the expansion into another 46 countries (now 100 in total) operated through UK with local supply hubs. 100% growth over 2021 appears to be possible.
M&S strategy as a wholesaler for stores (minimal capital) and direct retail online seems very apt and sensible in my view.
Pokerchips hi,
International has proved in the past to be a capital drain and intellectually draining, Brooks in 1988 bought by M&S in US is a case in point, huge losses.
I am sure M&S like Tesco are and have learnt that cultural intelligence and brand awareness can’t be learnt overnight and there will always exist protectionism.
M&S international sales in 2021 were 8.6% participation or £790m. So well worth their time snd effort.
Neil
if I can ask..(without bringing EU politics in) what you think about the International business side of things ..I was just refreshing myself with what they wrote in the Annual Report...
" Based on strong performance last year we have an ambition to more than double international online retail sales."
Very true Pokerchips.
Neil
They could have been slowly selling down for weeks..and only notify when their end target has been met ..not exactly at the moment they go under 3%
Yes I think that too pokerchips because their timing is weird.
They do hold assets in 9000 businesses though so as you say it maybe just balancing the book and something short term has come up. I’m not overly worried but just found it an odd move right now.
Neil
well they wont have traded on inside information of the business.
....so..maybe they just balanced their holding with another company buy elsewhere..to spread risk around a bit...no more than that
Wonder if M&S have ****ed off Norges bank in some way?
Interesting move by Norway’s central bank pension fund. $1.2 trillion fund. Disappointed that they are reducing as they are the type of investor blue chip companies need.