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Anyone got any thoughts on how the cost of living crisis may affect Epwin? Well run company in a strong position in their chosen market BUT if household money runs tight who will prioritise replacing roofline or fascia ahead of paying bills, buying holidays, cars, kitchens etc???
I’m thinking sales have got to suffer????
I am not worried about rising costs affecting sales for Epwin. I just bought a new front door, had to wait 8 weeks due to demand for it to be manufactured (dont know if it was an Epwin one). Fitters told me they were very busy at the moment due to energy prices. Add in people may wish to renovate rather than move house now. No sign to a slow down to new builds near to me, look at the product range Epwin sell, all used in new builds. Then at some point they have got to sort out the housing association stock. If your door is broken, you have very little choice but to replace it.
From the RNS:
The need to improve the energy efficiency of the UK housing stock is growing in urgency, given the UK's net zero commitments, the widely reported increase in energy costs and the historic and longstanding backlog in housing maintenance.
Bought in this week, another bottom buy for my pension. 10 years off retirement, like to think there is time for this to do very well. Also bought Euro-cell for the same reasons off the lows. My DD so far shows 2 very well run companies.
rather pertinent to be replying to my post below, but today we had safestyle tu. tough times for safe style, share price dropped 49%, see quote:
"the combination of inflation, which has continued to remain higher than economist forecasters expected, and consequential higher interest rates, have put even greater pressure on our customers' disposable incomes, weakened consumer confidence and increased the cost of providing our market leading finance products. that being said, following the £1.4m investment in the group's q1 tv campaign, brand awareness has continued to grow and our market share has increased by 30bps to 8.0% (3.9% growth) in h1.
h1 industry data from fensa shows that the market for installations is c.8% lower year on year, with q2 representing a declining trend at c.12% lower. alongside the reduction in installations in the market, the average number of frames per installation has also declined.
h1 order intake (value) was 6.4% lower than the prior year and our h1 order book closed 22% lower than an unusually strong h1 22 comparator."
as an epwin holder i was concerned by this update today, but having investigated epwn seemed to be faring much better. epwin are far more diversified, and importantly not directly reliant on installations, or finance deals.
i would suggest reading both companies trading updates from may side by side, epwin sounds far more bullish, revenue ahead etc. so it got me thinking, epwn could buy sfe from its debt headroom, eliminating a major competitor. i think that would be pretty cool if that happened, and a good boost for the epwin shares. safestyle market cap is currently 13m, main holders are funds so little objection i would think. safestyle running low on cash. i dont know what the book looks like for safestyle, or how a to would practically work. there is always a chance it goes bust (not wishing that on anybody), but of co**** a boost for epwin again if it were to happen.
safe style last fy report march 23:
£4.5m of the group's £7.5m borrowing facility, being that of the term loan, remained drawn at the year end with the £3.0m revolving credit facility undrawn.
safestyle recent tu:
group expects to report an underlying loss before taxation for h1 2023 of c.£(6.0)m.
the impact of the h1 financial performance, alongside a one-off change in timing of payments to our new profile supplier, has resulted in net cash at 2 july 2023 of c.£0.9m.
Today Safestyle has plunged 60% after it put itself up for sale after funding talks failed.
Looks like Epwin will have one less competitor making things better for them when things settle, people want to improve their houses and life moves on. It has moved up slightly today on this news.
What do others think?
I have followed these firms very closely. I have been invested in EPWN for over 2 years. I did try SFE as I thought it might have got saved. No question that SFE is a valuable business, but the mechanics of administration mean that shareholders can not benefit. I sold out around 2.5p. Back to EPWN, yes they face similar headwinds to Safestyle perhaps a drop off in demand, but there really is no further comparison between the two. Safestyle sold to consumers, and were one of many. Epwin are a manufacturer and sell to businesses and consumers. Epwin have a much wider range of products, like decking for example. They also own a recycling business. They have plenty of cash (headroom) and yield about 6% dividend. Epwin is a real gem as far as I am concerned.
Regards competitors, there was another manufacturer that went out of business last month, and I think this contraction will thin down the number of players quite drastically. However, Safestyle will most likely continue but it will be privately owned. The other one to watch is Eurocell who I think are real innovators in this space. I hope to get some of those shares too. Both of these companies have exposure to house builders (new builds) where as Safestyle did not.
I am a buyer of these companies even if they go down in price, as the business model is sound. I think Epwin dates back to the 70's as a company.
Dartron, thank you for your comments. I too have been in and out over the last few years, Epwin shares. I always regularly read everything I can about it and thank you for your comments for people on the BB.
Stockopedia agrees with you as their thoughts are: - Quality72, Value 90, Momentum 58, StockRank™ 87.
Whenever Epwin is under 70p I'm always looking to buy more shares. I'm not sure how long it'll be before I'm in the green but at least it's not falling as hard as many of my other shares ATMIT.
DYOR and GL all holders.
Here is a good resource to see about the industry, and in this example we see the diversification of Epwin. Holiday and park homes are another of those things immune to the current economic climate. Most holiday homes have to be removed once they are 20 years old etc. There is a waiting list on many holiday parks, as it is really a pursuit of the retired, who seem not to be suffering from the economy at all. Large market for second hand homes abroad, so many are replaced early.
https://www.windownews.co.uk/luxury-lodges-excel-with-optima-and-stellar-from-epwin-window-systems/
Darton, thank you for that link. Interesting reading.
I have a relation, a retired Headteacher, who on her pension has been around the world on fantastic holiday trips. There was a time when they had gold pensions. Unfortunately not for us, so we have to work hard on the stock market to enable us to have a few extras :-)
I dream of owning that share that will make life a bit easier.
GLA
We are currently looking at a golden opportunity to buy investments in my opinion. Adding to ones pension now is going to achieve great returns in the future, now you can buy yields around 9% today. Im focussing on non AIM investments currently to increase exposure, as the better yields seem to be the investment trusts of the F250. I plan to keep hold of any yield above 7% indefinitely, as that would be enough for me to achieve my pension goals which are about 10 years away. I consider Epwin an income stock for now, my yield is around 6% here as I paid more for mine. Eurocell I would say might be an exception for me to invest in, as It could fit a PE take out. Even that pays a decent yield of 8% (though that could get cut in the short term). I think the strategy for me is partition my pf between income and growth, and ringfence the income side and all returns for continued income. The growth side needs to reduce a little in % terms. So I need a winner before I can buy more AIM or small cap. Lol. I could be on that cruise ship within 10 years, it is entirely possible.
How similar your thoughts are to mine.
In my younger days been badly burnt with AIM stocks, 'pump and dump'. Only buy FTSE 250 or 100 that give good dividends. Except for SPSY as had it for a few years and back in at 150p; then recently, (could be burnt again), WJG.
The things I often do wrong are not selling when they are doing well, getting back in when things are a bit slow and they go down again and taking a loss when things do not look good. Hindsight is a fantastic thing/dream, and I'd love to have a regular private chat with a few investors to talk over different options/opinions/research. How I wish I could set up one in my city. :-) Dreams of cruising/wonderful holidays all on the back of investments. However, I have to be quicker than you as very close to the OAP page. lol
GL and 'one day'! lol