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Leamington Spa branch was also rammed to the gills before Christmas.
Added a few here - reading between the lines I think it's a fair to assume that the board wouldn't have signed off a new Japan JV unless Xmas trading was at least in line or ahead of expectations. Shame that this wisdom hadn't occurred to me yesterday morning at 158p, however there is plenty of upside from these levels if trading has indeed been better than expected!
Japan jv. Happy New Year choclatiers! So it looks like world domination is back on Angus's wish list- a different approach that hopefully reaps rewards.. Fair game buying in at these levels imo- a good run back upto the £4 levels would be a nice way to leave 2023?..... hold for me.
Went into the Norwich branch. Really busy, queues at the till and a lots in the cafe. Brilliant velvertiser / coffee machine offer and I thought the alcohol selection was excellent. Really impressed.
Went into hotel choc shop in Canterbury ,no samples , stock wasn't that exciting and quiet for Christmas.
at 5p or more below bid price.
That's surely a distressed seller or they've just totally given up on this.
I suspect the latter, myself.
Sentiment-wise, this is finished for a couple of years at least, I reckon.
I'm not even going to bother keeping a close eye on it anymore and it's coming off my watchlist.
Taversham, I do not want communication for the sake of communication but for gods sake Easter is one of the major trading events of the year. The interims were published early March then no trading update until 19th July. This is a major opportunity missed. AIM hates silence which is always viewed badly. Every other confectionery business I have invested in always provide trading update post major events like Xmas and Easter. Poor communication is not strong leadership. I take your point completely about USA. That said if we could see it why couldn’t Angus and his team. There is much wrong with the trading set up at present. The online platform is poor. The stores are poorly stocked. I went into my local store in Sheffield only to be told ‘try online’ we don’t stock it. People were on here in the heatwave saying they didn’t even know hotel chocolat sold ice cream. Basic things need sorting. Shareholders want to see progress and a return. Fingers crossed he turns things around this coming 12 months but his international track record is not good and he has lost a lot of shareholders confidence which is why he should hand over the ceo role
Cookie, I agree the us was always destined to failure , simply because their citizens are brought up on different tasting chocolate and apparantly that sets your 'taste' for life meaning they will not appreciate UK chocolate. However the US and indeed the Van were demonstrations of innovation and an open mindset which are pre requisites of growth and in both cases it seems they have not been successful unlike the velvetiser that is.
WRT comms - I would rather he focussed on delivery than many meaningless rns statements and in comparison to some of the really big uk companies, e.g national grid , he is doing an adequate job. Given his high personal stake we can take his motivations and alignment with ourselves for granted which is not so in many cases.
Taversham, you are entitled to disagree. I too enjoyed the tv program but to be honest I didn’t see a strong leader. He has made a series of blundering errors in his international strategy. Decisions to go into Japan and USA were always going to be disastrous. USA in particular seems to have lowered the quality of products on offer. Perhaps it is just me, that is not a fan of peanut products. Time will tell. I am happy to be proved wrong as currently am losing money. When I bought 5 years ago I was expecting growth in both Uk and Europe and looking for a dividend and £8 a share. Instead I got no dividend, no Europe no communication and a fall in share price. What happened to that ridiculous van in an earlier tv series. Why is it not isolated in the accounts. Does it continue. If a success why did he not introduce more. But my biggest concern is why is Angus so reluctant to meet and communicate with shareholders
Cookie, I completely disagree ref Angus having watched the TV documentary. He is the vision behind the brand and displays a nice management style with ethics and leadership obvious strengths. His strategic moves are always positioning for the next few years and imv the company will become a really big brand. We shall see what happens. meanwhile i thought todays announcement contained a lot of caution which i did not like!
Plenty to be positive about, but Angus needs to explain his new International strategy and some of the messages in the RNS that appear garbled on first read. Interesting that he thanks everyone bar the shareholders who he treats with contempt which is clear in his lack of communication. I look forward to being able to question Angus, but overall feel the business has outgrown his capabilities and feel he should step down. We are unable to oust him due to the size of his shareholding.
9.5 million loss!!
Ouch....
35% up in revenue? Thanking you! Obvious need to prevent exceptional items that resulted in a loss overall remain ‘exceptional’ and don’t become ‘annual’ but plenty to be optimistic about as we head into the Christmas season!
In one of hotels chocolate shops today it was very busy doing a very good trade let’s hope it gets better
I hope Mondelez take this over!
For a supposedly well run company to present it's accounts so late is usually not a good thing.
I remain on the sidelines, watching.
Has anyone tried to email or call IR?
WTF are they? Last communication 29 September and I think they were already late. Angus really needs to improve his communication with shareholders which is appalling.
I stand corrected…..So there is still a link with Thg, my protein…..
https://www.myprotein.com/partnerships/myprotein-x-hotel-chocolat.list
typo...Angus & Peter Harris....... (John Harris was my old accountant!).....ANyway- after my previous rant I added some at £1.55.... I still have faith
Hopefully it’s Angus & John….. they normally buy together when it’s getting trashed..
Yowser - hopefull that 1mil Unknown is a buy!!
Well, looks like it speeded up a bit. Didn't mean to sell today but I had a 160p sell set up and it popped. Forgot to move it up following the recent rises. Good luck for the ride ahead, I need to find a point to get in again!
Richard, my thoughts exactly. Someone must be buying this slowly but surely. Considering that most UK retail stocks have got killed HOTC has bucked the trend.
I'm hoping that the gentle rise in the sp over the last two weeks is a good sign that someone knows something we don't. Usually someone does, hopefully this time it's positive news.