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Another delay to results? Last year it was a month, this year a longer delay. Im not sure what Angus is upto anymore.... he pulled off a£40m fundraise at £3.55 just last July 21 and since then the SP has fallen off a cliff. No USA trade and Japan gone. I think the tie up with THG may also have gone.... I dont normally come on forums to moan but HOTC seems to aggrevate me more than most.
Never mind, I've just found the reason on their website. It's actually been closed for good:
https://www.hotelchocolat.com/uk/restaurants/rabot-london.html
Don't remember seeing an RNS about this? I've eaten there and the food was good but a bit pricey for what it was. So I'm guessing there weren't enough customers unfortunately.
Hopefully they can expand the café/bar upstairs in place of the restaurant, as downstairs was full to bursting yesterday.
I was at the Borough market shop yesterday. Very busy and it really felt like a posher version of Starbucks. Saw a couple on a date, tourists, etc. Really good vibe. I finally tried the summer ice cream milk shakes and the missus had the ice cream in a cone. Both really good and were advertised in front of the shop.
The only disappointment was that I forgot the use my VIP discount!!
Btw the restaurant was "temporarily closed". Any idea why?
Mystery solved. Phoenix Asset Management Partners Limited doubled their position. 5% of share capital changes hands and the price doesn't budge. Follow the money
That should be a million, obviously.
I wonder how they managed to buy that many at the ask price without a fat premium?
Angus or a new position?
Oh, I know the theory.
But if theories meant anything.....
Did the last trading update suggest increased profit?
Maybe it did, maybe it didn't. I can't remember and I can't be bothered to double check.
But I suspect not, which is why this has fallen from a fiver to £1.35.
That doesn't happen for no reason, as much as I think the market can be totally daft at times.
As I said, I hope things change.
Ok lol, It's called economies of scale which lead to higher profits (lower cost per unit).
Ah, revenue.
Personally it means nothing to me.
The only numbers that matter are profits.
I don't class closing foreign operations as growing, myself, but don't hold here at the moment, so perhaps that allows me to look at things differently.
Whatever I'm not currently looking to buy back in.
And neither is the market.
I honestly hope I'm wrong and hope the sp picks up
“No growth”
Total Group revenue increased by 37% to £226m (FY21: £165m), ahead of market consensus expectations[1] and by 70% compared to the financial year ended 30 June 2019 (FY19: £133m) with FY19 being the last full equivalent period prior to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
I'm not surprised there's been no bounce, because nobody is interested in this company, imo.
Hence there haven't been any games, I don't think.
With a P/E of 30, and no growth, it's still too expensive for me.
I know that probably won't go down too well, but it's just how I see it.
I think it's fair to say that the bounce in share price we were all expecting, didn't materialise. Liquidity has also gone down back to being really low. Whatever games the big boys were playing, it looks like they are done now and relaxing with a pint after the game.
and now due to Brexit we can't get European staff who want to work in these roles.
the second part of your sentence seems to contradict the first.
sounds good news if someone's trying to buy up the stock.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvSryb7vZ1c
This interview from June may have been shared already but if t, interesting
I’ve been struggling to sell even 200 shares for days and suddenly I can shift 15000 if I wanted to, with no problems?? Looks like there’s something going on here!!
Down to brexit what a load of crap the British young do not know how to communicate
Again good point re reduced pool of staff to choose from, standing there it all felt a little gloomy and tired, a bit like standing in one of the old Thornton’s shops actually. They really need to inject a bit of life and attraction into the stores. Cannot fault the product itself, fantastic taste in a world of bland high sugar chocolate out there, but they need to match that quality in every aspect of their retail else i can see this eventually draining out.
In retail especially this is down to Brexit.
Now that we have such a tight labour market, and we've also stopped young European workers, from countries where working in retail and hospitality is seen as a 'real' career, not looked down on as it is here as just a part-time job for kids, you end up with poor staff. You have to have someone in the shop so if the option is a disinterested, lazy person or having to close the store/restaurant for certain shifts you'll have to go with the least bad option.
The only plus is this is a sector wide issue not ours specifically and I do believe we hold a good niche area in the market that stands us apart from Starbucks, Costa, Nero, etc. Hopefully one day one of the main parties will be able to if not admit the mistake of Brexit, at least admit we need European labour for our stores/restaurants to offer better service and and improved productivity which will lead to a stronger economy.
I'm not an ideologist, I don't care who's in power as they are just 2 wings of the same bird, but I do care if our country, and my companies are being hamstrung by their ideologies.
I agree entirely GF, I visited both the Bristol and Bath stores at the w\e as part of a research trip into several companies and I was surprised by the lack of desire to sell in both stores, listening in, staff seemed a little disinterested, I spied the ice cream in both stores and noted the lack of attention to it.
I was a little gutted truth be told as I can see what this could be. In conclusion I think they need to cull the number of stores here as it will impacting massively profits on a reduced revenue, staff need retraining and stores need an up to date makeover of sorts.
I like this company and I hold over 15000 shares. I was in the Trafford Centre store at the back end of last week amd I was a little surprised with what I saw. It was well into 30 degrees plus outside. Loads of parents with children in the vicinity, yet absolutely nothing to say they sell ice cream?? I bought a tub (very nice by the way!) and walked back to the car with it. A young woman stopped me to ask where I got it from. I told her and she said she was going straight there to get one!
I do genuinely think Hotel Chocolat has a good future, but they need to start capturing the market at EVERY opportunity now and really create brand awareness at a household level if they are to fill the gap left by the likes of Thornton’s etc.
I pass through Paddington and Euston once a month and the stores seem to do a steady trade even in warm weather. This week deserted. It just seems odd that they have ice cream etc which should sell in this weather but they seem rather shy about it.
Oracle makes a good point that store managers need to up their game. My sister went into a store in Sheffield last week. Couldn’t spot what she was looking for on the shelf so went to the counter to ask and spotted the item which was some type of mint chocolate behind them. They handed her a box and said they had just not had chance to put it out. She asked if there was plenty of date as it was a gift. The manager said yes, but she checked and the date was up in August. Obviously she walked out. Similarly she has tried to purchase lip balm in Sheffield only to be told they don’t stock it “go to Meadowhall or try online”. Ultimately this is down to Angus and personally I am not happy with his performance over the last 3 years that I have been a shareholder.. his communication is non existent. I do agree that Monday night’s program was the best I have seen
we do shakes too.
Indeed if they are only place in Euston to do ice cream they need to be out shouting that for the summer.
This though I'd say comes down to the store manager rather than company in general but let's hope (s)he pick their game up
Middle of a heatwave you probably are not rushing to buy a chocolate bar lol … rsi still very oversold and negative. Sure this will to a big 20p plus rise day it’s just a case of being patient. The underlying business as shown on the recent tv prog is utterly superb. And it’s been updated now for scale. The hard legwork is done.