The latest Investing Matters Podcast with Jean Roche, Co-Manager of Schroder UK Mid Cap Investment Trust has just been released. Listen here.
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Yes that’s the deal complete. We can move on now with only the economy holding us back
Is this in relation to the 5 million shares as part of the valley deal being £1 a share or they make up the diffrence in cash ,
Great !!
Now that that is settled, it removes the only perceived negative hanging over this share.
Hopefully, the chains are off and they can gradually grow the SP.
That was from Friday pm & looking at the price it’s almost certainly a buy.
Nice to see such confidence.
To be fair it says unknown Could been a sell, and by the look of the end of day it was a sell ??
Someone still confident with that £49k buy earlier.
They must have got in low i guess im still waiting to break even on launch
Always profit taking luxs when a share price moves up. At least it has settled at 22p currently.
Lots of selling today ?
And as TB said in the recent investor interview -
‘If you look after the company, the share price will look after itself’.
So only good things ahead here in my opinion.
I agree with you MrT220. Likewise is in its infancy doesn’t happen over night. They have carefully built the infrastructure and now to take More of that multi billion pound industry.
I’m sure those that bought on the lows 17p will take a quick buck but for serious investing this company is only going to get bigger.
They would me mad to get out. Timing for likewise has been against them with the world the way it is.
Plenty more to come out of this - it’s grown so much since the highs of 52p. Once the valley deal is out the way there’s nothing holding us back.
We finally get some action been a long time waiting, think there be a fair few getting out close to purchase price on launch
A very good listen for an insight into the Likewise journey so far & the short to mid term trajectory of the business. This interview/chat with TB and an independent investor gives me great belief in my investment here.
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MrT220. Thank you for posting the link. Certainly very informative indeed and the best fact based update on Likewise I’ve read on here for a while.
Very encouraging listening to Tony Brewer who always says it as it is. Calm honest explanation of all elements of the business and with honesty. Must listen for all share holders I would say. Exciting times ahead for the share holders I would say.
Great new interview giving an insight into Tony Brewer and his company.
https://share.transistor.fm/s/41a17407
True i would believe there comined market share 30-35%
Hi luks, thanks for your reply. Interesting to get your perspective.
I can see that trade counters blur the line between Headlam’s distribution model and retail, so I can understand the distaste of traditional retail.
The activities of Jason Maguire in the sector are also interesting and provide additional insight into the competition for both Headlam and Likewise. I understand his group operates as Connection Retail. I’ll investigate this further.
In a previous post I commented that the two quoted companies might account for 50%-60% of the distribution business but another look at the numbers suggests this might be closer to 40%, which implies a 60% share across many smaller businesses, such as Connection Retail.
Given this level of competition and I assume overlap, I still wonder at the extent and reasons for your business relationship with Likewise, given the issues you’ve expressed – leaving aside any investor interest.
I guess bulk/volume of the product versus value means that the product doesn’t move far from the cutting table to the final installation, so competition largely occurs at a local level.
What prompts you to use Likewise rather than another distributor? Is it payment terms, product offering, or something else?
Is there a local alternative to Likewise or Headlam?
(I was going to say, Flooring Superstore, but I wonder if they are retail rather than distribution.)
Thanks for your post
firstly i need to state i persist due to being somewhat down on my investment from ipo,
stockest is a good publication as has many updates from national retailers and wholesalers
we in the trade had a booming time through the pandemic so much so most in the trade knocked socks off the like for likes. this year tho not terrible naturally the figures are down , people can freely travel many gone back to the work place .
hedlum have really taken a hit from likewise due to there poor support to bricks and mortar flooring retailers speaking of there distaste of hedlums business plan opening many trade counters open to public and other trades such as decorators plumbers general builders trying to cut out the retailer within the trade look at the share price over the last 18-24 months it has lost lots of ground
floorwise ,kellers,flooring superstore, grass direct, franks flooring store , are all owned by the same group, headed by its founder Jason Maguire they now get many of there products made for them exclusively via europe, and asia this group are growing rapidly and really hitting hedlum badly
Hi luxs,
I was impressed by your knowledge of Valley Group operations, so I looked at your earlier posts.
Clearly, you are in the trade, and I thought to ask for any publications you’d recommend for an investor in the sector.
But first, I had a look and came across ‘The Stockists’. Much of it is advertising but I saw a couple of sections of interest to me, a piece on wholesaling and business news.
A takeaway is that there are many different sectors operating within the distribution chain, which I’d define as between the manufactured flooring product to installation. The two listed companies I’m aware of, are Likewise and Headlam, who act between the manufacturers and retail venues or independent fitters, with each operating on gross margins of c. 30%.
The listed companies account for 50-60% of the UK market with private companies accounting for the balance, including Kellars, Floorwise, Carpet Line Direct and independent trader cooperatives like the Independent Flooring Group.
The numbers from the business news section are interesting but confusing to me. Oct trading is described as 16% down on last month, Sept, but only 0.9% down on last Oct. This is revenue based rather than volume.
The ONS has floorcovering inflation 7.7% YTD. HMRC has carpet imports into UK down 6.2% YTD. I know I’m not exactly comparing ‘apples with apples’, but that suggests a volume reduction of c. 14%.
There seems to be a mismatch between trading down only 0.9% Oct (YoY revenues) and the HMRC imports down 6.2% YTD. Perhaps the Oct month is an outlier.
luxs, I’d be interested in your critique of my summarization.
Also, looking at your recent comments on Likewise, these jumped out at me. “I would like to use them more but again and again can’t help to pull my hair out”; “improvements needed in basics stock levels, adequate p.o.s. (?)”; “sampling is poor”.
Given competition in business why do you persist with Likewise? Is it an account benefit, their regional dominance, specific product offering, or something else?
I would appreciate any reply. Thanks, in anticipation.
*For the record, I’ve been in and out of Headlam as an investor several times over the years. I’ve been monitoring Likewise since they came to the AIM market, but my current concerns are around their balance sheet, as indicated in my earlier posts. On the HBR board I have commented on Likewise several months (years?) back – favourably as I recall.
Interesting.
I refer to the founder of the company David Mitchell i understand he still works at valley daily on or off the record