We would love to hear your thoughts about our site and services, please take our survey here.
London South East prides itself on its community spirit, and in order to keep the chat section problem free, we ask all members to follow these simple rules. In these rules, we refer to ourselves as "we", "us", "our". The user of the website is referred to as "you" and "your".
By posting on our share chat boards you are agreeing to the following:
The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. As a user you agree to any information you have entered being stored in a database. You agree that we have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic or board at any time should we see fit. You agree that we have the right to remove any post without notice. You agree that we have the right to suspend your account without notice.
Please note some users may not behave properly and may post content that is misleading, untrue or offensive.
It is not possible for us to fully monitor all content all of the time but where we have actually received notice of any content that is potentially misleading, untrue, offensive, unlawful, infringes third party rights or is potentially in breach of these terms and conditions, then we will review such content, decide whether to remove it from this website and act accordingly.
Premium Members are members that have a premium subscription with London South East. You can subscribe here.
London South East does not endorse such members, and posts should not be construed as advice and represent the opinions of the authors, not those of London South East Ltd, or its affiliates.
Only energy costs mentioned in last week’s trading update, but a long article in today’s Sunday Times shows that all costs for pub operators are rising very sharply. Might be in the share price already, but you never know with small caps...all news, good or bad, seems to come as a big surprise.
Yes, the fish is often very well cooked. A pint of 61 Deep, or Sunbeam also goes well with it !!
Marston's have decided that the two for one brand is to be dropped at all their participating pubs. the brand had served its time and was slowly helping to push people to other outlets. A slow decline affecting staff moral. It was sad to see managers working so hard to keep faith with so many mountains to climb in recent years.
Last week my local Marston's restaurant introduced their new menu and hopefully a new beginning.
The menu has good clear choices, the specials board is gone which I would imagine is to reduce the costs and enhance the quality of the food served. There is now a much needed weekday lunch menu which is served until 4pm
We attended yesterday and had the main menu fish, no sorry, Atlantic Cod and chips and the difference in quality and presentation was there to see. At £11.50 each we thought it was a good price for such a nice meal. Followed by the Rock Road Sundae which was a very nice desert indeed at £4.75. (even better with the shareholder discount:)
The beer/lager served has always been very good and if you can find a better pint of San Miguel anywhere, I would be surprised.
The staff and new general manager and chef were on top of the game, with some nice touches and top notch niceness too.
Great to see and renewed hope for the future.
FD
Thanks for that, it is odd that the Brains pubs are not highlighted in their accounts as it does make analysis against 2019 before they were taken on very difficult.
Without being overly cynical I have to think that they are not highlighted for a reason, but of course that is only my guess.
Like the Curates Egg, good in parts.
Comparitors with 2019 pre Covid and Brain's deal, is not clear if figures for 2019 have in some way included figures for the Welsh Estate, if not current numbers are not so good.
The last 12 weeks trading although stated wet sales are ahead, numbers do not seem to reflect any impact from the Jubilee and importantly, the very good weather.
Some energy costs (Gas) are fixed and now electricty costs have been elevated even though now fixed. Many basic costs are being controlled, wage inflation seems an unknown.
The next 6 months is going to be critical, revenue from meals needs to show positive growth.
Following financing waivers agreed early 2021, it remains to be seen how increasing interest rate will impact on the balance sheet?
AIMO
Marstons
Oh ! DarkArches , I am cut to the quick to be associated with another poster !! If you can read , the gist of my post was related to how cheap Pedigree was in Morrisons, in no way promoting the shares in Marsdens !! There again perhaps you are dislectic or short sighted. Never mind aye !!
SHAPERITE=Supercharger
Supercharger, please sell so that I know it is safe to buy back in here.
Gentlemen, Seen in most Morrisons Supermarkets , bottled Pedigree at £0.99 AN ADSOLUTE BARGAIN , considering that it is a premium ale at 4.50 o/o. Fill your boots !!! On the corporate side, although it may aid cashflow it does very little for the bottom line , or indeed the price in the pubs which is circa £3.50 northwards.
See also a very encouraging set of results from Compass where HL report a doubling of underlying income. COuld help raise the sector profile as the good news continues.
Marstons can now deliver up to 10,000 pints per day by Electric lorries -savings diesel costs? Trial looks interesting as sales will increase in hot weather so they previously have reported. If in May they were meeting 97% of 2019 sales then maybe the sunnier times will help them further - Maybe we should have a further update on sales soon? GLA.
Thank you.
30% off food until 31 Jan 23
Are these still valid and if so, how much discount do we get ? Very grateful for info.
sam... anyone who buys and sells shares commits a Trade. There is a subtle difference between TRADERS and an Investor who commits to a Trade.
Traders inherently have little or no interest in the long term health of a Company, but rather seek to make a quick profit in under 1 year. LTH's have as the term infers, the fundamental business structure which will generate growth and returns to investors(Dividends). In an Economic cycle these basic investment blocks can and do fluctuate.
In more precise terms, many of us here invested on what was a good div. return, That has now disappeared and many, including me, have evaluated our investment here.
At the current SP MARS does represent a fair investment for Traders, whereas LTH's have been let down previously when a TO was on offer and consequently even though assets outstrip current SP, there must be a fear should another offer come forward the dogma that existed previously will again come to the fore.
It could be a gamble which may pay off, however each investor need to weigh up the risks on a company heavily in debt.
AIMO
@ Fairdealer. Yes, you're right. RF has a lot to answer for. No question about that.
That said, I have offloaded a fair bit of my Marston's holding at a small loss & topped up on a couple of others that I hold that I see better growth potential in. I do still have a small holding in here of 500 shares though.
I suppose we are all traders if we buy or sell a stock, but I never think of myself as a trader per se as I "trade" infrequently.
I have bought and sold MARS quite up bit through the ups and downs over the years and generally kept above water. More recently I have been convinced that the business is undervalued and have bought all the way down.
I have not done the numbers but I would thought that my averaged down entry price is now in the low 50s after the latest blocks I bought in low 40s.
If I was being rational I would say as I was over exposed now but I console myself that I have put less into MARS this year than my BP and SHEL are up.
Time will tell. Can always tell Mrs M to stop shopping at Waitrose.
sam thanks for the update, assume you have a changed strategy as your previous posts state TRADING.
BATs and IMP's obtain the majority of Tobacco income from other territories and not UK. Yes they are a good bet on Dividend alone.
Hydrogen, I believe, is going to be the energy source of the future, Shell are investing and building a huge plant in the Netherlands. I also believe hydrogen will overtake electric cars where motive power is concerned.
The Pub sector is only under valued from the return on assets employed, sales and income have been reducing for years, hence the move by many Groups into provision of Hotel space.
Location is the area where Pubs are likely to succeed.
Many of us here would wish to company return to the dividend list, alas that seems a long way off.
Some very bad decisions have been made by Marstons past Executives, the consequences of which LTH's are suffering.
As your say DYOR.
AIMO
Not a trader. I do live off my investments though.
I appreciate the sentiment on tobacco but then my BAT are 20%+ yoy and IMB about 13% plus I have had 7% Divi from them so they may be old hat but they put bread on the table and vino in the glass.
Other sin stocks - oil and booze doing pretty well too. Defence stocks zipping along.
Not sure about hydrogen hopium and windmill stocks, I still think that particular bubble as some deflating to do based on fundamentals.
So no, not puffing stocks and no double secret mates with amazing insight - I just think the whole pub sector is undervalued and will ride out the current bumps better than people think.
As always DYOR.
FD
Succinctly put.
Essentially Sam should p@ss ot get off the pot.
I am still hoping to hear from Tesla man as he always has the reverse Midas touch on this stock, but he is probably still puffing nitwits into Southrnd Airport, which was always one of his favourites !
sam you are clearly a trader, so any short term advance will suit the strategy.
It used to be the case ports of security ( Investments) were Food retailers, and Drinks. Forget Fags they are being outlawed.
Listen to who you will, those at the coal-face know better than anyone how profit and loss is affecting their business.
As I eluded earlier, and you agree, MARS is in the realms of Asset strippers. Carlsberg are only interested in the 40% of the Brewery they do not own.
Come the end of Summer many Hotels/Motels will be struggling for a variety of reasons.
The s**t will be good for your roses!!!
Always struck by the abundance of horse guano surrounding MARS . These chat forums are a great source of info from the people with the inside track from "secret" reports and their mate down the pub.
I think things will work out fine from here. I have no particular insight beyond the basic - if there is going to be a recession buy beer, fags and carbohydrates. 45p is low for this stock on a 2-3 year view, even against the sector, which is oversold.
I have added a few times as we have lurked in the low 40s. If we do hit 41p , it will be disappointing, but I fully expect to be well ahead come this time next year.
Trent as stated many times we have RF to blame for the mess the company finds it self in. Not sure Andreas is up to the monumental task of turning MARS around. There are too many uncontrolled and controlable issues facing Marstons.
40p may well be on the cards, which then puts the company into Predator zone.
Either way it show market consolidation, as such still looking at 41 as an entry point for the next 2 months
So do you think they are trying to sell all the branches to one company in one go, otherwise it could take 6 months+ to sell off the odd one here and there.
I wonder if they are already in talks with someone.