Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
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Possibly the most important half year results release in MKS's history. The numbers will be one thing but the tone, outlook and appetite for further revolutionary change within the organisation will be very telling.
Yes, thank you Valueplay, I appreciate that.
When I invest in any company, I look at the management first - personally, after many years of getting it wrong I do think that the board of M&S appreciate what they have to do to turn things around and have every confidence that they will do so.
M&S will look a very different company in five years time when I will consider selling my investment.
My sentiment is honest and reearched. I've been clear about it for a long time. My views have tallied with the decline in MKS share price. For me more, quicker change is necessary at MKS. Always open to changing my views and the upcoming results give opportunity for MKS management to show they understand the issues and have what it takes to turn things around.
In hindsight investing in M&S over the summer was a mistake - it would have been better to wait till later in the year - but that doesn't mean that the company isn't worth investing in, there is plenty of upside to come here when covid is behind us.
The second wave has come much quicker than expected, before there is even enough vaccine available for health workers, the elderly and vulnerable - now we must pay the price.
Well don’t leave it too long to revisit. It would be nice to see some more positive sentiment from you on here.
M&S seem to have fully developed their click and collect service now - I checked and there is lots of capacity still for Christmas - with the absence of availability at Ocado this could be very important for perishables over the Christmas period.
Customer will find a way to get their Christmas groceries, so I think that we can be confident that food sales will hold up well this Christmas and if Restaurants are closed it could be a bumper Christmas for M&S as the countries top end grocer.
I see there is much to do until MKS turns around. Ocado JV was a big step in the right direction after many, many years of underinvestment in the online channel.
There is still a lot to do for MKS. It is getting to be a fitter company but the pandemic is causing rapid costs and changes in the industry that punish those that are behind the curve.
Still watching attentively from the sidelines. Not seeing value currently. As it dips I will revisit the investment case
Oh come on Valueplay, even you (the most negative M&S poster on here) must see this is finally, after all the years of promises a turn around story. The new large out of town food stores are popping up everywhere, online presence has changed in a matter of months even the clothing they stock is being altered to include unique and exciting eco brands.
You and I know that the city is just a group of traders and those traders tend to change their trading decisions quite quickly as soon as one of the trading houses they work for legitimises M&S is on the right path, then the share price follows.
For you, surely you must be thinking of going long M&S, appreciate you might be bottom feeding, waiting to see what else the pandemic will throw at the world but M&S will get through this and it can only be a better company given all the initiatives it’s taken this year.
The JV has been a fantastic investment for MKS. The success and capacity figures of the JV have been released by Ocado in their last trading statement. The city know that's and have priced this into MKS's shares.
The big drag is the other side of MKS's business which will be hit hard by the new lockdown. Non essential sales of course will be hit but also generally MKS food stores are not the large ones that the public prefer to frequent in a lockdown so that they can get all their shopping done in one go. Online operations at MKS (not including the JV) still lag competitors currently.
And let’s not forget castle donington - food and retail online- tick
https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/people/mands-adds-staff-at-castle-donington-dc-to-cope-with-digital-christmas/649726.article
And what a great position to be in. To go from almost no food deliveries in August to an oversubscribed service in September which looks set to be the case throughout the season. Plus a number of home and retail items are also available through the same service. It’s quite unbelievable how different the company is now compared to March.
The big constraint in your comments Trojanhorse is capacity. The Ocado/MKS joint venture is already at maximum capacity. They may find a few extra delivery slots but Ocado have already stated that Ocado retail are working at max capacity with no more warehouse capacity increase available this year.
If there was excess capacity then the new national lockdown would present a huge opportunity for the JV.
Depends how you look at it, with Ocado and a much better online presence there is opportunity from a potential ‘non-essential shop’ closure scenario.
Take Waitrose half year 2020 results as an example they said ‘like-for-like sales were up almost 10% on last year. The early days of stockpiling pasta and long life milk have given way to a varied basket with more fresh produce and a return to the weekly shop. Demand for online shopping remains strong and we are now delivering around 170,000 weekly orders, up from around 60,000 before the pandemic. The average basket size is four times bigger for home deliveries than in store.’
Given the more luxurious Christmas food is now being sold this could maximise the value of the Ocado/M&S JV.
I have 2 town centre retail shops and we've been lucky that we've had a record 4 months trading since lockdown at both locations and thankfully we've been doing quite a bit of early Christmas trading for the last few weeks. Unfortunately we have no online business to keep us ticking over during a lockdown. For me it would be ideal if we could have clarity on the current situation, give an indication on full lockdown possibility and some notice to give people a last chance to get some Christmas shopping in from smaller independent businesses like my own then I'd be happy for a long Christmas break with my daughter!
Personally I think lockdown is inevitable and we have stocked our shops accordingly, I just think lockdown needs to be held off till closer to main Flu season months and the rest of the UK is at a similar position to where we are up north
Flu season is December to March, so go too early with a second lockdown and we'd soon be back in a third
True. There will be a knock to MKS profits from the extended lockdown though if it is announced.
Its a shame Next aren't a supermarket too! Next also upgraded their expected profit with an increase on full price and sale price sales compared to same quarter last year
If you look at Nexts trading statement released this week it sets out the lockdown scenarios and how they would hit sales. Their worst case scenario (see table in trading statement) was for a 2 week shop lockdown. They forecast this would cause a 20% hit to fully priced sales at a cost of £57m. A month lockdown is double this projected impact
https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/NXT/trading-statement-eghazk3d2h8wx58.html
Yes, it looks almost certain now - Schools, Universities and Colleges to stay open - time to start planning again.
I don't see it happening so soon but it will definitely come, too much pressure. Doomed if he does doomed if he doesn't.
I'm from the North West and we've been high in top 10 ever since the first lockdown with restrictions in place for months and everyone's been coping just fine. The south are well behind the levels we're at so I imagine govt will let them catch us up first and continue to try and slow the spread with the tier system then hit us with the national lockdown. Either way the media will keep scaremongering and will get it right eventually
The Times is reporting speculation that a month long national lockdown including closing non essential shops could start next week.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/national-lockdown-looms-8mphnk5h9