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Its worth revisiting some of these trends to see just why food companies bought into the idea, Jim Cramer was a big advocate back in 2020.

Jim Cramer: 'Going against Beyond Meat is going against history'

CNBC Television

https://youtu.be/Vtc8xpTVMqI

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Ai summary

As of March 17, 2026, Beyond Meat (BYND) shares are trading around $0.76 - $0.80, reflecting a significant decline of roughly 99% from their 2019 IPO'

Whats intriguing about the announcement, is earlier in the year Glanbia sighted more supply coming online towards the end of 2025, clearly this wasn't enough as there was no mention of the new plant at the time.

Many of the articles around new processing plants hint at a reluctance by manufactures to invest as these trends seldom last, also many still hurting from the whole vegan 'beyond meat' movement (see share price).

History suggests the above is probably prudent as there are no enduring food trends beyond traditional consumption, beef and meat is a good example with prices close or near to all time highs despite the vegan initiatives .

£3m trade at 465p delayed..

Missed this first time around, these announcements tend to be low key - note when due to come online.

This is what a 25-30% increase to an already massive plant

From LinkedIn

The plant processes over 5 billion pounds of milk annually, producing over 588 million pounds of premium block cheese as well as over 37 million pounds of whey protein powders each year. Glanbia recently announced an expansion at Southwest Cheese, with an additional capacity of 10 million pounds of whey protein isolate to come onstream by mid-2027.

Main press release

https://www.glanbia.com/news/celebrating-20-years-southwest-cheese

Couldn't help but notice some of the media reports recently, FT apparently reporting Twitter/xAi has fired more staff for coding too slowly, I kid you not what happened to Ai replacing coders ..??

On top of that Musk has announced the xAi platform needs to be rebuilt, no doubt we can hand this task to Ai and have it done by the end of next week..

Tesla robo taxi is scheduled for launch in April but is far short of the vehicle miles needed to obtain a safety certificate..

Microsoft has announced a full restructuring of its Co pilot Ai division following poor uptake with only around 3% of Office commercial users adopting a subscription.

'About 3% of commercial users with Office productivity software subscriptions have access to the Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on.'

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/17/microsoft-copilot-ai-suleyman.html

If you take off the treasury shares RMV now has less than 750m share in issue, that's doesn't seem like a lot for a FTSE company (although I don't know what the average is).

With daily volumes, share buy backs represent anything from 30 - 50% of the volume.

From recent results:

''Dr Dan Eldar, Non-executive Chairman of HUTCHMED, said, "Our team's expertise in the science of creating novel medicines, enhanced by advanced AI tools, positions HUTCHMED as a leader in advancing new modalities. Leveraging this leadership, we actively continue to explore new technologies, assets and targets to complement our portfolio, ready to make good use of our strong balance sheet.''

SCMP:

Hong Kong attracts wave of biotech IPO filings amid AI drug research boom

More than 10 pre-profit drug developers are seeking Hong Kong listings as AI-powered biotech platforms draw growing investor interest

https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3346710/hong-kong-attracts-wave-biotech-ipo-filings-amid-ai-drug-boom?

Couple of paragraphs which relate directly to your question, from the Cautionary Statement:

'By their nature, forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions and actual results or events may differ materially from those expressed or implied by those statements. Accordingly, no assurance can be given that any particular expectation will be met and reliance should not be placed on any forward-looking statement. Additionally, forward-looking statements regarding past trends or activities should not be taken as a representation that such trends or activities will continue in the future.

No responsibility or obligation is accepted to update or revise any forward-looking statement resulting from new information, future events or otherwise.

Nothing in this announcement should be construed as a profit forecast. '

I think we have to be realistic and accept that at least some of these points have to unwind, if we take whey and FX pricing (as these are easy to monitor) this is what Matt said during Jan Q4 TU:

'' I think the math we did around Q3 was GBP 65 million of annual profitability has been temporarily taken from us since the IPO date just because of whey pricing''

THG's balance sheet would look totally different just on this one item alone.

Using 2024 figures - Rest of World - revenue and attribute a guesstimate of £100m for Asia Yen denominated income, less 28% v IPO FX rate - that's another £28m gone from annual net profit.

'THG has been affected more than most have they not'

Absolutely, THG was highly geared ready to build on the whole Covid thing of online shopping, part of that gearing related to automated fulfilment centres using robots (Autostore) - this upfront investment was CAPEX heavy but was okay while money was cheap and Covid quarantine was still on everyone's minds, things however didn't continue on that path and debt heavy companies were subsequently seen as a liability.

Listed companies make statements based on the best information available at the time, it is part of an investors job to assess how future news flow impacts projections made in those statements, this is highlighted under the 'Cautionary' notes with each release.

VAT rebate = pay off debt, lower gearing

Companies that come out the other end of these cycles are generally a lot leaner and sharper, I put THG firmly into that category with more automation and a much reduced headcount.

Timescales, its impossible to say but cycles are called cycles for a reason, its the timing that's the tricky bit ..: )

(add in Increased National Insurance contributions to list below)

This is a general list of events during/since Covid that have helped shaped markets, probably missed off a few but have a think back and ask if you would have been able to forecast any of these in advance.

# Covid, governments started printing money,shopping online was the only way for a long period of time, THG siezed the moment and IPO'd

'The Hut Group shares soar 30% after bumper $7 billion London IPO, Updated Wed, Sep 16 20208:04 AM EDT'

# Russia invades Ukraine sending shock waves through the market

# Inflation takes hold prompting central banks to increase rates

# interest rates rise to decade highs

# GBP gains over major currencies, Yen drops by 28% against GBP over a five year period

# GLP and other weight reduction jabs hit the market leading to unprecedented demand for whey protein related anything

# Trump Tariffs, market voltility

# War in Middle East leading to higher inflation, fuel costs and interest rates

This is another reason why online is still the place to be for growth, see chart 3/4 way down page.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15645971

Any ideas whats going on with currencies, sharp moves in last few hours..

JPY to GBP Chart

https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=JPY&to=GBP&view=1W

EUR to GBP Chart

https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=EUR&to=GBP&view=1W

HHR, you are not wrong, the amount of turmoil during the last five years has been off the scale.

As investors we tend to focus on the share price and our portfolios which is mostly what we have access to but if you look from the CEO's perspective its just one chaotic event after another.

These events come out of no where (long list starting with Covid) and we expect the company we are invested in to navigate its way through, this is why i think its important to support management and recognise the hurdles they face.

Its almost inevitable markets are heading for a a cash crunch (see Blue Owl posts S4), without THG's refinancing we would be in a far worse position than we are now..

There's the jump in EU whey prices for cash market, futures picked this up a week or two ago..

https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/document/download/413a6600-3082-4a9a-82a0-b9f6048b5449_en

Pound weakening against major currencies:

https://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=GBP&view=1M

...maybe not a bad place to be after all..

Eli Lilly boosts China footprint with US$3 billion plan to expand supply chain

https://sc.mp/ttrjt?utm_source=copy-link&utm_campaign=3346260&utm_medium=share_widget

China’s drug and medical device sector emerges as new engine of economic growth

China’s pharmaceutical industry surges on ageing demand and global expansion, with revenue forecast to top US$2.1 trillion by 2030

https://sc.mp/y7vme?utm_source=copy-link&utm_campaign=3340333&utm_medium=share_widget

No, it not ..if that were correct it would apply to all companies that have dropped, S4 has had a greater fall from grace and whilst there is is the odd comment most understand things have changed.

Since posting maybe 18 months ago, iShares has dropped their CD exposure from c 14/15% to just over 9%, in money terms that represents over $9.1b of stock sales - this is just one fund (holds THG).

The fund has a market cap of $92b based in the USA, do you think they know who Matt is and follow his Linkedin posts ?

It looks like there's going to be a cash crunch as private equity is under increasing pressure, this may give way to buying opportunities for cash rich companies like HCM..

Interested to track volumes on HK to see how this balances out with recent fund purchases/ short position reductions.

As of 27th Feb, down to c 44.7 in HK, think the high was around 56m but need to check back..

Whatever happens it will be Matts fault, that's all posters do, look at the share price then blame CEO regardless of world events.

Its put a dampener on early interest rate cuts due to rising inflation imo..

Blue Owl mentioned many times as being the canary (poor canary) in the coal mine, private credit money flows..

Morgan Stanley Private Credit Fund Caps Withdrawals. More Trouble for Blue Owl Stock, Ares.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/morgan-stanley-private-credit-stock-price-blue-owl-3e6f69bb

Most of the data centres certainly in the US run off fossil fuels, gas being the largest globally -

Even before the rise in oil the Ai data centre model was unworkable, expecting more cancellations and unwinding of deals.