RE: Production10 Jun 2022 17:36
Back in February 2022, The Sunday Times's Sabah Meddings thought ProCook would be able to overcome workers' return to offices and restaurants and that its decision to pull its range of cooking ware from Amazon.com would pay off.
To back up her case, she pointed to the company's latest trading update, which revealed a near 35% jump in sales versus a year ago with same store sales up by more than half over the past two years, if the third lockdown of 2020-21, when it stores were shut, is stripped out. Online sales did fall by 7% over the 12 weeks ending on 9 January, but repeat purchases rose by 27.3% after its shift away from Amazon.com.
And while workers return to offices and restaurants might drag on sales, rising energy bills and food prices could possibly encourage consumers to trade down, she said. Another potential headwind were rising shipping costs.
And while the company faced competition at the lower end of the market from supermarkets and discounters its cookware was cheaper than alternatives from John Lewis and Le Creuset, a third less expensive in the case of the latter.
Hence, said Meddings, the shares were a 'buy' at 140p...oh dear, how wrong can you be?