Member Info for D-Geeman

JS is still on the board so would have ample opportunity to comment if he thought things were being managed in a way he disagreed with.

It isn't over till it's over so let's see if some people don't have a vision for eve, post independence..

Dontgive, on the evidence of the increase in the bank balance you mention (I'd forgotten), CC spent more to grow the company and the balance fell again, but it should've worked had circumstances (world circumstances) not completely changed the situation for the buyers of eve products. That's where most of the problem lies, and with higher production and transport costs for eve. And if they weren't in desperate trouble, probably with higher staff costs too as inflation increases.

Would your proposals (all of them) have been enough to offset the cost-of-living-crisis generated drop in sales?

Ironically, I think sales might just be increasing again; probably far from enough to make a huge difference but maybe an extra tool in CC's negotiation kit bag.

Must be just me, but, in my opinion, eve seem to be missing their 'break-even' target announced a couple of years ago in their presentations as they aren't now selling enough 'stuff' because customers are spooked at their electricity and gas bills doubling and tripling; their cars costing 50% more to fill-up, and their groceries suddenly becoming 20% more expensive (or whatever the latest scary figure is).

I don't blame CC or TP for these occurrences. In hindsight they'd have been better off preserving more money in the bank but they (we) wanted eve to prosper and expand and that takes investment.

When CC failed to predict the covid pandemic and the benefits of higher sales for eve I did not ask her to resign or for a new BOD. That 'one' / unexpected event went our-way so we were delighted, even bought more eve shares.

I just hope that CC is working for us now and securing the best deal possible. When covid emerged I did sell my IAG (British Airways) a week before they started to decline. When Russia invaded Ukraine I wish I had been less emotionally attached to eve and sold out at what was then a modest profit. You win some and you lose some. The trouble is I have (had) a lot more invested in eve than I did in IAG.

Yanis, I was told by an accountant (dad at school gates) that the important thing to keep the tax-loss benefits is that eve is bought more-or-less as it is now, rather than broken up and bought in bits. It wouldn't matter if that was out of administration or as a PLC as long as someone buys the whole-shebang, ie. mattresses, beds and gifts (even the CBD and the hot water bottle contract)?

If one entity only bought the Sleep Away for eg. then that would mess it up for everyone else whether it is now or out of admin.

Rather than no-potential buyers it could be that eve are sticking up for themselves, and for us, which is why it's taking some time. There must have been a couple of interest expressions or that would have been a lie to the market. CC wouldn't do that when she doesn't have much skin in the game, as people have noted.

I won't lie either, and it does not look too positive for us or eve just now. (I imagine news will come on Thursday morning: family-Geeman should be airborne by 8am and I'll be unable to do a thing about it..)

Eve gone to a score of 4.0 on TP now, was 4.1 till yesterday.

I just wonder / worry why eve haven't tweeted this. Have I discovered old news, or just (very badly) got the wrong end of the stick..

I don't have a subscription but this Which test for 2022 just came out.

https://archive.ph/ztKa1

Now the result is hidden unless you're a member. I've done a bit of price matching. I could be wrong and have been in the past, but on the face of it, this could be very important for another year's sales..

Read this; note, the price of the un-named winner is *£699*.

'Top 5 boxed mattresses

Sign up to reveal
81%
BEST BUY
£699
This pocket sprung and memory foam hybrid is one of the best mattress money can buy. It provides good support whatever position you sleep in; it’s excellent at preventing the transfer of movement from one side of the bed to the other; and you can sleep safe in the knowledge that it will stand the test of time without sagging, softening or becoming less supportive.

Scroll down and the eve is.. 'Eve
Premium Hybrid Mattress

£699Lowest price (in stock)'

Next category.

'81%
BEST BUY
£461
This impressive mattress aced our tough tests. It's supportive, stable, breathable and long-lasting. It's one of our highest-scoring mattresses from this bed-in-a-box brand.'

Do a search lower down and at £461 is...

'Eve
The Original Hybrid

£461 Lowest price (in stock)'.

Next category:

'79%
BEST BUY
£549.45
This high-scoring Best Buy is durable - our tests simulate approximately 10 years of use, and this mattress was excellent. Even after years of use, it won't sag, soften or become less supportive. This mattress will provide good support if you tend to sleep on your side or your front, and you'll get great support if you sleep on your back.'

I can't find by price alone, but 4th category:

'77%
BEST BUY
£229
This simple memory foam mattress is affordable and a great Best Buy option if you usually sleep on your front or your back. It has a 7.5cm foam core and another 10cm layer of viscos foam on top. This top layer of memory foam will envelope your body, while this will help stop the transfer of movement across the bed (great news for your bed fellow) it does make it harder to turn over on.'

Seems to be the IKEA...

'Ikea is home to spring mattresses, foam mattresses and mattress toppers. One of its more popular memory foam models is the Morgedal, which costs £229 as a standard double.'

(Which implies that my search is not just finding eves within a sub group, and not overall winners - which is the important thing.)

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.evesleep.co.uk/transparency

250 last month / July 2022 (admittedly more negative than we'd like, but 155 'excellent' or 'great' so still a lot of happy customers)

And looking back (not sure negative %)

July 2021: 192 reviews
July 2020: 209 reviews (when they realised sales were going well during the pandemic – though some will have been bad of course.)

Might be down to the E4 / Channel 4 sponsorship Dave has commented on. Margins these days are tighter due to cost increases and competition. On the other hand DFS are also selling too and are the biggest bricks-and-mortar / DFS site seller by revenue. They were not selling in 2021.

Tidied up my email and sent it in to CX. There's a new and helpful auto-reply:

'If you have an issue with your delivery, you can contact the carriers directly for the fastest solution for your case.
- If your carrier is DX, please contact them Mon-Fri between 8 am - 5 pm on 0xxx2 411172
- If your carrier is DPD please contact them Mon-Fri: 8 am-6:30 pm Sat: 8 am-4 pm on 0xx1 275 0500. You can also chat with them here - https://www.dpd.co.uk/content/how-can-we-help/contact.jsp
- If your carrier is Hermes, please contact them Mon-Fri 8 am - 7 pm on 0xx0 333 6556'

Please just Rec the previous message if you get the same thing happen. (Couple of Recs and I'll write to eve).

Self explanatory:

'Hi eve,

Just an observation with eve mattresses art Argos.

Going to the Argos site and searching ‘eve sleep’ brings up https://www.argos.co.uk/search/eve-sleep/?clickOrigin=searchbar:home:term:eve+sleep just 5 products and no double mattresses. I actually thought that Argos was focussing on singles.

However, I just found a double mattress by accident. https://www.argos.co.uk/product/2017242

Maybe there are more?

Might it be worth contacting Argos to request they improve their searches on their site?'

Jersey, good luck with your eve investment and I'd be delighted if you can 'bag' with your £200 :)

Bickering? Most people are fine and jus want eve to do well, or point out genuine problems so at least we know where we stand. (Filter deals with any other problems and allows a good restful sleep which is what eve would want.)

The mattresses are good so maybe try one at some point.

Or maybe it's only here nowadays, not in gifts: https://www.wellsleptbyeve.com/collections/cbd-oil-for-sleep

I don't seem to be able to locate any CBD on the site now. Not in 'gifts' anyway.

Wasn't selling, or can't get it from the suppliers any longer? Or eve just decided 'not their thing' after all.

(Or it will return as if nothing had happened.)

MHL, I agree, current form won't work. That's why I don't think 'more money' is the answer. But as part of a bigger group there could be lots of cost savings. Eve has revenue, it's just that the costs are greater than the revenue at the moment. Strip out the office and management team (you don't need two management teams, two lots of PLC costs) and 'hey presto'??

'in August
(Possibly next week ahem ahem) '

One of Sujood's predictions is finally true. August is indeed next week.

(Sorry, just couldn't resist it)

Ci, going back to your earlier post. I am sceptical about private equity (or someone investing in the existing eve set-up) as they would just carry on making a loss with eve, which isn't very attractive in a business sense. But eve could be profitable pretty quickly if bought by a bigger company, a company with an existing team with enough slack to run eve too, and an office to house them in already. All the separate costs of running eve sleep PLC would disappear under the umbrella of the new owner's own PLC costs. If a buyer were not that far from London they could offer existing staff jobs too, and I don't think they'd have to pay redundancy if eve people decide not to take a reasonable job offer.

It's been said that rivals might rather eve just die and so take a bigger market share themselves, having one less competitor. Someone not already in the mattress manufacturing market wouldn't think like that; they'd see eve as an off-the-shelf (I hate the term 'oven-ready' now) way to expand into a new market (for them) and make a profit at the same time.

Why wouldn't someone buy eve? It actually makes more sense to buy it (hopefully before admin rather than after) than let it go down the plug hole. The market does usually take an opportunity when it arises.

Eve are planning (hoping..) to be speaking at this event on October 13th.

https://channelx.world/2022/07/meet-ms-karl-lagerfeld-lk-bennett-eve-sleep-at-channelx-world

(Incidentally, with 3 days to go in July, 213 TP reviews, and more positive ones than last month. It doesn't harm eve's cause that there are more reviews than some months before the cost of living crisis got going.)

Wyn, whilst the sp is down to almost historic lows and I know you read a lot into the sp, since the FSP was announced eve are actually up on recent times, according to the French site I take a look at. The only caveats are that they do sometimes have different closing prices to HL and I'm not certain I understand their displayed info completely.

https://www.boursorama.com/cours/1uEVE.L/

1 week +9.14% High 0.93 Low 0.88
1 month +31.72% High 1.20 Low 0.63

If eve are generally 'up' on news that the FSP is underway (I appreciate that eve are volatile and down this morning, as I write) then that has to be a relatively good sign of market reaction?

"When I picked it up, Marmite was in terminal decline." – CC.

I shall go and have some marmite on toast right now. That's the genius of CC – and she hasn't even worked for them for years.