Member Info for lordloadsoflolly

Main takeaways below from my 2nd April store visit.

Many thanks again to H&T's CEO, Executive PA, Southern Regional Director, Area Manager, Store Manager & Team for organising/hosting.

SOUTH EAST ENGLAND STORE:

Narrow frontage, close to bus stop & shopping centre entrance

Windows featured mostly ladies silver & gold jewellery on colour-coded displays, merchandised by carat

Also a small selection of mens jewellery, watches & gold coins

Inside counters of new & pre-owned silver & gold jewellery, priced from £10 to several £100s

Staffed counters (similar to a bank/building society) towards the rear

Six staff at peak, with a mixture of FTE & PTE

Entrance decorated with corporate-colour balloons, creating a fun, welcoming atmosphere

Customers almost the entire time I was there (best part of 2 hours on a Wednesday afternoon)

Sunday trading trialled but discontinued at this particular store, except during peak Nov & Dec period

LIKE FOR LIKE SALES:

Up since 31 Dec 2024 across all 14? stores in the area

This generally seemed to mirror the current trend at H&T nationwide

PLEDGE BOOK:

Small business loans are growing, often with the same item being pledged & redeemed multiple times

Typical users included builders, tradesmen & hospitality business owners

Store's individual customers included high concentration of Asians, many buying/pledging 22k gold jewellery

CUSTOMER ATTRACTION & RETENTION:

Community events held to recruit new customers & encourage repeats

Flyers, promoting preferential forex rates & explaining other services offered

Existing opt-in customers periodically contacted & incentivised to re-visit

EPOS TILLS & IT SYSTEM:

Online sales are growing in proportion, with Click & View in your local store proving particularly popular

EVO Point of Sale system - phase 2 currently being rolled out: A customised system, streamlining different transactions including purchases, forex, pledge lending etc.

Advantages: faster, easier customer journey in-store. Better data gathering to improve marketing & stock allocation

New releases are coded by a mix of in-house & overseas programmers, then gradually rolled out for testing & debugging, starting with "super users". This has led to smooth integration with very few issues experienced to date

STAFF:

Store felt welcoming with attentive staff

High employee retention & loyalty here, but also more widely across the group

Regional Director & Area Manager both 20+ years' service. Store manager 8+ years

Long service events to thank & reward staff, along with bonus/share option schemes & a generous staff discount

Stores in this area had regular area/regional comms & visits & could make video calls to Head Office

CONCLUSIONS:

Having worked in retail, I was greatly reassured by my visit

Regional sales remain buoyant; group sales appear equally robust

The company is ambitious, but store estate growth remains controlled

Increasingly customised systems are tested & rolle

Morri940 - guess you could ask yourself your own question....

Pebsi - your "might take a few years" comment doesn't quite sit with Tim's "2025 is the year of delivery".

I know which I'd put my money on though.

As for GoldGirl's "Let's aim for a finish over 3p". Well yes, we can always aim for that. Or any other random figure you pluck out of the air. May happen, may not. Personally I'm not that interested in day to day finish prices - it's the long term trend that counts.

A part/full sale or IPO of their Taiwanese subsidiary could significantly improve sentiment though.

Worya - have to say, I think your maiden post here was treated rather harshly. So welcome to the board!

Maybe others are wary when someone new pops up almost a year after the company has floated and comments on the drifting share price.

But facts are facts. This has not yet rocketed as most predicted and you shouldn’t be shot down in flames just for pointing that out. That said, if you turn out to be a serial deramper, constantly casting doubt & looking only for the negatives, you’ll be in for a hard time! I sense that’s not what you’re about though.

FWIW, I suspect we’re nearer this year’s low than high right now. But this is AIM, small caps are generally unloved at the moment & with Trump wielding global havoc, anything could happen.

Friedmann - afraid I fundamentally disagree.

Think you’ll find SBTX has diluted over the years. Also, Opti - being a major holder - couldn’t possibly obtain anything like full market price, had it kept its full original SBTX holding & now decided to offload it all. So your £32m figure is utterly bogus.

Admittedly, with the benefit of hindsight, Opti hasn’t always timed its SBTX sales well. Nor used all the proceeds wisely. But there are signs things are progressing now. So to conclude Opti has invested all the sale proceeds to no avail would be premature & probably wrong.

Particularly if Sweetbiotix eventually comes onstream.

Cheapsharesboy - the price isn’t up because the company is heavily loss-making, with decreasing sales in recent years and liquidity concerns.

3LittleBirds - Thanks - I enjoy your posts too.

Most of my time on this & other boards seems to be spent calling out some of the more preposterous nonsense.

Doesn't make me universally popular, but at least I feel better for it!

Despite your kind words, I have to confess I don't always listen & have filtered a few serial numpties here & elsewhere. But I do try to see both sides of the argument and enjoy occasionally playing devil's advocate. It's rare for one person to have all the answers IMHO and there's always a danger of confirmation bias with any chat board.

UserSteve - dunno, but it's definitely been screwed by Cliff.

Yes, wishing you all the best ilovesushi.

GoldGirl - you say "I know we have backed a winner here".

You DON'T know that. You may THINK or HOPE it, but you can't KNOW it.

That's why I keep calling you out. Any true scientist wouldn't let emotions & feelings cloud the evidence & influence their conclusions. Nor would they necessarily take everything the CEO says at face value, particularly given his track record here & elsewhere.

3LB - careful. You might have just fired the starting gun on the 3LittleBirds shooting season.

I very much doubt Trump's figures are accurate, though I agree with your sentiment about some of the EU "bigwigs". Donald's hardly renowned for being heavily into facts, let alone detail.

No doubt Remainers will gloss over the fact our punishment would have been doubled without Brexit.

Oh no - that's probably put a target on my back now too.

2reincarnated - same prescription for you then.

Friedmann & Belgrano - sure, but how would Opti have funded itself without part-selling SBTX?

Answer, via multiple placings which would also have clobbered the share price.

The real problem here has been sales growing nothing like as quickly as anticipated. And therefore not covering the considerable overheads.

This finally looks to be changing a bit now though, with Morepen & Nouri matching/exceeding initial forecasts.

Sandyman - keep taking the tablets.

3LB - I wouldn’t set TOO much store by the tariff & tax figures displayed on Trump’s bizarre score card yesterday.

Looked more like he was pitching to be the next Eurovision Song Contest host. Which might be quite entertaining thinking about it:

“I’m awarding you all a beautiful fat zero for ripping off the US of A all these years”.

Wildbunch - thanks for your post. Did Tim have anything useful to say during your call. Or was it just more of the same “we’re on the cusp of an imminent deal, nudgy nudgy” guff?

Oh wait, you don’t think Tim could actually be ….. drumroll please, ladies & gents ….. TIGGER in disguise, do you?

GoldGirl is to scientist as Trump is to brain surgeon.

Dusterinmong - I know, but life wouldn’t be the same without Tigger’s “city chum inside track nudge nudge” nonsense.

That said, he has just told me to “Put that in your pipe and smoke it Old chap ..”, which I thought was a tad ungrateful, particularly in light of all the support I’ve given. Nudgy nudgy, fudgy offy.

TotalWealth - it definitely IS the case. That’s why I included a link to the FCA’s handbook.

Tigger - I'm GUTTED you're deserting this sinking ship.

Always had you down as the Captain, manning the lifeboats & seeing every passenger safely to shore.

Presumably when your city chums called Immupharma "The Titanic", you mistook it for Titanium & assumed it must be hugely valuable.

Nudgy nudgy, sinky winky.