Member Info for skier1

It all comes down to British shareholder culture. UK pension funds, analysts, civil servants, and financial journalists, who hold the power, all seem more than happy to over-reward failure -- as long as the dividends or foreign takeovers keep rolling in.

Your chances of "boosting UK manufacturing" are basically zero. UK energy costs are way too high to run a big factory, the management class is not skilled enough to scale up output, while workers remain badly under-educated or under-trained. Not to mention good old snobbery -- nobody wants to work in a grubby, cold factory. UK manufacturing is only going one way... down.

Theo

People like being fat. Gorging on junk food and drink is highly pleasurable. And don't forget the "obesity paradox". The world is getting fatter -- but we are living longer. Being fat is not as bad as we think.

The UK has one of the most oppressive tax regimes in the world. Some folks are losing more than half their wages to the vampire state. Time to reverse that communist creep and give people their own money back. Kwarteng is off to a good start.

Great news for those with an offset mortgage. You're effectively now getting 4-9% gross interest rates on six- or seven-figure savings.

The NHS has more than enough funding. It is now one of the top-10 most heavily funded public health services on all of planet Earth.

Good to see Truss lowering taxes and giving people their own money back.

Surprised there is not more chatter here. The Tories on Friday are about to unleash one of the most housing-friendly budgets of all time.

Yes, TSCO stock has cyclically plunged -60% in the past 15 years...

"...Lizz Truss admits US-UK free trade deal is out of reach, and now looks a very distant prospect"...

The UK today has a longterm trade *surplus* with the US. The last thing we need is a "trade deal" with the US, where it bullies the UK into a heavily one-sided deal. This delay is great news.

EV

Yes, some incredibly lazy people out there.

Opening a new saver account, to jump from 0.2% to 2-4% interest (free money), now takes about the same time as making a cuppa tea.

Modern retailing is so barrier-free and ultra-crowded, it all comes down to "productivity". Those managers who can squeeze the most revenue or profit from the least footprint are (and will be) the winners. There is no space for inefficiency.

Everyone moans about Cadbury, but its UK chocolate marketshare has actually gone up since Mondelez US took over, as has profit. By reducing (expensive) chocolate costs, and locking in shelf-space at retailers, Cadbury is in perhaps its strongest ever UK position.

Meanwhile, Aldi and Lidl are the kings of retail productivity. Their sales-per-square-foot are 10-30% higher than all the other UK-owned supermarkets, including Tesco. Their tight stores, tight product lines, tight car parks, no wasteful e-shopping, and tax-lite corporate structure are a masterclass in German efficiency. They are crushing the British supermarkets -- slowly but surely.

"...As the bank [Lloyds] is offering loyal savings customers just 0.2% interest on savings, annualised interest expense for the bank is just £500m on those almost half trillion pounds of customer deposits"...

The ignorance of UK savers is quite astonishing. Lloyds' customers alone are missing out on £10-15 billion of free money (interest) every 12 months. That's enough "lost money" to bump up the entire UK GDP by nearly +1%. From just one bank! Quite astonishing.

MV

The 1960s were the very last blast of empire. The pound then was no.2 in the world.

The pound today remains the world's 4th most important currency in 2022 -- but for how much longer remains to be seen. UK exports are collapsing, almost every major business sector is in steep decline, while Britain has not created a single big new company since the last century. The outlook for the pound (versus the dollar) is bleak.

Quite astonishing to watch the collapse of the pound against the dollar.

£1...
1870 = $10
1930 = $5
2007 = $2
2022 = $1

"...It is a long hold in my opinion"...

If THG shares rebound from here, and grow at the same average growth rate as the benchmark FTSE100 index this century, then it will take approximately 700 years and 3000AD for THG to return to its former peak...

Maestro

Yes, those bidders at 170p dodged a bullet there.

Forecasted THG sales are down, forecasted profits are down, costs are much higher than expected, while punters are dumping the shares faster than a Tory tax promise.

Lot of folks in denial here! Demand is slowing, costs are rocketing, profits are plunging, and the share price has collapsed an astonishing -95% in ~18 months. Momentum here is ultra-bearish. Very little, if any, good news on the horizon.

Sounds like some folks are in denial...

Pretty much all UK supermarket brands are in steep, steep decline.

Only the German and American brands are in steep growth.

The trends are clear.

We are witnessing the end of the UK supermarket industry.

Think British Leyland and Rover in the 1980s.

Great to see positivity from Iron Liz. Queen Liz would be proud.

NI tax down. Corporation tax down. Energy prices down. Rumours of business rates, VAT, and income tax also coming down.

Give the people back their own money. Stop the communist state creep. Bring back the positive feelgood factor. Win the 2024 election.

Sounds like wishful thinking...

Aldi and Lidl today already deliver 10-30% more revenue per sq-ft than Tesco -- the German shops are significantly better managed.

Tesco's overseas expansion is in reverse, its UK online business is largely a flop, and its UK grocery marketshare has already slumped from 33% to 27% in the past few years.

Once Morrisons are well in the rear-view mirror, Aldi and Lidl will take aim at Asda, then Sainsbury's, then Tesco. They are taking down the British supermarkets, one by one. It wouldn't be a surprise, at all, to see Tesco's UK grocery share down to the 15-25% range by 2030.

Tesco has bigger fish to fry than a few rubbish self-service tills.

The Germans (Aldi and Lidl) and Americans (Amazon) are terminating the UK supermarket industry -- like they crushed the UK car industry in the 1970s. With higher productivity, better quality, and lower costs. Death by a thousand cuts.

Morrisons is on the way out, like the old Gateway supermarkets. Waitrose has started to freefall, due to ridiculous prices. Asda has uncontrollable debt. Ocado burns cash like a furnace. Sainsbury's is trapped in no-man's land, neither cheap nor premium. Tesco has overpriced cornershops and oversized supermarkets.

The future for all UK supermarket firms thru 2030 is very bleak.