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On the face of it that’s true. It keeps ticking up but then winds down, maybe I should dial up my broker and see if that’s the case?
I’ll second that. Although they’re cheap when it comes to motor insurance it’s a nightmare if you actually want to speak with someone. You can change stuff online but I hope and pray I never have to make a claim!
Was allotted 2,500 by HL, applied for 2,900. Received 2,766 so reasonably happy with that.
Long term hold along with UKW
Pull down the shutters surely?
We have a Bon Marche and an M &Co on the same parade, neither is ever busy. My wife hasn’t bought anything from either for months, thank goodness!
An email popped into my inbox yesterday with a code for a £5 voucher to be spent on food or drink in my local GKN pub.
Completely unasked for and it got me wondering. Is this a clever ploy to get me in there and go on to spend more or is it a sign of desperation that sales are not what they should be?
I’ve posted before about the 2 for 1 deals on prosecco and Peroni between 5pm and 7pm and my poor opinion of it. As soon as the offer ends the 2 for 1 tarts decamp in search of cheap drinks elsewhere ( Wetherspoons)
My local is certainly not as busy as it should be, in part due to some hefty price rises( Old Rosie cider going up 50p a pint overnight, cask beers up by 30-40p ) and with the fall off in trade, a noticeable drop in the quality of the cask ale.
This is a pub with 10 hand pumps but I fear for not much longer.
Their area manager for the Northwest is a young lady in her twenties who has admitted she has “no idea about cask beer” Is this a company you would feel confident investing in? You may see 450p a share sooner than you think
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Any firm with exposure to PFI contracts are getting a kicking, JLIF down sharply too. I�ve got holdings in both, the bad news keeps on coming
At my local, they have this 2 for 1 offer on prosecco between 4pm and 7pm. Result, the place is busy with loads of women with multiple glasses of the fizz in front of them. Alas there is little or no room for ale drinkers. However, on the stroke of 7pm the tills revert back to the normal price and they sup up and disappear into the night. This alters the trading pattern , later in the evening the place is empty. Doesn�t make sense to me but then you are what you drink and I�m a bitter man
Had a look in several of their shops in the run up to,Xmas, same story every time, long queues snaking back down the aisles. This wasn�t because they were being mobbed, there just wasn�t enough staff on the tills. For example their Fishergate Centre store in Preston,, prime location, huge passing trade, four checkouts, only one manned by two teenagers. Result ,long queues, customers abandoning their potential purchases and going elsewhere, fed up waiting . I saw this times. This suggests to me that they are trying to reduce the wage bill by cutting back on staff. Not once did I see anybody that looked in charge. At the busiest time of year this is totally the wrong strategy. When you consider the margins on greetings cards this is a bad , mad decision by someone. Rant over.
Yes, the yield is excellent but is that the pay off for being in the hurricane zone. You only have to look how many near misses Barbados has got away with over the last 50-60 years. One day its luck will run out. That 8% yield will shrink pretty fast when its properties are shut for repairs coming up to the crucial winter trading period. I stayed at The House 3 years ago, although the rooms were nice all the public areas especially around the pool were very tired, perhaps they�ve had a makeover since? Daphne�s is overrated and overpriced but then again most Barbadian restaurants are the same.
Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity, cash is reality!! Wetherspoons seems to be the classic case of having to work harder for less. I agree with Turnpan that to see a packed 'spoons gives the impression that everything is hunky dory but this can be misleading. My two local outlets have waned in the last year, lots of food being sent back and poor service at the bar. Staff numbers have been pared back leading to punters getting fed up waiting ten minutes to be served and going elsewhere. It's not rocket science!
I remember the scenes in Cleveleys well, there used to be coach trips down from Scotland to shop there then go through the lights. The most asked question at the tourist information office was which way is B&Ms? Amazing to think they have over 480 stores now and have even branched out into Germany.. Of course there is a lot more competition now, I personally think that Home Bargains are better although they don't stock the range that B&M do. Getting back on topic, do you think Wetherspoons are approaching saturation point with their openings? When you see some of the smaller towns they are resorting to open up in it makes you wonder what's next. Ireland would be a logical move but the beer market there is dominated by stout and I think Guinness would be reluctant to supply a discounter. I would have thought that they would sweat their current assets but the increase in the minimum wage and overheads such as electricity and rents is working against them. Their USP is cheapness but to maintain that advantage over their rivals then logically margins will suffer. Will the market judge them to be an ex-growth company?
Is it a B&M Bargains reference?
I'm no fan of the Trawl Boat, the ale is served far too cold.The Railway in Lytham itself is better but still not in the Premier League. However just around the corner from the Trawl Boat, on Park St, the. first micro pub for the area is due to open on the 28th of November so could be interesting? Fifteens in St Annes is very good too. Was surprised to learn that The Auctioneer in South Shore is amongst the 34 pubs that Wetherspoons are offloading. Can't see some of the locals making it to the Velvet Coaster in January. I always thought it was a busy outlet although it's not huge. You are going to have to give me a bit more of a clue regarding your poser, a bit too cryptic for me!
Believe it or not, my brother and I opened a discount supermarket in the that building in the late 'nineties before selling it on. I think it ran in a similar vein until it closed and lay empty for a while before Wetherspoons spent over £6 million on it. I slipped over from where I live in Lytham to have a look and was amazed at how they have used the space. We used the upstairs area as a warehouse and they have created that fantastic flight of stairs in the middle of the pub to access it. You are right about the staff,CC, really on the ball. The Stonegate pub is on the same road as you walk down to the traffic lights. While in Darwen a visit to Number 39 on Bridge Street is recommended. It's the brewery tap for the local Hopstar Brewery., tasty beer!
It was interesting listening to Tim Martin on the Jeremy Vine show the other day. He made some good points then fielded some live questions from listeners on various matters. Plenty of free advertising and he reiterated his position that he was unwilling to raise prices to improve the gross margin to satisfy shareholders. I have thought for a while that although turnover is increasing a falling margin means you are having to work harder just to stay where you are. He mentioned the fact that Fullers and Youngs had moaned about Wetherspoons low prices especially in London but that they are both doing alright regardless. What he didn't mention was the growth of Stonegate Pubs, who have over 600 pubs of varying sizes and brands such as Yates and Reflex. They are also developing a chain of Wetherspoons looka likees. If you were blindfolded and led into one of their outlets you would struggle to differentiate it from a 'Spoons . Often these are opening close by to existing Wetherspoons, Darwen Lancashire and Brighouse Yorkshire to name just two sites. The beer range is similar,the menu is very similar with lots of daily promotions and the pricing for both is very competitive . How much this straight competition will affect Wetherspoons only time will tell but it must put downward pressure on pricing in both establishments. I also heard that Stonegate are running the rule over the 34 outlets Wetherspoons have decided to sell, one of them, the Thomas Leaper, is next door to Wetherspoons Standing Order in Derby!
After a protracted struggle Hallam Land Management have succeeded in gaining approval for a development of 360 homes on farmland on the edge of Warton, Lancashire. The Secretary of State for the environment overturned local council and Lancashire county council opposition.
Peppa Pig should be popular in China. They are after all the biggest pork eaters in the world. Apart from now when their annual Yulin festival is underway when they switch to dogs and lychees! Gone right off a takeaway tonight. Good rise today, approaching year high again, feel like going out and jumping in some puddles
The last weeks chart suggests that the Tuffnells acquisition and the link up with Amazon may not be the game changer that the market had perceived.Big buy late on though.