The next focusIR Investor Webinar takes places on 14th May with guest speakers from Blue Whale Growth Fund, Taseko Mines, Kavango Resources and CQS Natural Resources fund. Please register here.
Bakkovor Freshcook Ltd on Sluice Road in Holbeach St Marks. Over 650 jobs could be at risk with a Lincolnshire food and drink supplier closing its Holbeach site in April, subject to consultation. Bakkovor Freshcook Ltd on Sluice Road in Holbeach St Marks employs 680 people but the management team has concluded that this branch is “no longer commercially viable”. It has 520 weekly paid employees who are likely to be offered alternative roles across other Lincolnshire sites if proposals go ahead, thus minimising the impact of redundancies. The other 160 workers, who are salaried, are more at risk. Subject to a 45-day consultation process the site is expected to close on April 28. Bakkovor Pizza and Bread based in Holbeach will remain open. The company has 19,000 workers across the UK and US with other sites in Lincolnshire. These include Bakkovor Cucina Sano Ltd in Boston, Wingland Foods Bakkovor in Spalding and Bakkovor Meals in Sutton Bridge. Consultation process begins A company spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we are commencing a 45-day consultation to propose the closure of our Freshcook site at Holbeach St Marks. As part of this proposal, we will be consulting with all of the employees based at the site. “The management team has explored a number of different options to improve the performance of the site but has concluded that Freshcook is no longer commercially viable. “If this proposal goes ahead, we are confident that we can offer the weekly paid employees alternative operational roles across our other Lincolnshire sites and we will make every effort to relocate other employees impacted wherever possible within Bakkavor Group. “We would like to thank all of our colleagues for their commitment and professionalism during this difficult time.” Group revenue increase On Thursday, February 28 Bakkovor Group plc announced its full year unaudited results for the 52-week period ending December 29 2018. This included group revenue increasing 2.2% to £1,855.2m, up 3.2% on a like-for-like basis. There was also a positive performance in the UK despite a tough market, with a like-for-like growth of 1.8% For the full report click here. Council supporting those affected In a joint statement executive member for economy and place Colin Davie and member for Holbeach Nick Worth said: “We were sorry to hear about the potential closure of Freshcook. “Our thoughts are with the staff and their families at this difficult time, and I’m sure we’ll see the local community rally round. “We will, of course, work with South Holland District Council and our other partners to support those affected”
No probs .. not large volume but every little counts !
Short and sweet ... name the two new investors that bought 20% of our company ... that’s all !! By virtue of their anonymity I have been hugely sceptical and suspicious of these investors ever since they bought in .. time for transparency and to cut through all the smoke and mirror rubbish !!
I only have 12,500 remaining .. but happy to add them to the investor group total.
The key here is we are half way through this financial year and management holding firm on their EPS guidance (14.7p low end of range). Assuming that market sees Food Manufacturing as being an average performing sector then one could reasonably expect x16 multiple ... roughly translated means SP around £2.35 so still further upside here ! Would agree that Management really need to dig deep and do everything possible to restore confidence, but to be fair the second half of the year is typically Greencore’s peak season .. all eyes on quarter three statement for further news of progress at home and overseas. 👍🏻
In my opinion the Starbucks news was in the market long before the announcement, however I also think that it is shortsighted to pin the blame for this lon Greencore. Any customer who is planning to exit a supply partner must first ensure that their alternative partner and the many other links in the alternative supply chain are fully engaged, ready and able to support the shift in volume/trade well in advance of the move being executed. My point being there were probably a great many suppliers (maybe hundreds of individuals) who were fully aware of the Starbucks decision long before it was made public... whereas I doubt many more than about a dozen Greencore staff knew what was about to unfold. I worked in the food manufacturing industry for 25 years and I can tell you this .. secrets are VERY hard to keep, there are constant whispers of something or other about to happen and everybody knows everybody else and the shifts in business that are being worked on at any one moment in time ! There are rarely any true surprises in this industry and news of customer exits are always common knowledge within the trade before they become public knowledge and published in the media.
Great point regarding talent migration, agree that last thing GNC needs is competitors benefiting from this. Also you make good point regarding potential future disposals, although I would argue that becoming a one trick pony in FTG would be a very naive strategic move, it is important to balance seasonality within the UK Group and FTG is biased toward summer months therefore retaining ready meals, soups and cooking sauces feels more sensible to me. Cakes on the other hand just doesn't really fit anywhere, in fact the company has already made a move here by closing their deserts factory next April. For me the time has come to let go of the cake business and use the proceeds to further strengthen dominant position in FTG or better still take out some competitors in the UK ready meals market (which has been depressed for many years due to chronic overcapacity). USA business has seen more than enough investment over recent years and needs to stand on its own two feet now (payback time), there maybe modest additional spend required to build out a truly national fresh distribution network, but nothing like what has been spent to date. PS - Where I politely disagree with you is regarding current SP leading to any aggressive external approach. The way I see it is that the entire sector is suffering Currently due to ongoing uncertainty over Brexit and what feels like never ending price wars between supermarket chains (Generically referred to as commercial headwinds) however I am convinced that GNC will recover, heck I remember paying €0.60 per share not so many years ago ! PPS - I am revising my previous (Bullish) 12mth SP forecast down to £3.69 .. this still represents strong upside from here but needs some serious mgt focus.
All good things come to an end .. and all bull markets eventually plateau !! Many a convincing story has ended in tears & not all acorns grow into great oaks .. After numerous years of continual growth, will 2018 be the tipping point for this company ? This year had seen a few stumbles, it has also seen massive investment overseas, indeed if the BOD were playing poker 2017 activities would represent an "All in" play Stateside IMO ! Indications are that results should be in line with expectations and as a shareholder I really hope this to be the case, but something doesn't seem to add up, the SP performance and official tone over recent months seems to portray a less optimistic picture ... in the words of Monty Python is there "Trouble at mill" ??!! Stones in shoes .. Headwinds .. call it what you will .. the market often tends to call things how they are and our recent SP trend has not painted a confident picture ! Loss of a high profile contract in Jacksonville was the catalyst for the market to rebase its valuation, followed soon thereafter by a sizable product recall in New England (Not ideal) .. what else is lurking in the shadows ? Seems quite some time since any major business wins were announced, maybe there is good news in the pipeline that will reverse our fortunes, let's hope so ! Year end results typically released toward end of November.. fingers crossed news is positive else I fear there could be a "Buying opportunity" on the horizon.. and nobody want to see that !!!
Firstly and for what its worth I will admit that I am not yet invested here, however it is on my watch-list BIG time. Secondly I would say that nearly a 4% drop today on only 0.44% of total volume traded feels very much like someone somewhere is playing games with this share !! As I see it ... PETS is in a retail space that is somewhat different to many of the other mainstream companies (Grocery chains & fashion retailers) ... they are selling products to pet owners, these people are very heavily "emotionally" invested in their beloved animal which means that no matter what they will always spend the cash ! in a society where ever more people are keeping domesticated animals as companions there will always be a strong foundation of steadily increasing retail trade in PETS stores PLUS there is the kicker of having a vetinary division as a bonus play into the bargain (As was mentioned by another poster recently). Heck - What's not to like here ????? Purely from a personal perspective I would love to get at the lowest SP possible, but I don't think that the retrace will be too long lived. Once the institution that disclosed their disposal are all finished then I see this moving up nicely. Cheers Wooly
Oh boy .... I got a feeling that today would be a weird one when I saw that the sky had turned yellow and the sun turned red on the same day .. and then you appear from under your rock and continue to demonstrate that you either (a) Have absolutely no clue about food manufacturing companies .. or (b) Just post on here to deliberately try to propagate theories and connections when in reality there are none ? Are you honestly suggesting that because a company may/may not be building a big new factory to make raw fresh chicken products, that do not in any way compete with the value added ready to eat products made by Greencore .. this is something that will have an impact on the share price .. really ??? That's like suggesting that if Raleigh Cycles opened a new factory then BMW would be impacted .. because they both manufacture and sell modes of transportation ?! To be fair, I expect that some of the other producers of raw fresh chicken in the USA are taking this news seriously as it WILL have a direct impact on their market sector, what with them being direct competitors !
Intimate - "Any further research......do it yourself & can the fatuous accusations" FYI - I tend not to throw existing customer names around like confetti .. you should try it .. that way you won't continually link wrong customer name to manufacturing locations (Just sayin')
Intimate - "Any further research......do it yourself & can the fatuous accusations" FYI - I tend not to throw existing customer names around like confetti .. you should try it .. that way you won't continuously link wrong customer name to our manufacturing locations (Just sayin')
Initmate - Thanks for your advice regarding researching this company myself .. however, I feel well researched having been invested since 2002 .. so you will excuse my alarm when I see utter dross posted by people like you that either don't understand the company or perhaps are driving an agenda based on a personal "Trading" strategy. You explicitly stated previously that the Jacksonville site was acquired as part of the Peacock transaction in December 2016 ... this is NOT true as this site was bought by Greencore back in Jun 2013 (previously owned by H.C.Schau & Sons) ! You also said that the Jacksonville site was making frozen sandwiches for a large US meat company and that this was the business that had been lost ... again NOT true, as has been widely reported in the mainstream media (and all over this BB the other day) the customer in question was Starbucks ! Lastly you said that this was all explained in the RNS of 24th Aug 2017 ... NOT so, see below extract from that announcement it makes no mention of the customer name nor does it state any relationship with Peacock or the meat company (Because there is no relationship with either at that site) ... The Group notes there has been some level of churn in the legacy retail part of the US business. Specifically, it has decided to refocus its Jacksonville, Florida site on fresh product offerings and will withdraw from current frozen product production on that site. This change is being managed seamlessly with the relevant customers and the Board anticipates that the impact on profitability will be minimal. Might I suggest that you actually do some research of your own and get your facts straight before posting them on this or any other BB ? Warmest regards - Wooly.
OMG - Initmate .. please post something that can actually be evidenced and substantiated by fact ... you are starting to sound ridiculous and VERY ill informed ! I asked you previously to explain where you read that Jacksonville had any link with Peacock or the meat company .. you didn't (clearly unable to - because they are totally unrelated). Please put up (where you read this) or shut up ! PS - if you are carrying a short position at least be brave enough to admit it rather than spouting total untruths on this bb ?!?
Intimate- Your understanding is flawed .. RNS does not mention the meat company, neither does it mention Peacock Foods .. I don't know how else to say this but Peacock Foods have never owned a facility in Jacksonville, however Greencore have owned this facility since they bought it from H.C.Schau & Sons Inc. back in 2013. Please clarify where you have read that the meat company were a customer at the Jacksonville location .. as I understand things the Jacksonville factory has nothing to do with the meat company.. I honestly don't know why you keep trying to link the site to this customer ??
Intimate - I am not sure why you believe Peacock have a site in Jacksonville.. I can assure you they dont. In fact, I have read back through previous RNS and also searched the Internet and no mention of Jacksonville site having any links with the meat company. To answer your question - I dont see any coincidence or relationship with the meat company having a processing plant in northern Florida (if indeed they do)?