Member Info for Yorek

“I wouldn’t have wanted to take this journey with anyone else. Thank you John 🙏

#20Years #Birthday #Pivots”

Matt on LinkedIn:

“20 years ago today, everything changed for me and those around me.

On 1 July 2004 THG's journey began when we launched our first website, thehut.com, selling CDs, DVDs & Games.

Despite all the excitement in the build-up to launch, disappointment was quick to arrive. The lack of any sales on the first day was ominous, with John Gallemore rightly voicing his concerns. John, like me, had remortgaged his house to support an idea I’d had about building an online business. Neither of us knew anything about CDs/DVDs, tech or online, and we looked set to pay the price. The pressure was on.

We didn’t have Google ads at launch, the focus was just getting live. But we still thought people would find our new website and we’d get some sales. Oh, if only it was that easy….

We had Google ads up and running after a few days, and the sales trickled in – but at a cost! The ads were costing more than our product margins, and so each sale was loss making. FFS!

John had backed me with everything he had, and it was blatantly obvious that both the idea and business plan were “pants”:

1.  We’d no scale and so our margins were tiny

2.  With no margins, we couldn’t afford marketing

3.  The tech provider charged us fortunes for just breathing

4. We'd very little cash

Being in a fight for survival just days after launch was a sickening feeling. We’d no option but to pivot fast, and so pivot we did.

Firstly, we recruited 2 developers, fed them pizza & coffee, and left them to build us an inhouse platform.

In 2004, barely anyone had a website and so we called every UK retailer to see if we could launch them online, using the tech we were soon to launch. Incredibly, despite being a brand-new company, with no track record and only a handful of staff, Asda agreed we could launch them online with an entertainment range. This was divine intervention 😇

Within 12 months of starting, things were changing. We’d built our own tech from scratch (the birth of THG Ingenuity), launched a major UK grocer online and had scale in the Entertainment industry. While stress and pain never seemed too far away, at least we’d found a path to survival.  

20 years is a long time and yet it’s flown by. Even though THG now has £2bn of Sales and thousands of staff across the world, the feeling of fighting for survival is engrained in our culture.

John always plays down his role at THG, but I can tell you he’s been critical from the get-go. I couldn’t have picked a better human to partner with through the years, riding the highs and lows of building THG.

I admire John as a man - his integrity, passion and morals are second to none. I've relied on his loyalty far too many times, knowing he's the man to step up in any difficult situation. While John paid off that mortgage a long time ago, he still wears that pained look to work every day that makes me nervous 🤣

I wouldn’t have wanted to take this journey wit

For those believing that the health, or indeed just the protein market, is reaching saturation….as I think Matt suggested recently, it’s still motoring and has some way to go yet. Think global, not just local.

Copied from a NNB post on LinkedIn:

“Last week, International Food Information Council published its annual Food & Health Survey which asks 3,000 Americans about their perceptions and behaviours surrounding food 🔎

For the third year in a row, “fresh” is the most common criteria used by consumers to define a “healthy” food. Closely after that we find “good source of protein”, a criteria that has grown by 10 percentage points since 2022, thereby overtaking “low in sugar” as the second most common answer. The number of consumers claiming to try to consume protein has also grown significantly over the past few years; 71% in 2024 vs 59% in 2022 💡”

If being healthy translates to eating quality protein, then MyProtein transitioning to be a global lifestyle business is going to position us well.

Thanks Crafty. Much appreciated.

“It’s been a pleasure building a new strategic partnership with THG and Matthew Moulding. It’s very rare to find a like-minded business who want to turn talk into reality.

We are launching Frasers Plus, our consumer credit and loyalty programme, across the THG Ingenuity platform, marking a significant milestone in our ambition to expand Frasers Plus across third-party platforms. We have also acquired THG’s luxury brand, Coggles.com.

We will benefit from THG’s global courier management services across Frasers Group, supporting our international expansion. Sports Direct and Everlast Gyms will also work with Myprotein to create assorted ranges in stores and across our gyms. Finally, we will also be launching MySale Australia on THG’s Ingenuity platform.

This is just the start of an exciting partnership. 

Frasers Group 🤝 THG”

A5wab, I can’t find a link this year. We will all have to hope that Crafy will be kind enough to enlighten us after the event, as they may be the only one on here that’s attending in person.

“Today is AGM Day!

Listed companies speak daily with stakeholders, and give detailed quarterly trade updates. This makes AGMs dry, process driven events, where investors approve governance matters.

Because of the constant engagement, it’s rare many investors vote against a Board’s proposals, and it’s almost unheard that a majority vote against a company. Today, like each previous year, THG gratefully received incredible and overwhelming support on each proposal 🙏 😉

But today is more interesting than most AGMs. We released news of a broad partnership between THG and Frasers Group:

1. Frasers is moving its Australian operations onto the Ingenuity platform, adding significant GMV & scale to THG Ingenuity in the region.

2. Frasers Pay (Frasers’ credit and loyalty platform) will soon launch in the Ingenuity checkout, making it available to millions of Myprotein, LOOKFANTASTIC.COM and Cult Beauty customers, and to Ingenuity clients

3. Myprotein will launch a curated range of products across Sports Direct stores, including the new Myprotein x HYROX range

4. THG has agreed to sell our luxury fashion division, namely Coggles.com, to Frasers

The first 3 speak for themselves, but the 4th partnership area needs more explanation. c8 years ago, THG made a move into the luxury sector, buying the brand Coggles.com from administrators for next to nothing. It seemed a low-risk way of exploring possible synergies with our rapidly growing premium beauty business.

A dedicated and passionate team got to work, led by Marisa Shutt, growing it from nothing to Sales of c£43m last year (+6% on 2022) and almost breakeven. In any normal world, that’s a fantastic performance. But given many major online luxury players collapsed last year, including the world’s largest, FARFETCH, then the performance by THG’s luxury team was truly fantastic.

The team that built Coggles.com are some of my favourite people in the Group. Each year, they’ve operated from a corner of our offices with minimal fuss (or resources!) and yet always delivered year after year. As a founder/CEO, these people are like gold. I'm drawn to them.  

But the last 8 years have shown us that Coggles now needs a big step up in investment, support and energy if it is to become a major global player. But even if we did commit to this, there’s no certainty that all the major luxury brands would join Coggles over time.

Frasers is a force in luxury fashion and has big plans for the sector. By selling Coggles to Frasers and agreeing Ingenuity partnerships, THG now has a chance to play a bigger role in the luxury sector.

Every company needs constant evolution. Standing still rarely works, even less so in times of global uncertainty. The changes we’ve put THG through these past 3 years have been tough, but are paying dividends. Hopefully, these latest changes will deliver for everyone involved.”

#Onwards #ThankYou #Partnerships”

Anyone know if there’s a link to view the AGM online this year?

It’s triple witching day:

“It’s the third Friday of June, which means there’s witching afoot in the stock market. Be prepared for some weird trading.

The third Friday of March, June, September, and December are called triple witching days because stock options, stock index futures, and stock index options all expire on the same day. That represents some $5.5 trillion in futures and options expiring at the same time, writes Swissquote Bank analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya.

Triple witching days can lead to higher volume and volatility. Traders shouldn't put too much stock in intraday swings, for this reason.”

https://www.barrons.com/livecoverage/stock-market-today-062124/card/what-a-triple-witching-day-means-for-the-stock-market-rO0KXt85vS2z3wAMY3hM

The last bit:

“Ocado has created an advanced software platform to fulfill grocery orders and manage all of the required logistics - The Ocado Smart Platform (OSP).

Ocado has become one of the best and most advanced tech companies in the world.”

Anyone interested in Ocado, should follow Brittain Ladd. Highly respected, ex-Amazon, tech advisor. This was a post from a week ago on LinkedIn:

“KROGER SHOULD ACQUIRE OCADO AND NAME TIM STEINER CEO OF KROGER

In 2017, I was recruited from Amazon by Kroger, to provide strategy consulting. I recommended to Kroger was to acquire the British retailer, the Ocado Group. Kroger said no to an acquisition but yes to partnering with Ocado to install up to 20 automated Customer Fulfillment Centers (CFC) to fulfill online grocery orders.

Fast forward to 2024: Kroger has installed eight CFCs but has chosen to pause opening any additional CFCs. Why? Because Kroger has been unable to achieve the desired savings, operational improvements, and increased sales. Kroger is also attempting to merge with Albertsons to create a massive grocery company with over 5,000 stores. The merger is in doubt due to legal challenges from the FTC and several states. If the merger isn't approved, Kroger has to pay Albertsons a $600M breakup fee.

I believe Kroger needs a savior to make better decisions, design a better strategy, and lead the company. The savior Kroger needs is Tim Steiner, Founder/CEO of Ocado. Kroger should also acquire Ocado. Here's why.

1. Kroger can acquire Ocado for around $4B to $5B in my opinion.

2. Kroger can acquire Ocado and operate with margins of 10% to 15% while the rest of the grocery industry is unprofitable, as Kroger will no longer be required to pay fees to Ocado. See Walmart comment. Kroger can further reduce their costs by using Ocado's front end for customers to shop online vs. Kroger’s front end.

3. If the merger with Albertsons is approved, the combined companies will need a CEO who can design an automation and operations strategy that will reduce costs and complexity and accelerate growth. Tim Steiner should be the CEO of the combined companies.

4. If the merger with Albertsons isn't approved, Kroger will be faced with increased competition from Walmart and Albertsons. I anticipate Ahold Delhaize will acquire Albertsons. Tim Steiner should be named the CEO of Kroger.

Amazon believes AutoStore is one of the best MFCs on the market, but they’re “disappointed” with a few aspects of AutoStore’s MFC they’re piloting. Amazon will pilot “2 or 3” additional MFCs in 2024. Amazon should pilot MFCs from Attabotics and Brightpick as well.

Is Ocado a solution for Amazon? Tony Hoggett, Peter Bowrey, Claire Peters, and Doug Herrington should contact Tim Steiner and have a conversation about Ocado and Amazon’s grocery strategy. Just talk.

Ocado has designed robots that are 5 times lighter than previous versions. The new bots are largely made of plastic and are created using 3D printers. Ocado has doubled the units per hour that can be picked. Amazon Robotics can’t build something better than what Ocado has created.”

I wouldn’t be surprised to hear anything about Kelso….selling up, shorting etc. I do wonder what they and everyone else voting against the Chairman hope to achieve. I mean most of the nay-sayers believe Matt is the issue. So if the Chairman is removed, where will that leave those who believe Matt to be an issue? Turkeys voting for Christmas springs to mind. And if you genuinely believe the Chairman has not achieved, I encourage you to go back to the days before he arrived, do some research and then decide. As for the salary comments, he’s spent most of it buying THG shares.

When posters come on here and say they’ve voted against certain directors, because they are the ones that posters on here discuss, then we really know we’re in trouble in my opinion. I hope Matt and TGL stay to play the long game….but if not, I hope everyone has tin hats, as I believe they will be needed. As always, very happy to be wrong.

Not sure about a cult following. It’s a bit of fun as far as I’m concerned. Quite frankly I don’t care if they’re right, wrong or deluded. At least they provide entertainment. It’s light relief from some of the drivel we have to wade through on here. I now have 26 posters on filter, which is ludicrous.

Thanks to brenchk for today’s lesson in reading pictures; much appreciated.

Thank you

Maybe the post about unsolicited bids flying around the LSE may come into play

No idea what this picture represents.

Picture of a fat grumpy(ish) looking tabby cat with a large gold link necklace with a dollar on the end, surrounded by pigeons.

Any ideas?

“Moody's withdraws Warrington council credit rating”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c144ynkdvqno

Probably Cong, I’ve given up counting.

We’ve been here before, gut churning as this volatility is. I’m trying to ignore the short term movements and focus on the shorts believing they need to close, even just a small amount. We know their mates will do whatever is required for them to leave with as little pain as possible.

Marshall Wace have reduced by 0.11%

https://www.shorttracker.co.uk/company/GB00BMTV7393/

I don’t think the market will like it if the Chairman goes. I don’t think he will though, as I think the majority of shareholders, who are prepared to wait a little longer for the tide to turn, will decide. TGL and Matt have both got my vote. GLALTH.

Anacottesteel1, what did you mean by your last post?:

“Ignore the FUD Big Big payday just around the corner.. How come ? Just got the nod ‘Bluehorse Shoe Loves THG’”

There is lots of well disguised FUD on here today….and from memory, we’ve had the sudden extreme drop before, before news, largely to let the shorts in the know, to escape. Just wondering if it was a tongue in cheek post or if there’s more to it…..