Member Info for Yorek

JB11, I don’t think anyone that has been here for a while is getting excited about a CitySpy post. Personally, I was just trying to lighten the tone of the board, to try and have at least a few hours when the Dementors are not in control…

I haven’t seen anything on Betaville yet. Do their uncooked alerts tend to leak before issued?

I had forgotten about that 101, thanks.

Hughesleisure suggested he had heard something was about to change a few days ago.

We’ve been here before I know, but at least this is more fun than reading the constant negativity of late.

Very cryptic.

For those not on Twitter, City has posted an old clip of a woman’s hand pushing a video cassette into a Viewstar video recorder.

Who knows what that means…..someone has asked the significance, no reply yet.

Investor references perhaps? VHS? VCR? Viewstar?

Allegedly he’s been right in the past…..

@Hardwell (aka toast from the other board…..well you’re both peddling the same story, except his target is 49p I think), did you sell yesterday afternoon then? You only told us at lunchtime that you were well above water, having bought back in at 66p.

Im holding tight and have added this week already, but if we hit your target, I’ll be buying more.

Is the lack of confirmation of a permanent CEO holding this back? I expected news by now as I think I remember them saying just before Christmas that the search was progressing well, or something to that effect….

“treatt plc 53.8% potential upside indicated by berenberg bank.

february 7, 2024 12:36 pm”

https://www.***************************/treatt-plc-53.8-potential-upside-indicated-by-berenberg-bank/4121141667

404x, THG has already got Matt Rothwell (CFO Group & Platform) - circa 9 years at Sainsbury’s

Mine is an unpopular view I know, but I believe that Matt has the backing of most of the institutions and that there is a plan that they largely all approve of. Whether that’s because they still believe in Matt or whether they are not prepared to sell out for a price that they think is too low, I don’t know. I know that TGL (who I know most of you don’t rate) is a deal maker, so time will tell. I also believe that this stale mate is because they have all agreed to wait until the time is right.

I think Matts recent comments suggest that 2024 is the year for change (he said optionality improves as macros change + on LinkedIn “let’s see what 2024 brings”), but I’m also not convinced of listings elsewhere, as I feel like Matt has repeatedly said he’s not happy with being on the LSE, so I still feel like take-private partnerships, with existing IIs remaining, is still a possibility.

So, I’m staying put and adding when I can, to see what emerges, if anything. If I’m wrong, then so be it.

So, it looks like the core market for Applied Nutrition, is elite sports. They are then engaging sports enthusiasts. So, with a core market of say football clubs, enhanced margin is easily achievable as they are offering tested, contamination free products (think doping scandals). So, it’s not surprising that they are not a household name.

This elite space, where money is limitless in delivering performance, is a great niche. However, I can’t help but feel that it’s also likely to be an appropriate fit for the personalised nutrition area, which is too expensive for the everyday man yet (think Zoe). If this is the case, maybe the float is to raise funds to expand into this area, so that they can offer personalised sports nutrition solutions to elite athletes. Who knows.

I will be very interested to see what happens next. Maybe Matt et al., know about this potential listing and are holding back on a MyProtein listing, until the valuations of Myprotein and Applied Nutrition can be compared.

Very interesting article, thank you.

Perhaps this is what Hughesleisure heard about.

Mr McDonald seems to think that value will out “one way or another” and this would certainly help, surely.

Matts response to someone about Directors buying, or lack of, on LinkedIn:

“Giles Hargraves as an FYI, I’ve spent £39m buying THG shares in the past 2.5 years, Lord Charles (chairman) has also spent £1.5m, John Gallemore over 400k just a matter of weeks ago, while almost every other Board member has been buying shares too.

But there’s not much point spending £15m a year in costs to be on the LSE for the directors to be the investors. Might be worth you asking the LSE and FCA what plans they have to stop the mass exodus of investors from the UK market 😉”

Matt won’t reply to Jamie, but Jamie does hold a lot of shares. I could be wrong but I thought it was 1m shares …

….and within this post is the reason why Iain McDonald is still here:

“While THG was big at c£150m revenues, we’d “bootstrapped” the business and had zero cash for M&A. Most people laughed at the plan of a DVD retailer moving into the prestigious beauty market, but in April 2010, a few investors, including Iain McDonald, backed us with £9.5m of capital to support the plan.”

“ I’ve learned that I probably get more from Q&A sessions that anyone in the audience. Why so? 🤔

After doing any Q&A, I find myself reflecting on what was discussed for the next few days – it’s human nature. And so, on many occasions last week, after speaking at Beauty’s strategy day led by CEO Lucy Gorman, I found myself reflecting on THG’s journey in the global beauty industry to date.

THG started from a piece of paper in July 2004. By 2010, we’d built 2 sizeable divisions – an online CD/DVD retail business, and a tech provider to some major UK retailers (Ingenuity).

Despite the Sunday Times ranking THG as the UK’s fastest growing in both the 2 prior years, and the fastest growing profits in 2010, all was not well.  Apple launched the iPhone in Sep 2007 and films/music were now heading to digital, creating an existential risk to THG.

We needed to pivot away from CDs/DVDs, and fast. After trialling most online categories, we landed on Health & Beauty as being the most exciting. And so that became the plan - buy a small player in each of the beauty and nutrition categories and use our technology to build them into major global players.

While THG was big at c£150m revenues, we’d “bootstrapped” the business and had zero cash for M&A. Most people laughed at the plan of a DVD retailer moving into the prestigious beauty market, but in April 2010, a few investors, including Iain McDonald, backed us with £9.5m of capital to support the plan.

In Nov 2010 we made our move by buying LOOKFANTASTIC.COM, a small Brighton based online hair care retailer, for £19m.

Fast forward 13 years and THG is now a serious global beauty player with annual beauty revenues of £1.2bn across the globe. We now own some fantastic brands, like ESPA, Perricone MD, Christophe Robin and Biossance, to name a few.

But our reach into the industry goes much further. THG owns labs both in the UK and US, developing and manufacturing beauty products for most of the major brand houses in the world, while Ingenuity also supports in providing digital solutions for many of these global brands.

Spending this past week reflecting on THG’s beauty journey brought back memories of a few scars from along the way. But mainly it put a smile on my face. Not least when thinking about moving from selling DVDs into the premium beauty industry.

#weareTHG

#beauty

#pivots”

Thanks for the information on Brighter sites OSG, very interesting and impressive.

I feel like the H&B deal could be broader than we originally thought, and I still feel LetterOne, their owners, are worth a look. They appear to have commissioned external experts to help them reformulate a strategy (18 months or so ago) for H&B future, which would explain H&B recruiting their new food team. I know I keep going on about this, but they have recruited April Preston, who used to be a leader in food for M&S plus her right hand people, so the team has great pedigree and quite honestly, the pace of launches is quite staggering. This team change will enable them to move from stocking branded health products, that many retailers now stock, to having the experience/expertise/contacts, to develop an H&B own label offering. Genius in my opinion. I saw H&B as a sleepy giant, until now.

This may well be why Brighter Foods are recruiting:

“Holland and Barrett to Launch own label sports nutrition brand”

https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/new-product-development/holland-and-barrett-to-launch-own-label-sports-nutrition-brand/687720.article

Lots of room for growth for Brighter Foods, named as a key player:

“The Global Energy Bar Market was valued USD 641.9 Million in 2022 and projected to reach USD 1,030.8 Million by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 6.1% during the forecast period of 2023-2030”

Major Vendors in the Global Energy Bar Market:

NuGo Nutrition

Premier Nutrition Inc

Probar LLC

The Kellogg Company

Brighter Foods Ltd

General Mills Inc

McKee Foods Corporation

Quest Nutrition

Cliff Bar & Company

Kind LLC”

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/12/06/2791976/0/en/Energy-Bar-Market-projected-to-reach-USD-1-030-8-Million-by-2030-growing-at-a-CAGR-of-6-1-during-the-forecast-period-of-2023-2030-a-comprehensive-study-by-MarketDigits.html

Morning OSG. I didn’t know that, so thanks.

I’m curious because I’ve wondered what capability they have at Brighter, as there’s not much info available, so adding Halo into the mix makes sense. The food industry is still struggling to recruit, but if they are looking for technical labelling experts (posted last week I think) and a development technologist (on their website), hopefully these are signs of new business…or shifting business, perhaps from EU to UK. Just speculating.

I thought Halo Foods was owned by Peak Rock, a US private equity firm…..I could be wrong though, as they’ve been through the mill a bit with different ownerships