Member Info for Yorek

Post from the Head of Health & Sustainable Diets Campaigns at Tesco on LinkedIn:

“In a world where processed and unhealthy food options are plentiful, Tesco has taken a big step towards championing genuinely healthy food in its latest Fit for Growth reset ……. the supermarket has set out plans to prioritise suppliers taking action on health. Tesco’s call to action signals a pivotal shift towards a more responsible and customer-centric food system.”

“By advocating for healthier suppliers, Tesco is not only promoting better nutrition but also challenging the industry’s status quo”

Personally I believe it’s all relevant to Ingenuity particularly, as some data I see ref: cost of living, suggests that consumers move from the high street to online to prevent the desire for unnecessary impulse purchases, but that’s just my view.

Tesco won’t want to lose their number 1 position in the retailer index:

“ATNI’s UK Retailer Index 2022 is the first full nutrition- and health-specific Index to assess all major food retailers within the UK market”

https://accesstonutrition.org/the-indexes/uk-retailer-index-2022/

Mars have announced that they have completed the “acquisition of nutritious meal company Kevin’s Natural Foods”.

Interesting to read their rationale for purchase.

Scrolling down the previous announcements, they seem to have restarted looking at health acquisitions in the last year or so:

https://www.mars.com/news-and-stories/press-releases-statements/mars-completes-acquisition-kevins-natural-foods

“Record wet weather drives shoppers away from High Street.

The number of people heading out to the shops fell for the first July in 14 years, new data suggests.”

Read in BBC News: https://stocks.apple.com/AkQ7dfWA0S9WfubziYVvnUA

Saw this and thought it may be of interest:

Investment Analyst – M&A

https://g.co/kgs/xsTrmJ

MM has too much support to be sacked and he’s not going to quit unless someone buys the lot at an agreeable price to all IMHO.

MyProtein is not a household name, because not many of the gym brands are. They are at the start of their mass consumer engagement journey, not the end….and you need very deep pockets to launch a new brand, so they are in pole position.

I’m happy to stick with Matt and wait for full value to materialise, whether that’s listed on the LSE or not, if I’m allowed to.

Completely agree. Who would succeed him?

If people think that the NEDs have little power/influence, then it would be up to John Gallemore (who is MMS reflection) and Damian Saunders, as its so complex, no outsider would be welcomed positively in my opinion.

If it happened, it would be game over for me and I’d sell up….but I don’t think I’d have a choice anyway, because if that announcement was made, it would be because everyone (including Matt) agreed to sell IMHO.

I am aware that they are non execs, but TGLs remit includes “working with Matthew in refining the group’s strategy”….which clearly now includes media growth.

We’ll agree to disagree on whether that’s a good decision or not.

I don’t think that Matts posts this week differ in sentiment to any previous ones….and I don’t think any of what he said was unfair or not factual.

I struggle with the commentary about Matt not being the man to lead THG. I don’t agree but respect others views.

I also respect the views of those questioning the acquisition of CityAM, but again, I don’t agree. I do though question whether this was driven by Matt at all. Lord Allen and Sue Farr have extensive media & communication backgrounds and will undoubtedly know the value that this can add and in my view, may have encouraged or orchestrated this move (speculation only):

Lord Allen - “Charles has extensive corporate experience across a number of sectors, including finance, media, hospitality and retail. Having played a key role in the creation of ITV, he is recognised for his significant contribution to the television industry. Charles is currently Chair of Global Media & Entertainment Limited, Balfour Beatty plc and the Invictus Games Foundation and also Advisory Chair of Moelis & Company. He was also formerly Chair of Granada Media plc, Chief Executive of Granada Group plc and ITV plc and Chair of EMI Music, Endemol and The British Red Cross. Charles has also served on the boards of Tesco plc, Virgin Media and GET AS and been Chief Adviser to the Home Office and a Senior Adviser to Goldman Sachs.”

Sue Farr - “Previous roles include Marketing Director at the BBC, Corporate Affairs Director at Thames Television, Communications Director at Vauxhall Motors and a director of Chime Communications plc.”

Have a look at the potential synergies with Global Media & Entertainment Limited, where TGL is also Chair: https://global.com/

Food and nutrition is my area, not beauty, so when I read this, it struck me just how much THG (with Ingenuity) are getting right: https://www.arrowpointadvisory.com/news-and-insights/outlook-for-the-beauty-industry-in-2023-blurring-the-lines-of-beauty-wellbeing-and-nutrition/

“TikTok is now used by 52 percent of users to discover new beauty products.

[The Beauty Report 2023, THG Ingenuity]”

Beauty was going to be spun off. https://www.reuters.com/business/uks-thg-spin-off-beauty-business-2021-09-16/#:~:text=Sept%2016%20(Reuters)%20%2D%20THG,cosmetics%20and%20skin%20care%20products

Still a possibility I feel, although as others have said, it’s probably not performing as well as it can be. Hopefully the update in September will start to show that Lucy Gorman is spreading her magic over that division too.

* That should have read “affluential” not influential

Thanks Sage.

I like Polish’s link to L’Oriel. Their brand portfolio looks to cater to perhaps the more influential and mature market, so THGs brand portfolio might be completely but more importantly incremental, rather than cannibalistic. Different consumer perhaps:

https://www.loreal-finance.com/en/annual-report-2020/acquisitions-2-4-0/

Looking at Systematica short positions, to see how well informed they might be….it seems that somehow they called the Ocado change of sentiment perfectly. Started closing in the week before sentiment changed. I wonder what they knew…or more importantly where they got the info from.

Let’s hope their tech knowledge reads across to us and therefore that sentiment is definitively changing.

So they were likely closing around Wednesday then, which may tally with the move up from just below £1 to circa £1.04 in the afternoon session.

The Myprotein brand is strong, but quite restrictive in food & drink. It’s not generic enough to launch products unrelated to protein, under that brand, as consumers just won’t understand or engage with it. So, my guess is that their food strategy is to develop products under THG Nutrition brands, that relate to the product and the consumer benefit that it brings E.g gut health.

I hope that’s their strategy anyway, as it’s the right one.

I’ve read somewhere that shorts have up to 4 days to report changes in positions, so the declaration was updated on Thursday, but the trade could have been made from Monday onwards.

Declared shorts updated to yesterday’s date and only Cube remain over 0.5%:

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

I must have missed this, but according to this article, Matt sold Omega Warrington in January 2022 for £100m: https://www.egi.co.uk/news/huts-moulding-sells-omega-back-to-londonmetric-for-100m/

He started exploring the sale of a Icon last September, if not before: https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2022/09/thg-explores-sale-of-cheshire-offices-after-shares-down-95-since-ipo/

I wonder if Icon is the last piece of the jigsaw in terms of capital raise…