latife
15 Sep 2016
prices Prices down recently, customers returning, like me....maybe they are well on the up at last?
gamesinvestor
15 Sep 2016
Results They increased the interim dividend by 5.3% to 1.58 -- show of confidence. Perhaps we have some legs at last -- overall turnover slightly down though.Financial summary· Q2 LFL sales ex-fuel/ex-VAT up 2.0%, the third consecutive positive quarter· H1 LFL sales ex-fuel/ex-VAT up 1.4%· Total turnover almost flat, down 0.4% to £8.03bn (2015/16: £8.06bn)· UPBT up 11% to £157m (2015/16 UPBT before restructuring costs: £141m), or up 34% including last year's restructuring costs (2015/16 UPBT: £117m)· Underlying EPS up 35% to 5.04p (2015/16: 3.73p)· Reported PBT up 13.5% to £143m (2015/16: £126m)· Free cash flow of £558m (2015/16: £479m)· Operating working capital improvement of £318m, two-and-a-half-year total £872m· Debt facilities redeemed: $250m USPP and £152m of sterling/euro bonds· Net debt reduced by £477m to £1,269m, below our year-end target· Interim dividend up 5.3% to 1.58p (2015/16: 1.50p)Games
gamesinvestor
11 Sep 2016
Pricing It's sometimes subjective and is often a moving target, but some have commented that there isn't much in the price between the main and smaller supermarkets. Not sure this is the case, here are a couple of simple examples :-Whole leg of lamb --- Tesco (even with a 25% reduction) is £7.50 a kilogram; Lidl is £3.79 --- that's almost twice the price.Here are the links :- [link] another :-Moreland Old Speckled Hen - 500ml bottles :-Tesco :- £1.79Morrisons £1.54Sainsbury £1.80Lidl and Aldi -- £1.25The list is endless -- most products are radically, not just marginally, cheaper at these two outfits.Games
gamesinvestor
11 Sep 2016
Re: Price Cuts "This is just an opinion of course, perhaps their meat makes the price difference, but I really don't see the attraction of the 'budget' German offerings."badi -- I see your point here m8, some people don't give a rats arxe about the price differential as food shopping is such a small % of their overall outgoings. Such a sentiment is laudable, otherwise we'd all be buying cheap cars and not the many Range Rovers and Jaguars you see out on the road.Sadly a huge % of Britain's population lives on last weeks (or in many cases next weeks) wages. In addition there are a whole swathe of people who got tired of the once very overpriced main supermarkets and switched, became happy with Aldi and Lidl, and either don't go back, or minimise what they buy in the main supermarkets.This has to be true, or the combined Aldi-Lidl market share would not have grown from 3-4% 5-6 years ago, to the 11-12% it is today. These are facts, and in an environment when the overall spend is flat or even falling.We (or more correctly my wife) shop at all the main supermarkets. However, over the years we have gone from viewing Aldi-Lidl as a social nightmare, to fully accepting both Aldi and Lidl as part of the mix.It's a pain, but the reality is they are not going away and the old profit margins are gone forever as they are all fighting over the same dog bowl.Retailing, and in particular at the grocery end is only ever going to be a few % or 0% of my portfolio.The ROCE simply isn't there to sustain a long term investment return. Wasn't it Charlie Munger who pointed out that it doesn't matter what price you pay for a stock, it's impossible to achieve a long term investment return rate that is much higher than the return on capital. If the supermarkets are a few %, then that's what you are going to get on a long term basis.I'm still here, because I believe (maybe foolishly) a sentiment change will lift the depressed state of the big 3 supermarket stocks at some point, and then it's good night Vienna (and without the reunited part of the film).Games -- here's hoping for that short term sentiment shift -- breath held firmly!!
gamesinvestor
11 Sep 2016
Positive view [link]
Herald
05 Sep 2016
Re: Price Cuts >>>Doesn't seem to matter how much the big supermarkets announce these grand schemes, a basket of shopping from Aldi or Lidl always seems to be 30% cheaper.Well it all depends what exactly is being compared. The Germans have had their knuckles rapped this year for comparing own brand with branded. If own brands are compared I don't think the gap is anything like 30%.However the major firms do not have to be as cheap as the Germans - you only need to be close enough so that a shopper favours the vast extra range of the majors as being of more importance. Today's price cuts might be an indication of a confident interim statement on the 15th ie an increase in like for like sales - an increase in divi?
digitaldanuk
08 Jan 2015
I voted "No" in the Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets poll: Have you switched from a long-established supermarket chain (Tesco/Morrisons/Sainsburys etc) to a budget chain (Aldi/Lidl etc) in the last 2 years? [link]
digitaldanuk
08 Jan 2015
I just created a Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets poll: Have you switched from an established supermarket chain (Tesco/Morrisons/Sainsburys etc) to a budget chain (Aldi/Lidl etc) in the last 2 years? What do you think? [link]
