Spire by St Brides

A Bitter Price

We mourn with the people of France who have paid a bitter price for the folly of their own government. Perhaps that government will now consider abandoning its stance that the refugees at Calais are a British  problem.  They are and always have been solely a French problem on French soil. To have pretended otherwise […]

Stanley Gibbons SGI – Management Denies Responsibility

Stanley Gibbons was a stamp collector, he knew about stamps, he knew the value of stamps and he led the company he founded,  to become the worlds largest stamp dealer. For decades postage stamps outshone stocks and shares for capital growth and made many a collector, wealthy men. Then eventually the company took on management. […]

Halfords (HFD) Management by Gobbledygook As Profits Fall

Gobbledygook – “language that is meaningless or is made unintelligible by excessive use of technical terms.” “jargon, unintelligible or obscure language.” And Halfords is full of it as Chief Executive, Jill McDonald searches for obscure excuses to explain the interim results and make vague meaningless statements about the future. CEOs and Directors have a false […]

Hornby (HRN) Signals Yet Another Warning

Not only has Hornby issued yet another  profits warning, it is caused by the same old reason which has plagued the company for years – supplies.  They introduced a new Enterprise Resource System ( as these things are now grandly called ) in the UK in June & July and it had a significant adverse […]

Growth = Slowdown; Latest OECD Shambles

In 2017 growth in China’s GDP is expected to “cool” to 6.2%. The Chief economist at the OECD says that this years slowdown in trade, particularly with China, will lead to lower economic global growth. She blames China”s economic slowdown as being at the heart of this. The only problem with this view is that […]

Why The Panic ? Ask Ye Not.

This year copper has fallen a further 17%. Last week it traded at $2.30 per lb. having fallen 5% in just two weeks. Poor German manufacturing data led to a fall of 3.1% in one day alone .But things are changing. Chinas manufacturing index has risen off its August lows. This year supply and demand […]

Who Bemoans The So Called Strength Of Sterling

Well Marc Bolland CEO of Marks & Spencer MKS does In fact, he was forced in yesterdays half year results to go for every excuse in the desperate CEO’s Excuses Handbook.Group half year sales were up by a miserable 1.4%. Like for like food sales were down. Like for like general merchandise sales were even […]

COMPANY NEWS TODAY 3rd November 2015

Imperial Tobacco IMT. is pleased with itself after another successful year and is raising the final dividend by 10.1% to 141p. per share. Preliminary results out today show sales volume up by 7% for the year to 30th September, net revenue up by 12% in growth brands and adjusted earnings per share by 8.2% Avanti […]

The Decimation Of The Mining Industry

The shares of Goldcorp, the worlds most valuable mining company, have fallen by 75% since 2011 and are now worth a miserly $13.10 compared to $55, four and a half years ago. Yesterday alone they fell over 10% following publication of the company’s third quarter results. The hopes of only a few weeks ago that […]