Dobbies Garden Centres Share Discussion Threads

[sper] 15/6/2005 08:07

record high this morning and probably record spread 20p!

[sper] 13/6/2005 12:20

interims out on 28th June

[sper] 17/5/2005 09:33

Excerpts from BBR results posted today

Blooms is now focused exclusively on prime edge of town and large-scale centres
offering outstanding quality and value for our customers, with results that show
for the first time the fruits of our strategy

We are now poised to begin a period of rapid growth as our very large and
well-sited new centres begin to contribute to sales and profits. The first two
of these, our 55,000 sq ft Gloucester Centre and our 46,000 sq ft centre at
Rugby have opened for the Spring gardening season, adding 61% to our overall
heated covered selling space as well as large new plant areas.

Although like-for-like sales in the first 14 weeks of the current year, are 1.8%
down on last year, in part due to a late start to the season after a wet and
cold April, both of our new centres continue to trade significantly ahead of our
estimates and we are currently experiencing good overall sales growth, in excess
of 28% for the last six weeks.

Trading

Booms' overall sales were down 15.2% reflecting the impact of the sale of
non-core centres in the previous year. Like-for-like sales for the 52 weeks
were down 1.7%. This comparison excludes the Gloucester centre, which was under
development for nearly half of the year and was closed in January 2005.

Sales in the year were definitely more difficult to come by for the whole
industry, with growth on the previous year only coming from centres that have
either been recently developed or benefiting from internal improvements. The
more difficult sales environment was a consequence of the poor summer weather
and changes in the market for garden centre merchandise.

Individual product groups showed considerable variation. Good growth was
achieved in restaurants, gift ranges and gardening product, these areas being
12.8% up on the previous year. On the other hand, outdoor plants, a core part
of our business, were extremely disappointing with like-for-like sales down by
5.3% on the previous year, a performance which was also reflected across the
industry. We believe that this is partly due to an inevitable pause in growth
following several years of high expansion, particularly on the back of the TV
gardening makeover programmes. The novelty in these has now worn off and sales
across the industry have adjusted to a more sustainable level.

During the year Blooms aimed in its buying and merchandising to broaden its
appeal by making adjustments to its range architecture, particularly at the
entry level, and by increasing the value across its product range to counter a
perception that Blooms was expensive. Against the background of a poor selling
season we experienced a slight increase in customer numbers, which were up by
3.6% on like-for-like centres. This was higher than the industry average,
although average customer spend was down. We believe that Blooms has done much
to re-establish its reputation for value, and careful attention will be paid in
the current year to ranging and pricing architecture to build customer numbers
further and improve unit spend.

At the start of the year we anticipated the investment of 1% of margin in the
repositioning of our offer to emphasise value, quality and inspiration; through
working with our suppliers we

achieved our aim of broadening the range of high quality plants and products,
while achieving a gross margin of 46.4% (2004: 47.2%).



Chief executive's review (continued)


Trends

Growth in the industry is tending to come from new and refurbished centres, as
well as from new products, gift ranges, restaurants and garden enhancement,
rather than plants, which are a mature product group. Increasingly, large
restaurants of high quality are essential to attract customers who will in turn
shop for their gardening needs. The increased range of gift and home interior
products tend to be purchased on impulse and also act as another reason to visit
the larger centres. We are reflecting these trends through the development of
our new centres which feature large, high quality restaurants and increased
space for gift, home interior and garden enhancement products, whilst at the
same time ensuring that the Blooms' plant offer is sold in innovative ways and
to its traditional high standard.


Blooms New Centre Developments - 2005

We opened two new destination centres very successfully this Spring. Gloucester
was opened on schedule on 1 March with a total of 55,000 sq feet of heated
covered space, 17,000 of which is taken by retail tenants who pay rent direct to
us. The remaining 38,000 sq ft is allocated to the garden centre and
restaurant. In addition to this the garden centre has a further 12,000 sq ft of
unheated covered space where we sell containers, compost and bedding plants,
with an extra 60,000 sq ft of outdoor sales area for plants and hard landscaping
materials plus a garden buildings concession.

Rugby, a greenfield site, was opened on 8 April. Although two weeks behind
schedule April's sales forecast was still exceeded. Rugby has 43,000 sq ft of
heated covered space of which 11,000 sq ft is concessioned out to pets and
aquatics leaving 32,000 sq ft to the garden centre and restaurant with a further
15,000 sq ft of unheated covered space and approximately 100,000 sq ft of
outdoor space for plants and hard landscaping. Rugby is a large site of 17
acres with plenty of customer parking and benefits from having little
competition.

These two sites are an important part of the Blooms' strategy of growing a group
of large destination centres, which represent an increase of over 60% of the
Group's covered heated space.

Initial trading at both Gloucester and Rugby is at a higher level than expected,
which is particularly pleasing for Rugby, a greenfield development with no
existing trade to capitalise on. Both centres' gift ranges and restaurants have
taken off extremely well benefiting from more emphasis than existing centres.
In addition, outdoor plant sales at Rugby have started extremely well
demonstrating the centre's potential as a good plant centre.

We have achieved an increase in unit sale at Gloucester of 20% compared with
last year and Rugby currently boasts the highest unit spend in the Group at
#24.64.

We are planning to develop Bicester later this year with a view to opening it
later in the next financial year. Bicester will be our largest site with its
planning permission for over 100,000 sq ft of heated covered space with a
further 15,000 sq ft of covered unheated space plus a very large outdoor sales
area. We are in the process of

Chief executive's review (continued)

deciding how much space to let out to other retail tenants and have 20,000 sq ft
of A1 planning use. We are likely to pursue a sale and leaseback transaction
similar to the financing of our development at Gloucester. Early indications of
the likely costs of development and the value of he site once developed suggest
that we should achieve a very significant uplift in value on disposal and a
large injection of cash, which will increase our ability to pursue further
growth thereafter. We are therefore investigating opportunities to develop other
sites within the existing portfolio but will also look to acquire suitable new
greenfield sites and existing garden centres once Bicester is re-developed.


The non-development centres

Over the last twelve months our focus has rightly been on developing our two new
centres, we are now turning our attention to our other centres. We plan to
increase capital expenditure on these centres over the next two years to ensure
that the shopping experience is enhanced. A selection of the many new products
and ranges that are being trialled at the two new centres will be rolled out
across the six other centres this summer. We also plan to invest in better
quality internal shop fit, and expect Blooms' other six sites to benefit from
better visual merchandising coming from higher quality and more efficient shop
fittings.

[bigbertie] 24/4/2005 10:29

I visited the new Stirling site on Wednesday and was most impressed by the building and the products. It was lunchtime and the restaurant was very busy - the site is near big insurance offices and other industrial / office buildings. The food shop is top class. As an investor I'm very happy - the last few days of beautiful weather must have helped sales.

[waldron] 09/2/2005 08:37

Celebration as Dobbies passes £50m sales mark

ALASTAIR REED


DOBBIES chief executive James Barnes yesterday celebrated ten years at the Scottish garden centre group with a near-26 per cent rise in annual profits, and sales in excess of £50 million for the first time.

Barnes, who since 1995 has taken Edinburgh-based Dobbies from six garden centres generating profits of £250,000 to 17 centres with profits of £5.2m, described the performance as "pretty good, given the circumstances". He said that despite a wet summer and weakening consumer confidence, Dobbies had continued to attract customers to its 17 outlets throughout the UK.

"We had a wet spring that continued into summer and a major downturn in consumer confidence," he said. "But we have continued to innovate and differentiate ourselves and I think that's coming through in the figures."

For the year to 31 October, 2004, profits jumped 25.8 per cent to £5.2m, on sales up 17.2 per cent at £54.1m. The profit figure was inflated by a £480,000 capital windfall on the sale of an outlet near Shrewsbury. The final dividend rose 10 per cent to 8.86p. The result was slightly ahead of City expectations, with Edinburgh-based Bell Lawrie White having forecast profits of £4.7m on sales of £53m.

During the past 12 months, Dobbies has continued its steady expansion, opening a centre in Ayr, a visitor centre in Atherstone, a food hall in Edinburgh and a tourist centre next to its outlet in Dundee.

According to Barnes, the food hall - which sells local produce - has been such a success that the group is looking to roll the concept out across its other stores, starting with a baker at its centre in Stirling and a butcher at Newcastle, both of which are scheduled to open in March.

He said the group is aiming to continue expanding during the coming year, especially with increasing competition from retailers such as Tesco and B&Q, and was in the process of preparing a number of new planning applications for sites south of the Border.

"I see most of our new sites coming from England," Barnes said. "We've identified up to 150 potential sites; more than enough to keep us busy for a few years to come."

Barnes said the group remains confident about the outlook for the next six months, with like-for-like sales up 4.9 per cent in the first 12 weeks of the year, including a sector-beating 4.5 per cent in the run up to Christmas.

Seymour Pierce analyst Richard Ratner, who has a "buy" rating on the stock, said: "Dobbies remains the best-quality quoted garden centre operation, with a high standard of build, visual merchandising, housekeeping and product innovation."

He added that he expects garden centres to "weather the impending retail storm better than most other sectors". Ratner has pencilled in profits of £5.35m for the current year, and £6.15m for the next.

Shares in AIM-listed Dobbies rose 7.5p to 555.5p. The group's shares have gained almost 30 per cent since last September.

[sper] 08/2/2005 09:07

results out today, very good, very happy!

[sper] 26/1/2005 15:28

FROM WGC thread, WGC up significantly today


dovie - 26 Jan'05 - 08:49 - 70 of 71


There is speculation that private quity buyers are attracted to this stock through its property assets.

[thamestrader] 11/1/2005 11:37

LOL, sper, and point taken, however a butcher will cut up meat for you, and a baker will slice bread. Likewise, someone selling a tree should expect to make it fit for purpose, especially if you're paying over the odds.

It's the litigation culchur wot we live in wot's ruinin' everyfink.

[sper] 11/1/2005 11:29

they are a garden centre not a carpenters, would you ask them to prune your roses as well

not sure you can use elastoplast on a tree anyway, take you ages to cut through so you may be right, better to get them to use a saw

[thamestrader] 11/1/2005 09:43

We did our bit for DGC, got our Xmas tree from them. Won't bother next year though, they refuse to saw the bottom inch off the tree, so it can't drink, so it loses its needles.

They say this is on safety grounds, but tell me which is safer: a professional, possibly even expert, tree/garden/sales person trained in use of proper equipment, protective clothing and fully equipped first aid boxes all over the shop, or me at home with the wrong equipment with an elastoplast or two under the sink?

If they charge over the odds (which they do) they should provide added value in the form of service (which they don't).

[sper] 11/1/2005 08:38

Think it's good for their worst season of the year. WGC I think (DYOR) managed less than 2% for the 6 months over summer

[thamestrader] 11/1/2005 08:23

Well 4.9% wouldn't normally be considered great, but in the current environment it's excellent.

[waldron] 11/1/2005 07:54

LONDON (AFX) - Dobbies Garden Centres PLC said sales over the 9 weeks to Jan
2 this year rose by 4.9 pct on a like-for-like basis.
The company will release its preliminary results for the year to October
2004 on Feb 8.
[e-mail]
ma

[sper] 23/12/2004 10:16

RECORD HIGH

DGC and WGC screaming up today

:-)

[sper] 08/12/2004 15:39

Ker-bloody-boom to coin the technical phrase

smiling lots though

[gengulphus] 26/11/2004 16:02

Being tipped in the Investors' Chronicle this morning might have something to do with it...

Gengulphus

[sper] 26/11/2004 12:13

7.5p up on thin buys. Nice but why?

[sper] 15/10/2004 10:52

Very much acting like a yo-yo recently, which in context is infinitely better than acting like Leeds Utd, going down with no hope of a bounce back up!

[thamestrader] 10/9/2004 11:43

Sper, just as you typed that, the sun came out.

Nice one.

[sper] 10/9/2004 11:36

WGC results from this week show good improvement and poor summer not having such a great impact for the part that it took in these results. WGC bounced up and maybe having knock on effect for DGC though latter will have full summer in their next results. Lets hope it keeps shining for the rest of it!


LONDON (AFX) - Wyevale Garden Centres PLC 26 weeks to June 27 2004
Sales - 108.18 mln stg vs 110.34 mln
Pretax profit - 15.10 mln stg vs 16.07 mln
Adjusted EPS - 20.3 pence vs 22.2
EPS - 19.2 pence vs 19.6
Interim div - 8.32 pence vs 8.08

[thamestrader] 09/9/2004 10:32

If it was predictable, we'd all be millionaires.

It's been sunny all this week, so maybe that's brought hoards of shoppers into the garden centres.

Not.

[sper] 09/9/2004 09:24

Drops for no reason now bounces for no reason. Love this game

[sper] 01/9/2004 09:38

Be nice to have a trading update to go with todays news, see how the poorer summer weather has affected them

[sper] 27/8/2004 09:46

Gateside

I wasnt sure about some aspects of BBR when I started looking at this sector so I discounted them. IMHO DGC was a much better bet than WGC and I still subscribe to that.

As for the drops at the moment, the BBR profit warning taken in light of the very poor summer for this sector has probably hit all three. Still consider WGC to be a good hold imho.

Be interesting to watch all three going forward, shame we cannot set up a thread with all three EPICs.