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| Share Name | Share Symbol | Market | Stock Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Food Grp. | BFP | London | Ordinary Share |
| Price Change | Price Change % | Share Price | Last Trade
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.00 | 0.00% | - |
| Open Price | Low Price | High Price | Close Price | Previous Close |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top Posts |
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Posted at 22/12/2004 13:23 by welshbloke Icemanyou forget that one of the main problems faced by BFG over the past three years is the way store manager's have been straightjacketed by the "control" brought in by Hoskins and Grimsey. Sure that needed to be done given the state the business was in, but sadly the over cautious approach meant store managers were unable to trade the stores, something Iceland had always done very well. Further, in excess of £50m was spent on IT systems, the majority of which showed no return due to an ineffecive strategy of trying to merge businesses with little in the way of common processes. Some SAP was implemented at massive cost, and IT was outsourced to Pink Rocadde for MORE than the current runing costs. Hardly wise investments for a business in recovery and something the IT Management and the board should be ashamed of. With little in the way of cultural and process synergy these investments have resulted in changes which do not support the need for a business like Iceland to dynamically respond to changes in the market. This is why Malcolm Walker could be good for the company - he won't put rigid controls in - sure at some point they have their place, but not when you need to trade your way out in a fight. So is it a fair deal? Well yes, because the current regime have destroyed the business through their approach. Only months ago Grimsey was bragging about return to shareholders as the share price reached 188.The fact is in the years he has been in charge shareholders have seen a negative return on their investment for which he will have received in excess of £5m incuding bonuses. Now, were in not for the costs associated with the group structure, IT investments, refits etc, the group would actually have an operating proft some £25m higher........on that basis if Iceland can trade its way out, it does beg the question of what sort of profit it could generate. As an investor I'd quite like the opporunity of staying in - however given the option of taking 95p or letting Grimsey continue down a path of poor investment choices, poor strategy and wasted money, Ill be voting yes. |
Posted at 18/12/2004 19:22 by bigface If the Bloomberg "news2 is true then it will settle just below 95p perhaps as low as 93p - 94p on Monday - will you take that fatman, or risk the protracted deal not going through?This tickled me: "Baugur is the company's biggest investor with a 22 percent stake, and shareholders speaking for almost a fifth of the stock plan to accept the offer, the statement said". |
Posted at 02/12/2004 11:58 by robbie_3 I reposted my thoughts, especially paragraph 3. "robbie_3 - 23 Nov'04 - 15:15 - 1838 of 1875 Small investors that can should hold on tight imo and not play into Bauger/MW's hands by selling out and delivering BFP's share price on a plate. I guess there may be shorting on recent news but I can't see the share price dropping to 80p target as investors recognise the opportunity to go long at these levels. Bauger with 22% will not want to walk away and sensible investors already know this. I would also have been surprised if due diligence had been a quick process, of course the longer this goes on the more disaffected shareholders become and the cheaper the deal. Only then will Bauger carve and sell off BFP making a nice little profit at the expense of small shareholders. That's what Bauger is good at. I also wonder how hard Grimsey is honestly working for small inverstors? If this deal with Bauger goes through no doubt Grimsey will do very nicely out of it. Bauger currently hold the cards but at some point soon they will have to show them. No amount of sounding out beforehand can ensure there are not others out there wishing to join the table. Some may remember the Kingfisher offer before Wall Mart's takeover of Asda. Bauger with 22% wins either way. Holding. " |
Posted at 23/11/2004 15:15 by robbie_3 Small investors that can should hold on tight imo and not play into Bauger/MW's hands by selling out and delivering BFP's share price on a plate.I guess there may be shorting on recent news but I can't see the share price dropping to 80p target as investors recognise the opportunity to go long at these levels. Bauger with 22% will not want to walk away and sensible investors already know this. I would also have been surprised if due diligence had been a quick process, of course the longer this goes on the more disaffected shareholders become and the cheaper the deal. Only then will Bauger carve and sell off BFP making a nice little profit at the expense of small shareholders. That's what Bauger is good at. I also wonder how hard Grimsey is honestly working for small inverstors? If this deal with Bauger goes through no doubt Grimsey will do very nicely out of it. Bauger currently hold the cards but at some point soon they will have to show them. No amount of sounding out beforehand can ensure there are not others out there wishing to join the table. Some may remember the Kingfisher offer before Wall Mart's takeover of Asda. Bauger with 22% wins either way. Holding. |
Posted at 11/11/2004 15:47 by bigface Hope it goes well fatman - I just started to feel |I was being conned and sold out. Thanks Kingdwg. Dissapointing really though - Good volumn - Fatman I thing leaving the Divi out of the accounts is imprudent - distors the real shareholders funds for current investors. I guess they didn't want to show futhr depleted assets, but they are flouting account convention by doing so. |
Posted at 22/9/2004 20:38 by chaudr Who's Moody's Investors Service? And will they cause Bauger to re-think? |
Posted at 09/9/2004 19:49 by uknighted Extract from today's Interactive Investor Digest:"There are more bullish signs at Big Food Group, which I first noticed in July. The down trendline is more decisively breached to the upside now, and there was good volume under the move. As long as closing support at 80p holds, the breakout projects to a target of 97p. If there's a breakout over 97p, it will probably constitute a double bottom with a target of 120p." |
Posted at 17/7/2004 10:39 by m.t.glass Telegraph item:Questor column (Helena Keers) in Telegraph today doesn't like BigFood: Best to give perishing Big Food Group the cold shoulder For investors, BFG has proved not so much of a Big Friendly Giant, more a Big Financial Grind. The acronym stands for Big Food Group, and the company owns the Iceland and Booker chains. Bill Grimsey, who has been in charge at the company for three years, took on a mammoth task when he started at the business, and there's not much evidence that he's anywhere near the end of it. The company was chronically underinvested, and even though he's having some success refurbishing the Iceland stores, it's a race against time, because the ones that aren't refurbished are continuing to decline at a massive rate. Iceland is also having problems in the competitive environment, with the takeover of Safeway by Morrisons and Sainsbury's coming under new management. These prompted yet another bad trading statement from the company earlier this week, which many interpreted as a profits warning. This is an occurrence with which shareholders are becoming familiar. Booker is also struggling, as the figures this week showed. Analysts moved to trim their forecasts and few could see a bright spot at the end of the tunnel. Supermarket competition will increase, not decrease, and although the company is continuing with its refurbishment and cost-cutting plans, frozen food is becoming a less popular choice for many shoppers. The shares, to be fair, don't look expensive at 82.5p this week, compared with well over 150p early this year and 346p in 2000. They trade on seven times forward earnings with a prospective 4pc dividend yield. However, there's no indication that the shares are out of the ice age just yet and they are best avoided. |
Posted at 13/7/2004 09:03 by m.t.glass Steer clear of the Big Food GroupEdited by Stephen Foley (The Independent) 13 July 2004 If only mum would go back to Iceland. The frozen food chain, owned by Big Food Group, has been suffering as customers desert its frumpy old stores. While the management has been focused on turning some of its best sites into bright new convenience stores selling fresh fruit, veg and sandwiches, the older shops - on the evidence of yesterday's trading update - are fast going to rack and ruin. The company has two answers: speed up the programme of refits; and replace the Iceland boss with a new man poached from Asda, with a brief to improve customer service standards across the 748 stores, not just the 40 refitted ones. The company has two problems: it does not generate so much cash that speeding up the refits will be a financial breeze; and bigger competitors such as Tesco are steaming into the convenience market much faster than Iceland is managing. With Iceland sales down 1.7 per cent in the past three months, compared with the same period last year, the combative chief executive of BFG is going to struggle to turn the sales performance around any time soon. And that is just Iceland. While the City's gaze has been fixed in horror there, the other main business - the cash and carry chain Booker - is starting to look troubled, too. Sales (excluding tobacco) are down 1.8 per cent, despite a push to link up with independent convenience stores, helping them rebrand as Premier shops and becoming their exclusive wholesaler. Booker's sales to caterers have been particularly poor and the company yesterday added Euro 2004 to the list of reasons, or excuses, which previously included the weather and the late Easter. The Woodward food service business is growing fast, but it is still only a tiny part of BFG, and there will be no respite for the shares at least until sales growth is restored at Iceland. They have plunged since we said "sell" at 135p in April and now look cheap as a multiple of likely earnings this year. But earnings forecasts were cut again yesterday, and the dividend yield of 3.8 per cent doesn't suggest the stock is noticeably undervalued. Avoid. And from a similar story in the FT: ...the shares have fallen more than 45 per cent this year as investors lose patience with Mr Grimsey's efforts to restructure the business... Monday's numbers caused analysts to downgrade their full-year forecasts by £4m to a consensus of about £52m.... David Stoddart, of Teather & Greenwood, described the results as "disappointing" and said trading was unlikely to improve in the short term... "Pressure on prices from the bigger groups will only get worse," he said. And in The Times: ...Iceland is hastily refurbishing its stores in a bid to prop up its flagging sales. The retailer has so far refitted about 185 of its 700 stores, in many cases by introducing a convenience-style format which is more suitable for its inner-city sites. ...One analyst said: “Sales are increasing at its new-format stores but they cannot roll them out fast enough to keep overall sales from falling.” -------------------- Transformation into convenience store format is very fashionable these days, but when they finally get there, how are they expecting to compete with the same big rivals who beat them to it? All the major supermarkets already have convenience store networks now. It's no good Iceland going head-to-head with its bigger rivals unless they can develop some particular imaginitive edge - otherwise they'll lose the next battle the same as they've lost the last one.. mtg |
Posted at 08/7/2004 10:05 by this time next year When everyone else is selling, that is the time to buy. Bought a few more this morning - can see no reason for the fall. Don't think its shorters as the volume is too low, and there is no clear reason to short.I think the fall is down to private investors getting nervous before the trading statement. If you believe the TS will be OK, you won't get a better opportunity to buy! The current price is 'emotional' and probably wrong, too low in my opinion, but could be the other way - we'll all find out on Monday! |
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