Blacks Leisure Share Discussion Threads

[chase] 15/7/2011 15:59

Down almost 50%.

There is also an up to 50% sale online at www.blacks.co.uk

[ashtree2] 15/7/2011 15:58

Only 197k sold on advfn and yet a drop of 46% ? seems overdone and have bought a few at 8.7.

[stud-muffin] 15/7/2011 15:36

Bloomin eck this is taking a dive.

I have been watching them since I bottled a trade for a small profit at 17.4p only for them to go 19.6p on the bid.

I am tempted at this price but will sit it out.

Good luck all in this - perhaps best forgetting about them at this price?

[cockneyrebel] 15/7/2011 15:35

she-ra - you do talk codswallop.

Are you referring to Cecil Gee Sale at Moss Bros? That was naff all significance.

Still, nobody including you were interested @ 20p when some of us were.

Got to accept some risk in these things - if BSLA was a wipe out and the next one is a two bagger you're still well up. Just don't be in too deep imo and get deeper as things get better, if they do imo.

CR

[envirovision] 15/7/2011 15:35

Surely your not still holding are you CR ?

[cockneyrebel] 15/7/2011 15:30

Well that's what illiquidity does for you - probably cheap enough for a bidder to make a move now.

As I said, not for widows and orphans - best stay away unless you have balls of steel or so few it doesn't matter imo.

CR

[she-ra] 15/7/2011 15:30

Moss Bros had an asset to sell which they made a nice tidy profit on and unlike Blacks they have benefited in a growth market which Blacks doesnt seem to have exploited.

[rougepierre] 15/7/2011 15:25

If the recession returns people will spend more time in the UK and Blacks will benefit...my opinion, for what its worth is that Gills is clearing the decks for Reynolds arrival....the only way is up now IMO...price has fallen on no volume whatsoever and I've loaded up at 9.375....

either Reynolds will deliver or a bid will emerge...

look at Mossbros...outdated business model...shares slumped and now look at them...

[fuming fred] 15/7/2011 15:23

Stop horsing around here and get yourselves over to the dogs(PUPS)thread where where picking winners has become like shelling peas.
A new service is being launched this evening so come over and climb on board the great ship PUPS thread.

All welcome!!

[she-ra] 15/7/2011 14:59

Youre kind of right however Blacks has a greater geographical reach.

CR maybe right in suggesting that it could be a target.I dont agree it would be Go Outdoors.I mean which would be more beneficial a greater reach (and that would put them in enviable position) or see Blacks go under and mop up their customers?

Im not so sure now.

What I always add in my mind is the gloomy retail outlook but there are competitors who dont have big stores and would Go Outdoors let their growing position be jeopardised by another competitor mopping up Blacks and threatening their own position?

If somethings going to happen it will happen soon.

[envirovision] 15/7/2011 14:31

she-ra

Go outdoors was and continues to be built from the ground up as an integrated multi level specialist outdoor retailer.

Blacks missed the boat, now it cant sell its stuff online to compete with them because it also has to display the stuff in 300 odd shops at a higher price to pay its overheads.

Yes of course it has discovered opening a few new shops in the right place at the right price and size with snazzy branding works, but its too late because its got a whole supply chain geared to servicing hundreds of the wrong kind of shops. Neither of the supply chain or shops could be shut down cheaply or quickly.

It had two chances to do this and failed. I doubt it could command the confidence to try for a third time. Even if it did raise the money to shut down all the shops and re-jig the supply chain for a workable muli level platform what would be the point ?

Would there really be space in the market for them, the discount retailers and Go-outdoors and numerous independents ?

[stud-muffin] 15/7/2011 14:13

Its all competition.

The big problem is as I understand it the stores are too small and expensive per sq m to display the products well.

Fine for footwear and clothes but the other stuff .......?

In this stay at home frugal Britain (for some) they should be doing OK and they clearly are not.

[she-ra] 15/7/2011 14:06

envirovision - But Go Outdoors are growing so I think you are wrong that supermarkets pose a challenging threat to outdoor retailers.

[envirovision] 15/7/2011 13:42

This is a fascinating story. Imagine the margins on some of this gear:



Amazing, some of this stuff is so cheap people simply chuck it away.

I don't think I would really want any part in competing with eight or twelve quid tents and other such camping gear from Asda and Tesco.

.....but thats what blacks are staring at.

[envirovision] 15/7/2011 13:05

Maybe it was because Figleaves got bought out by N Brown and during the restructure was surplus so was politely ask to start looking.

Regards Tescos, sounds like she couldn't hack the pressure and was trying to pin the blame on her male counterparts.

"Macho aggression that appeared to be the price she had to pay for being a successful woman in a male-dominated corporate world"

Read more:

I have to say, it looks like a woman who is going downwards in her career not upwards. Even if that is not true, what the hell does she know about tents, hurricane lamps, rucksacks Gore-tex boots and karrimor jackets ?

[simon gordon] 15/7/2011 13:03

Mentioned on Markets Live, broker comment:

"Blacks Leisure (not under coverage): Poor old Blacks is way off most people's radar-screens, with a market cap of only £14m at last night's close, but today's new disaster should not pass unnoticed. Despite reasonable trading in the last 6 weeks, cumulative LFL sales over the last 19 weeks are down by a worse than expected 9.7%, which has caused net debt to balloon, forcing the company to renegotiate its banking facilities again and investigate the potential for yet another capital raising...Ouch. We wish them luck."

[she-ra] 15/7/2011 12:52

CR - Maybe youure right.It maybe now or never.

[cockneyrebel] 15/7/2011 12:48

Well there's nowt but bears around - I love buying in that climate.

Obviously high risk, to be honest I think you should all leave this alone and let it drift further imo it's not for you two. Don't be surprised when it bounces again tho - someone has been buying up all the sells for a while, even if it isn't Go-Outdoors - they are probably mad too.

I wonder why Julia Reynolds who had a good job and great track record at Tesco and at Figleaves wanted to leave those to come here? I guess she's just crazy.

CR

[envirovision] 15/7/2011 12:40

Well they may have deserved a second chance, but I don't think they deserve a third chance imo. Turning into a binary bet, can they continue through to christmas then manage to cook the books enough for a third chance fundraising and bank debt restructure or will the bank decide to pull the plug after xmas and recover its money ?

What price for option money on such a bet ?

[cockneyrebel] 15/7/2011 12:31

What - 300 stores and a market cap of £11m? Sales of £200m. If the New ceo gets these anywhere near back to profit these are a five bagger imo. That's if they aren't bought out before long.

  By Iain Packham  Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES   LONDON (Dow Jones)--The head of outdoor clothing chain Blacks Leisure Group PLC (BSLA.LN) said Friday the company hopes to open new stores next year, despite harsh high street conditions, if it performs well over its key Christmas trading season.  Chief Executive Neil Gillis told Dow Jones Newswires the company will discuss new store openings and possible funding when it meets with bankers in February, before its debt facility expires in November 2012.  "Depending on how we traded over Christmas.. we'd be looking at what kind of funding the business would need to open the optimum amount of stores," he said.  The company's 12 new stores, opened over the last 18 months, are performing well, according to Gillis who said they have been generating a 30% return on investment.  "New stores are performing incredibly well and in the long term that has really got to be the future of the business," he said.  Earlier Friday, however, the outdoor clothing chain said it had to temporarily increase its debt facility by around GBP5 million as it weathers the brutal economic conditions on the U.K. high street.  Gillis said the extended loan facility would only lead to a GBP2 million increase in debt, when seen in conjunction with the existing GBP3 million seasonal loan facility already available.  "As directors, we've got to be able to be totally confident that the business can operate within its debt facilities. It's just something you can't afford to take any kind of risk with, so we've increased the facility by GBP2 million, which isn't a great deal," Gillis said.  "We generate a lot of cash over Christmas, I would be hoping that we have a strong trading period then and hopefully be able to operate on a smaller facility going forward," he added.  Blacks has around 310 stores throughout the U.K. and Ireland with around 100 of them operating under the Millets brand.  Shares at 1025 GMT were down 3 pence, or 18.5%, at 13.25 pence in a slightly lower Smallcap Market--down 0.01%   -By Iain Packham, Dow Jones Newswires

[envirovision] 15/7/2011 09:30

They cant even bring themselves to tell it like it is the slime balls. Trying to dress it up as an extension of banking facilities. Dire fall in like for like sales in the face of the biggest boom seen in camping since the 70's !

Clearly they are looking at coming back to investors for yet another fund raising in order to survive.

Hmmmmm, wonder how they are going to achieve that ?

[cockneyrebel] 15/7/2011 07:55

At least trading has picked up strongly recently and the new CEO starts here out.

Personally tho, holding these is about a bid for me, someone has been acquiring a lot of stock of late and Go-Outdoors still looks the likly bidder imo.

CR

[spob] 15/7/2011 07:28

Company breached it's banking covenants

has been granted a short term extention