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[chickenvindaloo] 13/3/2019 19:04

Last week for me and then I'm out of there for good after 14.5 years.

[hotdawg] 13/3/2019 17:03

High job turnover possibly unhappy staff

[turbocharge] 13/3/2019 12:17

Quite a lot of vacancies at Connect, not sure if it's a good sign or not. Looks like the jobs page has been re-designed and is much better now (I could be wrong)

[scotslass76] 08/3/2019 21:05

DMD lost the BA contract.

[newshound1] 08/3/2019 20:00

Anyone heard news about loss of big airline contract ? I haven’t seen it Reported but heard from few people

[turbocharge] 14/2/2019 10:51

10:41:27 38.2375 500,000 O 37.9500 38.3500 Buy

[turbocharge] 14/2/2019 10:44

Peter Birks, CEO of Tuffnells has stated that he recognises the need for a cost to serve model to avoid on-boarding of loss-making customers. I think the changes outlined by Connect management will begin to show an improving business sooner rather than later...

[edmundshaw] 13/2/2019 22:22

Wasn't Jack's beans another try for "adjacencies"? Let us hope the next ones can be more carefully modelled - Jack's Beans obviously and Tufnells "efficiency drive" obviously were not, and PNP looked from the outside like a flop from year 1 to me and many others, the management seeming to throw good money after speculative bad almost in desperation.

Honestly, the last management's attempts to "grow the business" were so bad that it would be a disastrously bad new board that could not improve things.

[turbocharge] 13/2/2019 15:16

You failed to understand the phrase 'natural near adjacencies'. Please pay attention.

You could perhaps listen to the recent trading update presentation at

[ls24] 13/2/2019 11:11

The last low cost add on was pass my parcel, may I recommend selling utilities to newsagents as an option with little risk of blowing a fortune to fail

[newshound1] 13/2/2019 10:39

Completely understand and generally agree they can’t only shrink to success

Assume they pay the drivers £100 a day and have 20 customers to deliver so are costing £5 per delivery. Is the hovis giving a better return

Not saying they are not. And not saying adjacencies approach is incorrect.

I am saying loading unloading delivering etc. All costs time

If time and vehicle capacity is available to accommodate weight of bread would there be a better return on that cost by reducing routes and using capacity for this

[turbocharge] 13/2/2019 10:08

I believe these natural near adjacencies are seen as a low cost 'add on' if there is scope to do so without much additional cost, rather than an alternative to the core business.

[newshound1] 13/2/2019 09:56

It is similar with frontline and Seymour.

Both would have benefited after comag ceased operations

I was just highlighting to say not a good way to measure the decline as is very distorted.

[colonel a] 13/2/2019 08:54

Newshound1,
Thank you for the correction.
The inclusion of local world business in this renegotiation would turn the RNS from neutral/mildly +ve to rather negative.
There are clearly people on this board closer to the business than me but if nobody else is interested I will ask the company for clarification.

[turbocharge] 12/2/2019 23:40

Don't forget potential to grow revenues by additional business activities that draw on the company’s existing strengths and infrastructure. Not much money needs to be spent to set up these additional revenue streams. Such an example is Hovis bread delivered by Smiths News vans.

[newshound1] 12/2/2019 20:08

@colonel on post 1375

Reach is combination of:

trinity mirror 143 million in 2014 contract

northern and shell 83million in 2016 contract

local world not stated but assuming c50%of turnover is 40million

Overall the three combined businesses show a large decline in turnover v this weeks announcement

[the pilgrim] 12/2/2019 16:57

They are in a duopoly with separate areas, economies of scale mean that they will always secure contracts because it’s almost impossible to enter the market profitably.

Contracts are margin based calculated from RSP, so fixed without inflation tie in. Inflation comes from publisher price increases which they don’t have control of.

[colonel a] 11/2/2019 13:49

No.
The annual results have newspapers at this level but magazines {etc.} take the Smiths News total to over 1.3 billion.

Also, who says the contracts are fixed price - there will be some sort of inflation tie in.
This contract is ~£220 million p.a. at current values.

[ls24] 11/2/2019 13:32

So Smiths news is now a £900m(ish) business and 25% of it has a fixed price for 5 years that they must find savings elsewhere to cover increasing transport costs for, the saving grace must be the decreasing print market and I wonder what this was last signed at??

[colonel a] 11/2/2019 11:10

This looks like a combination of two historical contracts.
Trinity Mirror and Regional.

The total revenue looks flat, which is OK for this business in these low inflation times.

[turbocharge] 11/2/2019 10:22

RNS Number: 5604P, 11 February 2019

Smiths News agrees new long term contract with Reach PLC ("Reach")

Connect Group is pleased to announce that Smiths News has agreed a new long-term contract with Reach from October 2019 through to September 2024. The agreement secures annual revenues of circa £220m at current market values and encompasses all Smiths News' distribution territories

Reach's newspaper portfolio includes the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror, People, Daily Express, Daily Star, Sunday Express and Daily Star Sunday. The contract also covers Reach's regional press business and OK! magazine. In total, Reach accounts for approximately 25% of Smiths News' newspaper sales.

Jos Opdeweegh, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"I am delighted that we have agreed a new contract with Reach. The accelerated renewal of Smiths News' contracts is a strategic priority and we have now secured approximately 54% of our sales, including our largest newspaper and magazine partners. We are confident our remaining contracts can also be agreed, underpinning our plans for a sustainable recovery in the performance of the Group."

[turbocharge] 08/2/2019 18:42

13:52:21 37.50 500,000 O 37.20 37.70 Buy

[turbocharge] 04/2/2019 13:52

This current job advert gives an idea of improvements Connect are aiming for:

"Planning and Forecasting Analyst (Customer Experience) - Swindon

About the Customer Experience Team:

The recently formed Customer Experience team has been established to drive the simplification of our customer processes and deliver a great customer experience to new and existing customers of the Smiths News brand. We currently serve approximately 30,000 customers across both multiple and independent retail segments and handle in excess of 50,000 calls every week through our customer contact centres."