Coral Products Share Discussion Threads

[clocktower] 28/10/2019 09:55

I thought the sale of 150k shares today might be Steve Cranwick`s holding but on checking the last ones he bought in May left him with a total holding of 88.064 - I have not checked all trades since his departure but clearly this sale cannot be his.

However, as stated prior to the AGM the first few months were still profitable, and they clearly had decided to take action (which I guess included the streamlining of the sales team) as they had failed to achieve/generate the expected level of sales. So, I assume they just wanted a fresh approach, so selected a woman whom has yet to prove herself. Somehow though having done a little research I think she has a lot to prove as I could see no outstanding record, hopefully she will measure up to the job but regrettably I doubt it very much.

[atholl91] 28/10/2019 09:42

Charo, I have dealt with Grimmond in the recent past and his influence at Coral is all pervasive. Institutions are are small in number in Coral because Grimmond has gone ex-res and the last 5 years have been a disaster. The CEO is an operating man with no public company experience. I have a great deal of experience in Chairing & also running public companies and as long as Grimmond is there Coral is going nowhere.

[sitrep] 25/10/2019 17:29

A good place to start would be board muinutes. How many board members have ever voted against anything JG has done or recommended? There lies your answer.

[charo] 25/10/2019 17:10

Maybe major shareholders know jg is non exec chairman unlike the vigilante day traders. As before the nomination committee points ceo chairman will liase with board and jointly appoint.In one minute people accept jg only has a small non controlling holding so replace.Next accusing him of being mastermind controlling everything.
Speak to those who know and work at company and then judge.

[clocktower] 25/10/2019 11:03

The problem is that there are a lot more sellers waiting in the wings than buyers, so even if there was better news posted,many holders would be looking for a quick exit and willing to take some losses imo. So stuck in single figures as you say atholl91.

I am surprise none of the really big holders have sort to replace Joe though, in light of recent events. However, as you say sitrep, many manufactures are facing difficult choices, and in some ways if Coral has acted quickly by cutting numbers and costs it does show they maybe cutting the cloth to maintain profits at levels which they were trading at after the year end.

[sitrep] 25/10/2019 09:58

I think caution is a word used around many manufacturing businesses right now, its a tough gig, hopefully Alesman's optimism is proven right.

[clocktower] 25/10/2019 09:06

I posted before I read your post sitrep but that is better news for long suffering holders like myself, even if there is a caution signal in your post. Thanks.

[clocktower] 25/10/2019 09:04

sitrep, your postings seem to have been noted by the MM, hence the mark down early this morning with any trades showing.

Hopefully, the company will not need to put out a warning trading statement, that would I expect send the shares down towards 3p or less.

[sitrep] 25/10/2019 08:59

Hi CT, the tote business is unstable and it is just one customer. The customer owns the rights and could in theory transfer the tooling anywhere they wish. Having said that, Coral is in the box seat but they are up against bigger players like Linpac who were sniffing around. I believe the customer would always want a second source for contingency reasons. If the customer expands as promised, could still be good for Coral, but there are huge time gaps between orders so revenue is never clear.

[clocktower] 24/10/2019 22:25

Maybe you can tell us more about the tote business, which seems to have been the biggest winner to date, as the local authority businesses has not really been a factor.
How many other products are they producing in numbers- roof tiles etc?

Thanks for the info and your knowledge.

[pugugly] 24/10/2019 21:34

Straight - There is a name to conjure with.
Almost as big a disaster as CRU as a listed company - Floated at approx 90p - Roared up to over 300p and crashed out at 77p in 2015


Must admit however the capacity of their Hull factory ww.straight.co.uk/about/our-factory/ looks impressive - Would have concerns going up against them in competitive bidding.

[sitrep] 24/10/2019 20:09

Hello Aleman, ok, if it makes you feel better, we can all leave the facts alone and slide into JG's land of makebelieve. Oh yes, that's better...

[aleman] 24/10/2019 19:49

You lot seem a bit gloomy. They made £2.5m EBITDA last year even though they lost money for 4 months. If they only lose money for 3 months this year and free up a bit of working capital, they might be worth 15p per share.

[sitrep] 24/10/2019 19:44

Clocktower, many local authorities buy joined up products, for example Straight offer wheelie bins and many other associated products that Coral cannot compete with, all Coral has is a kerbside box and a food caddy plus the new trolley thing. They tried something similar (trolley) nearly 10 years ago with trolleys from China and it tanked badly. The recycling idea seemed fair, maybe using it as a way to incentivise sales to LA's, but their system creates really poor re-granulate that is hard for them or other users to process.

[sitrep] 24/10/2019 19:33

Helen Broderick has been at Coral a few years and was promoted to sales in the summer, Cranswick was let go last month, so he is not replaced.

[pugugly] 24/10/2019 19:11

sitrep:- Many thanks for the info:- Message received is that JG may well losse his pension in that something very funny happens if you cannot sell - As the Yanks say (where I did a lot of my sales training)- The firm goes Bust -

A good sales force is one of the 4 legs need to keep the firm progressing and able to pay its way.

If GOP, as you say, imports EVERYTHING from China there is (imo) a significant risk that they will lose out on business due to
(1) Exchange rate depreciation
(2) lead times and lack of flexabiity for delivery schedules - Unless they have air freight flexability built into their costing structure. I was not aware they are just an import house -
Was anyone else aware of this?

[clocktower] 24/10/2019 19:00

Thank you sitrep - very knowledgeable indeed. I hope the CEO knows what he is doing by making these sort of cuts. It does not sound as though Cranswick was successful in bringing home big orders from local authorities, as the only one they announced was the one from St Helens for the new re-cycling multi bin, which is trial project I understood.
One can only assume that business is under some stress as they are having to cut head count.

I also believe he had purchased stock in CRU, which I guess he has dumped.

Having done a bit more research since your first post sitrep, I understand they have appointed Helen Broderick as National Account Manager - so it seems he has just been replaced.

Maybe someone needs to get the knife out for Joe and replace him? He has not got sufficient holdings to prevent one of the bigger holders calling for a replacement.

[sitrep] 24/10/2019 18:34

Mr Grimmond is not selling to anyone until he has a return on his investment to put back in his pension. He is in so deep he has no choice and would never accept a loss. This means JG will be there until the end because nobody is mad enough to pay £0.15+

[sitrep] 24/10/2019 18:24

Cranswick was the local authority specialist for Coral and Cranswick was let go for cost saving among other redundancies. Coral now has just one salesman for mouldings. Interpak and GOP have their own sales people, the difference is GOP do not use mouldings for manufacturing as everything is from China, but Interpak do use mouldings as a supplier

[clocktower] 24/10/2019 12:56

I just had another thought, maybe Joe is in talks with another company that already has a sales force to take over CRU, so they took steps to reduce the team before a bid?

Could it be MACF whom have expanded rapidly of late.

[clocktower] 24/10/2019 12:25

They have been shouting out about their new facilities but if Cranswick and the rest of the team were not effective in getting business, then there could be little alternative but getting a new team together to delver results.

sitrep, are you a customer of Coral`s or do you know Cranswick?

More info please?

[mrphil] 24/10/2019 12:13

Certainly very disappointing, thought they would be shouting out loud about their fantastic new facilities.

[sitrep] 24/10/2019 11:49

they have made sales team redundancies, Cranswick was let go several weeks ago - what company struggling with sales reduces their sales teams?? That would be Coral all over.

[clocktower] 24/10/2019 10:49

There seems to be a distinct lack of news from the company of late - No new Contracts for example. I was also looking at the company website and one thing that stuck me was not only was it very slow to load but they do not have a list of the sales people to contact from each of any of the various businesses in the group on the website.

Surely, if they were customer focused and striving to obtain orders they should present the team and not only put up contact details but faces to them.

In fact the only sales person I recall seeing on the company twitter account back in early October was a picture of Steve Cranswick during the LARAC 2019 event. So who else in sales do they have sales, and where are all these orders that should have been generated through the numerous shows they presented at, and the fact that they were one of the few companies re-cycling their waste and other plastics.

All they seem good at is re-tweeting other companies tweets.

One often finds that companies that do not communicate well are stressed, and it seems that maybe the case with Coral at present.