Glisten Share Discussion Threads

[matthew2043] 24/7/2005 20:01

We should start to see more interest here as we move towards the finals in mid September.

[m.t.glass] 29/6/2005 16:13

From Pat Lay's final column in The Mail:

...Charles Pick, food manufacturing and engineering sector analyst at Corporate Synergy, has prepared an a la carte research note on eight Aim stocks in the food manufacturing industry. Tasty value, he says, is offered by The Real Good Food Company and Zetar, both of which he rates 'strong buys' while Finsbury Food Group is a 'buy' and Inter Link Foods, Glisten and Hill Station are 'holds.' Provexis, the health food group is sent back to the kitchen as a 'sell' because there will soon be 250m shares in issue and Mr Pick is concerned at the level of the annual cash 'burn'. However, he does recommends that investors should consider the stock at lower levels, preferably below 5.5p...

[slj] 23/5/2005 08:28

Here we are, back to the not-able-to-buy-online again......well you can buy 750 shares max at the mo. As soon as this starts moving, it's difficult to buy decent quantities online. Two MM trades gone through so far today.

Good to see blue again..

[hughlss] 20/5/2005 14:22

In answer to Osmond's question - yes!
Maybe a bit early as results won't be for about 4 months, but Glisten is an exceptionally good investment for the medium/long term investor. The danger of leaving it too long is that a few, relatively small investments such as there was yesterday and today can move the price up and you may well miss out.
I have been in since almost the beginning, sold out at 2.40 (for an investment elsewhere!) and bought a few back yesterday, and intend to increase my stake considerably.
Unless you're looking for a share to trade, then they don't come any better than Glisten.
In my opinion, at any rate.

[slj] 15/5/2005 10:58

I would have thought that my post 192 above would have answered that for you.

From the Chairman's statement on 7 March 2005:

Outlook:

"Sales in the first 2 months of the second half are 146% ahead of last year
overall and 11% on a like for like basis. Following the decision to create a
single confectionery division, the opportunities available to us both in terms
of product range extension and wider distribution will be a strong catalyst for
growth. We will also benefit from the very significant impact that Halo will
have over the next six months. This is a very exciting time for the Group and we
remain confident that this will be an excellent third year.

[osmond] 14/5/2005 16:43

Is Glisten a good buy now at £2.45?

[slj] 13/5/2005 18:35

I'm still watching too - I would have probably bought some if I was home this afternoon. I'm amazed that people are selling at these levels.

[slj] 10/5/2005 11:40

Cheers Tole......keeping a close eye. The only problem is it starts to go up, you can't buy over 1k online, if you're lucky!

[tole] 10/5/2005 11:23

Cheers SLJ - Yep 200ema just under 270 - and agree sitting on support line from july 04, but personally will wait for a move and hold above the 200ema level before looking - since breaking the long term trend line from 2003 (negating the blip in novemebr) at the 285 level in the recent drop, coinciding with the small cap selloff as late.

Would be nice to see a nice upward break as fall done on relatively low volume. Still definately like the story here and not negative at all on the company. But just trying not to rush in. Definately fancy them as a buy at 235/240 which is a nice 20% retrace on recent highs (similar to much other small cap retraces of late) and long term support level as well as the price of the recent £7.3m placing. Got so much on the monitor and dont want to miss any of them. Good luck :)

[slj] 10/5/2005 10:26

Tole - 200 SMA on just below 268p at the mo, and 200 EMA just below 270p on Sharescope. It broke through 200day EMA in July and Nov 04, only to shoot up again. Good sign if it breaks up through RSI 40 imho. Hoping it might have found support at 264p, which is upward support line since July 04.

[tole] 10/5/2005 10:13

Personally waiting for it to hold above 270 before having another look - which coincides with the 200ema, which could act as support/resistance at the moment. Price has fallen a fair bit lately, and broken through 200 day - but believe we could still see 240 in another drop imo.
Chart forming a temp downtrend from teh 300 high so waiting and watching. Cant post a chart at teh mo - but look at rsi and macd and draw a line down from top. Lower highs and lower lows and all that...
Still looks good long term and am sure I will have some soon anyway, but no need to rush in. imo

[slj] 10/5/2005 09:50

Anybody think it's time to buy again?

[jangaman] 02/4/2005 09:00

Good posts, Tole.

[tole] 28/3/2005 11:42

manchester business
Tuesday, 8th March 2005
Glisten's tasty turnover treat
Sarah Walters
CONFECTIONER Glisten has announced a mouthwatering set of mid-term results with turnover up more than 50 per cent.

The Blackburn-based company, which manufactures chocolate and sugar-based sweets, made £14.2m compared with £9.4m in 2003 after acquiring four specialist foods manufacturers within 12 months.

Pre-tax profits broke the million pound mark, leaping nearly 22 per cent to £1.16m, and operating profits rose by more than 35 per cent to £1.4m. Shareholders will receive a 0.5p dividend.

Chief executive Paul Simmonds said: "We set ourselves a target of £100m within five years and, two and a half years in, we are over halfway there. We are growing in line with expectations, and are certainly on track to achieve it." The company has forecast full-year turnover of £41m.

"The next six months will see the first contribution from our biggest acquisitions, and we're going to focus on the business over that period - you won't see any new acquisitions from us for a while.

"We want to improve our position in snacking, confectionery and ingredients, and continue organic growth at the company. We are turning our attention to innovation, customer development and focusing on controlling costs."

Double-digit

Group turnover was substantially boosted by the purchase of Halo Food Group last December. Halo, which produces cereal, health and energy bars, clocked up sales of £25m last year and Glisten's chairman, Jeremy Hamer, is confident of double-digit growth in the next few years.

During 2004, Glisten also acquired sugar confectioner Fravigar, Penguin Confectionery and toffee manufacturer House of York (North Shields). The enlarged group now employs 700 people across five sites and supplies produce to 24 countries.

Mr Hamer said: "Sales in the first two months of the second half are 146 per cent ahead of last year overall and 11 per cent on a like-for-like basis. Customer take-up of our Christmas range was slightly below last year's record levels but our all year round business has increased.

"Following the decision to create a single confectionery division, the opportunities available to us both in terms of product range extension and wider distribution will be a strong catalyst for growth."

[tole] 27/3/2005 20:08

Glisten starts to see benefits of 'one-stop shop'

08/03/2005 - Glisten, the acquisitive UK confectioner, has reported strong first half figures reflecting its rapid growth, but highlighted the increasing cost of integrating its growing number of niche businesses as it seeks to turn itself into a 'one-stop-shop' for retailers and manufacturers alike, reports Chris Jones.

The company said that turnover for the six months to 31 December was up 51 per cent to £14.2 million, with new acquisitions Halo Foods and Nimbus contributing £641,000 to the figure. Excluding these acquisitions, sales were up some 10 per cent.
The new additions to the company's portfolio also contributed £37,000 to pre-tax profits of £1.2 million, helping lift the figure by 21.7 per cent.

Since its floatation and decision to form a single confectionery business in 2002, Glisten has grown rapidly. In October 2003 the group bought the Sunya group, a manufacturer of chocolate balls and eggs, while in January 2004 it added F Fravigar, a producer of wine gums and pastilles.

In March 2004, Glisten acquired a range of products and brands names from Penguin confectionery, part of the House of York group, and followed this up with the acquisition of the rest of House of York in July of the same year, giving it ownership of one of the UK's leading toffee producers.

Its latest acquisition, Halo Foods, was completed in December, and pushed the group into the cereal bar business for the first time, while Halo's subsidiary, Nimbus, strengthened Glisten's foothold in the confectionery ingredients sector.

While the group has not ruled out further acquisitions in the second half – it arranged a new credit facility of £17.25 million as part of its acquisition of Halo but is currently using just over £9.4 million of its funds – the period is more likely to be marked by the ongoing efforts to streamline the six different businesses which make up the Glisten empire.

Speaking in September 2004, Glisten's chairman Paul Simmonds explained that the company was aiming to be a single-source supplier of own label confectionery products for its main customers, the UK food retailers, and the first half of the year saw the first moves towards achieving this goal.

The Fravigar business, for example, integrated some new toffee and gum recipes and processes, which led to unexpected downtimes and maintenance costs, while additional costs were incurred by the decision to build the infrastructure at Fravigar's Skegness plant to meet the demands of Gisten's supermarket customers without, to date, a corresponding increase in sales revenues.

The decision to combine the product ranges and sales and marketing activities of Glisten's own facility in Blackburn with Fravigar's Skegness site – to create what Glisten calls "an attractive easing of the buying task" for its customers – is also ongoing with "the benefits of this approach ahead of us", according to the group.

However, Glisten stressed that most of the costs of integration were now behind it, and that sales from the restructured business had got off to an excellent start in the first two months of the second half, suggesting that the real benefits should begin to be felt by the end of its financial year in June.

The Halo acquisition is a slightly different prospect, however, not least because it has taken Glisten into areas of the market where it has not previously been present. The acquisition will more than double the group's sales, and move into a health food market which is showing rapid growth (albeit with a large number of competitor products), but with fewer manufacturing synergies between Halo and the rest of the group, Glisten is focusing on Halo as a largely stand-alone unit, bringing its own commercial experience (and its broad customer base) to bear.

Nimbus, on the other hand, presents more in the way of synergies, with Glisten's own 'inclusions' business already supplying the ice cream sector.

For the second half, the company will be hoping to see real gains from the integration of its earlier acquisitions – already hinted at in the 11 per cent increase in like-for-like sales recorded in the first two months of the year – with the extension of all its myriad product ranges to as many of its core customers as possible.

But the group will also be keen to bolster the still fragile performances of Halo and Nimbus (the former had a torrid time at the start of 2004 as a result of the fallout from Atkins, which hit sales of all cereal products, while the latter broke even for the first time in 2004 and its profit performance remains inconsistent), a project likely to take up much of its time in the coming months.

[cockneyrebel] 19/3/2005 15:44

Anyone looked at ZTR here?

A similar company to Glisten on half the PE apparently.

From Killiks:

ZETAR – Acquisition



Zetar was listed in January as a cash shell but backed by the investment team who put together the Augean waste deal last year. The intention was to find acquisitions in the food sector and it was headed by Ian Blackburn who was for many years the boss of Perkins Foods in its restructuring exercise. Today, just two months later, Zetar has announced its first acquisition.



The company is paying £32 million for one of the UK's leading independent confectionary businesses Kinnerton. This company generated turnover of £42 million and an operating profit of £3.5 million for the year to 30th April 2004 and as we are fast approaching this year end, it is widely expected to have improved this year. Indeed, an earn out is payable for the current year should earnings before interest hit £4.55 million this year and £5.45 million for the coming year. Management is hoping to pay out the full deferred consideration.



Funding for the deal will come from a £10 million equity raise at 200p per share and the balance by debt. Kinnerton has a strong balance sheet with net assets of around £19 million and cash balances are high although this partially reflects the seasonal nature of the business as we approach Easter.



This is an excellent start for a group that is looking to expand in the food space with quality acquisition purchases. At the placing price, and assuming the company hits its targets, the business will trade on around 6x earnings whereas others in the sector like Glisten trade on 18x. We assume they will move to 12x prospective in the near term for a share price of 400p. The stock has jumped by 60p in morning trade to 292p where they remain good value.


----------------

CR

[hitchinhoncho] 19/3/2005 14:52

Tipped in Investing for Growth news letter today.They say Halo acquisition should double group sales in the current year.

[jangaman] 12/3/2005 15:03

Don't think so - Good solid company, this one.

[fran_shep] 11/3/2005 21:29

They closed 305 (to buy) today. Have I missed the boat?

[jangaman] 08/3/2005 18:39

They deserve the publicity. First saw these tipped in QL last year.

[dcb] 08/3/2005 16:09

Also, tipped in today's Telegraph, I belive.

[jangaman] 07/3/2005 21:41

nice results and very cheap. Can see these going 20% higher in the not to distant future.

[one for the money] 07/3/2005 08:37

Nice to see dividends have started - albeit in small amounts.

Cheers
1-4