Hotel Chocolat Share Discussion Threads

[williamcooper104] 26/12/2021 13:54

He is quick to point out, however, that in many ways the hard work is only just beginning."It's been a crazy two years. Not only have we been driving growth and dealing with a pandemic, we've been trying to make the business more global."Since 2018 Hotel Chocolat has been selling Fudge Sundae and Peanut Butter chocolates, as well as its Velvetiser hot chocolate machine and cocoa-infused booze to shoppers in Japan and the US - a country often characterised as a graveyard for British retailers."Everybody that I know in business - senior, wise people - they said to me, 'look, don't underestimate that it's going to be a real test of you and a test of the business. If you can pull that off, then you're onto the next stage'."It's been really tough," he says, "but so far we're winning." "We're transitioning from being a business with its command and control centre in the UK, to be one where the global business is at the heart of everything."

[williamcooper104] 23/12/2021 12:57

Not at all - it's a relatively small market cap - it can easily trade around on not a lot

[netcurtains] 23/12/2021 11:24

Even I bought a velveteer....

[jeanesy] 23/12/2021 11:21

that was the point toffeeman. Looks like some buyers are now returning.

[toffeeman] 23/12/2021 09:11

Well if you are both (generally) correct then the price should be rising - surely!

[jeanesy] 23/12/2021 09:03

I can assure you that where i am shop footfall is not down and neither are sales. There is no problem with supply . Not sure about point 3 though toffeeman

[williamcooper104] 23/12/2021 08:46

They got their supplies sorted pre omni; there's no shortage Their on line operations are much better than when Covid first hit International expansion risk/opportunity should already be priced in

[toffeeman] 23/12/2021 08:08

>> jeansey - Uncertainty

1. Shop footfall down and uncertainty if on-line will compensate
2. Uncertainty wrt supply of raw material
3. Uncertainty about international sales

It's holding up pretty well to my untutored eye.

[jeanesy] 23/12/2021 08:04

when people are going through hard times they turn to chocolate. i am expecting HOTC to have had an exceptional christmas. Time will tell of course but i am struggling to understand the pullback here !

[jeanesy] 22/12/2021 08:50

surprising weakness here !

[netcurtains] 13/12/2021 09:22

We bought a velveter thingie.
They do make good hot chocolate.

[jeanesy] 13/12/2021 08:59

Went to buy some HOTC goodies . The shop was heaving with people . hopefully a good sign !

[jeanesy] 09/12/2021 13:31

Hopefully they wont be left with lots of unsold stock though !

[nchanning] 09/12/2021 11:06

Good to see google trends data on hotel Chocolat and the velvetiser in particular roaring to new highs . Was interesting to note in the company webinar that they have double the amount of stock for this Christmas compared to last . Doubtless there was some supply chain caution but another sign of the possibility of a THUMPING Christmas update imho.

[williamcooper104] 07/12/2021 12:38

I've done my meet for HOTCs inventory ordering the Christmas hampers

[nithbank] 07/12/2021 11:07

New range of home coffee machines just launched.

[jeanesy] 29/11/2021 15:01

Some very large trades here today. look like sells but price has hardly moved.

[williamcooper104] 27/11/2021 23:15

Thanks for the explanation

[williamcooper104] 27/11/2021 16:26

Still I'm not too upset about fridays closing price all things considered

[gengulphus] 27/11/2021 15:55

Always weird closing prices on this share. Why?

Looking at the trades lists for the last week, the "UT" type trade that completes the closing auction for the share is often either for a very small number of shares (e.g. 8 on Tuesday, 27 on Monday) or it didn't happen at all (on Wednesday and Friday) because everyone trying to sell in the closing auction wanted a higher price than anyone trying to buy in the closing auction was willing to pay. Only on Thursday did a decent number of shares (3,232) get traded in the closing auction. Looking a week or two further back indicates this is quite a common pattern for HOTC.

That's relevant because the normal way the LSE determines the closing price is that it's the price of the "UT" type trade that completes the closing auction. If that trade is the result of very few market participants actually trading in the closing auction, that becomes heavily influenced by just what those few market participants want to do - and so the closing price may end up being determined by what just a few people are doing rather than by what a broad sample of market participants are doing. That's liable to lead to unexpectedly high- or low-looking closing prices.

And if no shares at all are traded in the closing auction, the LSE falls back on other ways to determine a closing price. I forget what they are, but they're often also not very good at judging what a broad sample of market participants reckon is a fair price at the end of the day.

It's one of the drawbacks of being invested in not-very-liquid shares - trying to come up with an across-the-market "fair price" for the shares often runs into "insufficient data for a reliable answer" problems.

Gengulphus

[williamcooper104] 23/11/2021 10:56

I know; annoying

[nithbank] 22/11/2021 16:36

Always weird closing prices on this share. Why?

[jeanesy] 15/11/2021 20:00

where does that closing price come from ?

[williamcooper104] 13/10/2021 20:53

Usually a good sell signal