Hotel Chocolat Share Discussion Threads

[netcurtains] 19/11/2020 07:59

this mornings Aztrazenica / Oxford drug news should be good for all retailers.

[netcurtains] 17/11/2020 14:16

OK - it might be a good punt for this Christmas.
Box of chocolates are an ideal gift to send in the post.
Easy to pack easy to buy no messing around.
Could be a good Christmas for Hotel Chocolat.
Hotel Chocolat shops are allowed to be open during lockdown (big plus)

I also like the "expansion" into New York (in papers a lot).
So bit of a GROWTH story and a REOCVERY story
all thrown into one.

Anyway only a wild punt (not too much).

[jaf111] 14/11/2020 16:22

I'm sure you are right about them being busy....I too have made an order with the discount offer.

BUT I don't recall them doing discounts like this pre Xmas though.....Maybe I could be wrong though!!!

[superadams] 14/11/2020 15:55

Just sent off my order to take advantage of the pre Xmas discount offer which expires tomorrow. Two of my first choices were temporarily out of stock so seasonal business must be already brisk.

[babycheeky] 13/11/2020 08:18

Do you get some perverse pleasure being a fool and trashing threads dave.

[babycheeky] 12/11/2020 17:45

More lies from dave.

[discodave45] 12/11/2020 17:41

My troll babycheeky was a mm at winterfloods, lost a packet on CNA (still drowning) and blames me for some deluded reason.Sorry, have it filtered but keeps trolling me

[babycheeky] 12/11/2020 17:29

dave some research for you, look these words up in the dictionary.

Honesty
Truth
Integrity
Selfish
Facts

They are all words you seem to have no understanding of.

[babycheeky] 12/11/2020 17:23

Your opinion means nothing so just shut up.

[discodave45] 12/11/2020 17:21

Their prelims were impressive IMO.Would imagine most will go overboard this Christmas and their offerings tick a lot of boxes.The share price is expensive IMO, but always has been, and believe their branding is worth the difference.

[pugugly] 02/11/2020 10:05

New lockdown - Possibility Christmas cancelled - Will on line be able to compensate? Retail overheads continue - Not a pretty picture (imo)

[energeticbacker] 30/9/2020 10:35

Investor's Champion likes this business but the valuation has always looked too rich to us. While the shares are 35% off historic highs, they are still trading at c35x reported earnings for 2019 when business was flying.

The house broker seems oblivious to what is going on in the real world, talking of results ‘ahead of expectations’, which conveniently ignores a host of exceptional items, and considers a chocolate retailer trading at 51x forecast earnings for June 2022 a ‘Buy’.

More on the Investor's Champion website.

[soho2] 01/7/2020 11:39

Social distancing is also likely to permanently alter consumer behaviour ...less people in their shops... they better get to grip with a better on line offering if they want to stay afloat.

[rathean] 01/7/2020 09:51

Looks like they've supply problems, a lot of products listed in their website showing out of stock...

[maytrees] 20/5/2020 09:05

Tx both

Perhaps a poor choice by myself - I am just out now though

[toffeeman] 19/5/2020 19:45

I agree - I was looking to buy before I read that piece and I shall wait.

[jaf111] 19/5/2020 18:14

Cheaper yes but I still see this as overvalued.....
Would only be interested if price close to the recent placing (225p)

[maytrees] 19/5/2020 16:09

Many tx toffeeman.
Still the share price is now 275p to buy so rather cheaper than when reported in The Times.

[toffeeman] 19/5/2020 14:37

May 5th - the Times

Hotel Chocolat
This chocolatier and cocoa grower moved swiftly to raise capital early at the start of coronavirus, bagging £22 million from shareholders in late March to help to fund growth and to provide a buffer against the coronavirus pandemic.

Given that the virus took hold only weeks before its busy trading period over Easter, it also seems to have adjusted to life under lockdown. All 125 of its stores in Britain, along with its four in the United States and five in Japan, are shut; social distancing is in place at its packing facility in Cambridgeshire and, after trimming its range, the company has stayed open for online orders only.

Hotel Chocolat opened its first shop in north London in 2004. Unlike most chocolatiers, it grows its own cocoa on a plantation that it owns in St Lucia, where it also runs a hotel. As well as operating restaurants and cafés, the company sells accessories including hand creams, body scrubs and lotions.

In a trading update yesterday that was light on detail but upbeat, it said that it had experienced strong demand online over Easter, though not enough to offset a material fall in trading because of its store closures. Analysts at Liberum, the house broker, estimate that just over half of the lost shop sales have been made up online.

The company also put in place a new £35 million flexible credit facility, £25 million of which was through the government-backed loan scheme. While the facility is in place — it expires in December 2021, but can be repaid early — the retailer cannot pay dividends.

It says good things about the popularity of Hotel Chocolat that customers were happy to move their orders online. Nevertheless, Liberum has lopped £17 million off its forecast sales for the second half to £43 million. The broker reckons that it will be lossmaking over the second half of the year and will announce profit before tax and other items of £8.5 million for the full year, against £20.7 million last time.

The shares, which had a modest yield when the dividend was in place, trade for an extraordinary 278 times Liberum’s forecast earnings for this year. Up 2½p, or 0.8 per cent, to 332½p yesterday, they are not for this observer.

Advice Avoid
Why Has responded well but the shares are expensive

[soho2] 19/5/2020 13:48

I'll wait a bit longer to see the impact of Easter (when they make most of their money besides Xmas)... a lot of stock had to be lost