Just Car Clinics Share Discussion Threads

[deswalker] 23/3/2012 13:35

harrogate - fair point, no they're not. But the anomaly is so wide, the sector the same and the results released so close together to be worthy of comparison IMO. ACZ would have to trade at £1.22 to have a comparable EV / EBITDA ratio to JCR at 20p and right now ACZ can be bought for 26p.

[harrogate] 23/3/2012 13:29

Hi Des .. I wouldn't argue that at all ..is anyone doing so ?

I don't think the 2011 results tell us what 2012 is going tio be like so let's do the calculation at the end of 2012. I hope it looks better.
The company is doing a buyback at 24p and they pay a dividend of 1.85p so some support for a price a bit higher than you say

[deswalker] 23/3/2012 13:18

I've just posted this on the ACZ thread. It might not be popular around here but still might be of interest to JCR holders. All IMO and DYOR.

Coincidentally the now delisted JCR have just issued their Finals for 2011.

They show a pre-exceptional EBITDA of £682k, net-debt of £2.363m and 13.149m shares in issue.

Now I know ACZ and JCR are in different sectors but I'd suggest there is at the very least a partial read-through.

Suppose x is the JCR price in pence and y is its current EV / EBITDA ratio. We have ...

13,149,000 x / 100 + 2,363,000 = 682,000 y

A JCR share price of 20p (ie that immediately prior to delisting) implies y = 7.32 cf ACZ's EV / EBITDA ratio of 1.75 !! Yet those shareholders who continue to hold JCR seem to think it is good value at the delisting level.

Nobody can tell me that JCR is a better investment than ACZ right now. Not even close.

[harrogate] 23/3/2012 13:07

They haven't taken a pay cut here ..they have not had the bonus they got paid the previous year ..base salary package is unchanged. Hard to see how they could have been paid a bonus given the results. I do agree that the non execs should be paid less now it is a private company.
The results are difficult to gauge. The key things I need to try to work out are
1) Have sales stopped falling ( may not know until we see some more results )
2) Given the move to repair from replace what is the 2012 margin %
3) What is the annual cost base on a clean basis with all the cost savings achieved

I have a feeling that if the answer to 1) is yes then we could be in a decent place with 2) and 3) ..Off to look at it all this weekend.

[joe say] 23/3/2012 12:49

Excellent ethics displayed here (by the execs at least, shame the non-execs didn't join in).

And as an ex-investor shame I can't demonstrate my support through owning a stake.

Good luck to all holders - a well run company imo

[aleman] 23/3/2012 11:27

I forgot to mention the director pay cut which is a rare and praiseworthy move in this day and age. I'm guessing this means staff are getting no pay rises for the time being. I'd also like to extend my gratitude to them for their hard work and sacrifices made in difficult times. I hope we can get back to rewarding them more generously in future.

[rmillaree] 23/3/2012 11:21

Hopefully this is as bad as it gets for the company, the results as ever are probably as good as they could do given the market they are in.I would like to think the maintained dividend is a sign that they are confident that they can afford this and reduce the debt a little (and not just appeasing the silly shareholders demanding chunky dividends) - as far as i am concerned the debt is a worry but there is probably no realistic possibility of this vanishing over the next couple of years.Some decent organic growth in decent margin non insurance work is probably key to getting back to profits of 1 million pa per annum - this is where they need to be be to ensure future stability.Come on NARG announce a couple of big national contracts over the next 6 months you can do it.Thanks must go to all employees and Directors for working their buts off - commendable that directors have taken a pay cut a great example that is not followed by most Directors of the large listed companies !
The future is bright the future is bright green
27th of April is officially Kit-Kat day.

[aleman] 23/3/2012 10:36

Results out folks.



Look pretty weak but the dividend is maintained and they want to initiate a very small buy-back at 24p. (Probably thinking of the staff?) THey've also managed to pay down a bit more debt which is very creditable under the circumstances. Dry weather looks to be the main reason for weak trading and I would say that means this year is probably off to a poor start, as well, despite some horrible weather for a week in February. My recent rush hour travels have seen some mixed traffic conditions - busy at times but very thin at times as well so it doesn't look to be getting better yet. I think we need to see more economic recovery and normal weather. I'm maybe seeing hints of the first but weather has been very dry recently so I wouldn't expect much improvement at the interims.

[mcgreen] 22/3/2012 22:06

Just in case you need to contact me, my personal email is [e-mail]
Repair over replace is working, we do around 65% GP on labour and about 20% on Parts. What people don't appear to realise is that if your shop is full and all technicians were 100% utilised then you are already selling the maximum labour you can through the shop and end up missing out on Parts Sales. The overall result is less profit. This however would be unlikely unless we had snow on the ground for a couple of weeks. (I wish). So the answer is yes, it has pushed up our overall GP Margin.
A couple of new contracts are starting to give us some reasonable numbers which is very promising and a couple of new contracts in the pipeline.
Retail sales are taking off in a big way with a massive focus on this area of the business.
Some of the cost savings was down to a reduction in staff. Most of the casualties were natural wastage, leavers and retirements etc who were not replaced. There was however a few redundancies through the group last year.

[harrogate] 22/3/2012 20:14

Thanks .. how have volumes been generally across the branches in the last 6 months? We didn't seem to have a winter so I guess no real help there. The accounts last Sept when the interims were announced talked about £1.5m cost savings that had been put in place..was this less people in each branch etc. I know in the past you have said you won't talk about new contracts so i won't ask ( or did I just ask ???) Is the tyre/service etc taking off as hoped and we heard that there was a move to repair from replace with the increase in margin that that brings ..How is it going

[mcgreen] 22/3/2012 19:36

Well hello there.
We had an opportunity to move out of the Woodbourn Rd building as the lease expires end of this year. We didn't want to move out right at the end of the year as this is traditionally a busy period. All the staff have been moved to our Sutherland Street branch avoiding any redundancies, and a 2 X Shift Pattern has been installed to house all the people. This has had a positive result on Key to Key performance as we are now repairing 16hrs per day. Already massive savings have been made on Heating, Lighting and Maintenance of the Woodbourn branch and a lot of the equipment has been utilised or will be utilised at our other branches adding to our saving. All corporate clients and customers have also moved over with no casualties. The Bike Clinic is also housed at our Sutherland Street site.
Please feel free to ask any other questions, I will try to answer where I can.
Hope this information is useful.

[harrogate] 22/3/2012 19:05

The accounts and dividend details should be posted on the website soon I think and the AGM is on 23rd April
The now have 300 shareholders in total and ther have been a few trades through the matched bargain facility.
It would be good to hear from the poster who works there how things are ( hint hint!)

[yorkshiret] 22/3/2012 18:59

Ha ha, I like your creative spark! I hope you get your desired Kit Kat and not two fingers instead!

Like you I wasn't aware of Sheffield.

Nationwide are announcing in early April. It's pretty quiet out there sadly and I think 2011 claim levels were at around 14%, down from around 18%.

Narg have lost Allied in Scotland but have added Veetec in London.

Autorestore have added the capability to repair horizontal panels (bonnets etc) which they claim will allow them to do even mire of the work done by traditional shops.

[rmillaree] 22/3/2012 18:16

Strange had not realised sheffield 2 or was it 1 had gone.
I'm pretty sure there are no new branches.
Where is our poster in the know when you need them (hello)
And finally when do we get our divi !!!! - we need a divi this year to make up for the de-listing last year.I like my divis like my kit-kats - the chunky variety please.
They should release a tick sheet with pictures so frequent travellers can tick the sheets to say i have "seen that branch" bit like stobart truck spotting.Perhaps offer a free car service for anyone who can get the pics signed by all branch managers too. It's all about publicity as they say.

[yorkshiret] 22/3/2012 17:53

If anything I'd say there is one fewer Sheffield site than there used to be. I thought there was 25 including 2 in Sheffield.

[aleman] 22/3/2012 17:17

Is there a new dot on the map? I might be kidding myself but there seems to be more there than before but I might be wrong because I can't work out which it might be. I thought we had 2 car sites and a bike one in Sheffield but now there is one of eachat Sutherland Rd. When did we close the other car site at Woodbourn Rd?

[aleman] 07/3/2012 15:57

National average price of petrol has jumped to just shy of 138p. :-(

Got my car insurance sorted for this year. Initial renewal offered around a 20% rise, did a new search and got 5% up. Left it 2 weeks until those expired and the repeated exactly the same search and got it at 9% less than last year. I turned down the cheapest, an online only policy that had loads of potential admin and exit charges that was 27% cheaper than I paid last year.

[aleman] 24/2/2012 13:05

Traffic still seeming very busy but petrol is still creeping up ever so slowly (nationwide average 136.2p) and oil has jumped. WTI now $108 and Brent $124 which doesn't bode well.

[liarspoker] 19/2/2012 12:28

No trades through Brewin yet.

Some people will get restless. :O)

[harrogate] 19/2/2012 11:21

Hi

Have you tried the Brewin matched bargain service by any chance? Juts wondered if there was any trades at all..I would guess not

16.5p!! LOL!!!

[liarspoker] 18/2/2012 22:51

I'll take another 22,000 @ 16.5p if anyone wants to sell them.

Just mail me @ [e-mail]

I have all the necessary documents to facilitate the trade.

[aleman] 17/2/2012 11:34

Petrol is creeping up and closing in on new highs. Wholesale prices are back to last June's peak. The UK retail average is a penny off its peak at 135.4p and looks set to rise a bit more. Crude is pricing in a rising risk of war in Iran so that will be the biggest short-term influence.

Rush hour motorway tailback was long again yesterday on the M62.

[aleman] 16/2/2012 10:10

Whilst the record number of claims is good news, too many at once can be disruptive. Hopefully, the company is coping. 3% of the record week of claims were for hitting deer!