Marston's Share Discussion Threads

[farnesbarnes] 26/2/2019 16:46

Nice bowl forming here?

[spacecake] 26/2/2019 12:30

Weather - unusually warm for time of year and in comparison to last year should see quite a difference in like for like sales. The customers were in the be garden at my local, not the usual thing to do in February !

[jeffian] 26/2/2019 11:15

All the brewers/pubco's have had a good run recently. Look at GNK, EIG etc. Maybe just a realisation that they are cheap and more resilient to economic downturn than some think?

[cheshire man] 26/2/2019 10:13

Can't find any news......but something's brewing …:-)

[chinese investor] 26/2/2019 10:08

Solid Investment !

[stewart_25] 26/2/2019 10:07

through the £ barrier - whats going on?

[illiswilgig] 22/2/2019 12:46

Hmm. Fullers. Yes, good points.

As a (very small) shareholder in Fuller's for many years I see that Fuller trapped themselves on the Griffin Brewery site.

Fullers London estate of pubs and hotels has prospered and grown - alongside a lot of London based businesses.

Fullers shares are highly rated - historically between 15x and 18x earnings. That rating expects a lot of growth.

The growth can be attained through investing in the pubs and hotels - but the brewery also needs investment to grow. It's a masterpiece of efficiency on its 1845 Chiswick site but it can't expand. Fuller's can't afford to invest in both their London estate and a new brewery site.

Continuing to try to do both will result in a share price fall as sufficient growth fails to materialise. They must have been under a lot of pressure to find a way out.

Sad but true.

Also Fullers have a great reputation as brewers - but they have only ever operated one brewery. They have no experience in operating or building other breweries. So that would be quite a big risk.

Asahi have offered them a great way out. A sky-high price which reflects the location and value of the site rather than that of the brewery by brewing the London Pride brand globally - and Asahi take on the risks and investment associated with brewing at other sites for expansion. What this means for the griffin brewery in the long term - who knows? But I doubt you could hope for a better longterm owner than Asahi?

If somebody offered Marston's £250m (or more given the size and capacity of their breweries in comparison) for the Burton or Bedford sites maybe they would take it? But nobody will, the Bedford brewery and business only cost Marston's £55m, and the Marstons estate with it's outside of London and the Southeast locations don't have the same growth prospects as Fullers London Estate.

Marstons is a very different business, in location, scale and prospects. There is a reason why Marstons is on a multiple of 7x and Fullers on 17x. Marstons pays a dividend of 8% and Fullers 2%. Very different businesses with very different markets and opportunities. Selling Marstons breweries won't rerate it to 17x earnings. Sadly.

My crystal ball is currently not operational so I can't say which one is the better investment. I have a larger holding in MARS than I do in FSTA partly due to topping up at recent lows. Neither holding is large in my portfolio. It will be interesting to see how it works out,

apologies for the long ramble,

cheers

[yf23_1] 21/2/2019 22:07

Actually I just checked, it was Aldi.
Just checking out the 2 new shops in our area (Aldi and Lidl) as I work for Tescos and do the booze.
I got a can of American craft IPA at Lidl which is pretty good and only 99p.

Tescos do Punk IPA at 2 (4 packs) for £9.
Other canned craft stuff is 3 for £5, so it looks like we're in trouble, especially if they rotate different beers to keep people's interest.

[yf23_1] 21/2/2019 16:15

Price was way too low (£1.19) for such a good beer.

[chrisdgb] 21/2/2019 15:18

Something brewing............

[chinese investor] 21/2/2019 12:47

100p Soon !

[jeffian] 21/2/2019 11:31

And therein lies their problem. Selling beer to supermarkets is high volume/low margin stuff. Marstons are still investing heavily in brewing and breweries. Fullers - no slouch in brewing themselves - have just sold their whole brewery and brands portfolio to focus solely on their pubs. That tells you something.

[yf23_1] 21/2/2019 11:26

Checking out Lidl and just had to try a Wild Bill American IPA.

Nice - turned out its brewed by Marstons.

[scobak] 13/2/2019 10:57

Worst one was Lobster Pot at Bridlington. Not very busy and for sake of a few hours work would have been presentable. Went to this same one about a year ago and the heating was broken. Everyone was sat in coats.
Best of the 4 was Altisidora at Bishop Burton. lovely pub in pleasant part of East Yorkshire.
Other 2 were Crooked Billet and Nags Head. need a proper vacuuming and dusting and cutlery to be checked before putting out.
I don't believe any are tenanted but really should be above standard of Wetherspoons.

[jeffian] 11/2/2019 20:30

Rather depends whether the pubs you were visiting were part of the Managed Estate or tenanted. If the latter, the way the pub is run is down to the tenant, not Marstons. Which ones were they?

[scobak] 11/2/2019 19:11

I am a shareholder but have only made infrequent visits. Not very impressed having visited 4 different venues in last 2 weeks. Staff pleasant enough but a bit overrun at times,floors could be cleaner and the ledges on tables in 3 were visibly covered in dust and in one case spilt and dried food remains.

I think the senior management need to open their eyes and make a few visits. I will be ditching my shares at 102p. I say again - Not impressed!

[redartbmud] 08/2/2019 08:51

Great if you are a director.
CEO remuneration almost doubled in the last few years - fuelled by the success of the business:-(

[janekane] 08/2/2019 08:46

This is not a very good company to invest in for growth and is the divi maintainable

[janekane] 29/1/2019 13:13

I re invest not yet completed

[chinese investor] 29/1/2019 12:36

Dividend in my account !