Nichols Share Discussion Threads

[davebowler] 19/3/2007 11:49

Me neither.

[tole] 19/3/2007 11:39

Nice suprise :)
Cant say I saw any press speculation?

[mistertibbs] 18/3/2007 21:42

Bought in a few months ago for the dividend mainly. Bought at 254 so a capital increase for me a bonus. Debt free I find attractive. My only concern being the possibility of middle east conflict affecting sales. Will keep a watchful eye on that one.

And I like vimto. The old sugar free panda isn't bad either.

[tole] 16/3/2007 21:46

Hi Mesquida, Yes hoping for the pyschological pull of 300p to suck these up to that level - but as you say pretty much in the price now.

[mesquida] 16/3/2007 21:26

Yes, Tole, results were good, and recent share price performance has been excellent, but I do believe that it is now all in the price. After all, house broker is only forecasting 17p of earnings for this year, and the dividend yield is no longer particularly high. Personally I am happy to bank profits at these levels.

[mesquida] 16/3/2007 21:26

Yes, Tole, results were good, and recent share price performance has been excellent, but I do believe that it is now all in the price. After all, house broker is only forecasting 17p of earnings for this year, and the dividend yield is no longer particularly high. Personally I am happy to bank profits at these levels.

[tole] 15/3/2007 15:55

No posts for 4months and a 20% increase since then - results okay and looks to be breaking previous highs and hopefully heading to that 300p :)



Nichols sees pre-tax profits rise 16 per cent
15 March, 2007

By Hamish Champ

Disposal of non-core business boots soft drinks group

Nichols, the soft drinks and dispense system distributor, has announced underlying pre-tax profits up nearly 16 per cent.

The group, which markets and sells the Vimto soft drink brand as well as the Cabana & Beacon cold soft drinks dispense system, said that turnover from continuing operations for the 12 months to December 31 2006 was up 1.6 per cent at £52.3m.

Overall pre-tax profits were up 5.7 per cent at £7.4m, although once the disposal of Nichol's Balmoral hot drinks business was taken into account the underlying profit gain was 15.8 per cent.

Basic earnings per share rose 47.3 per cent to 15.94p.

John Nichols, chairman of the group, said: "Operationally, our core brand Vimto continued to grow its market share, despite a highly competitive soft drinks market, particularly in the UK, and Dispense Systems made good progress in underlying profits.

"With the group's reshaping complete [via the Balmoral disposal] we ended 2006 in excellent health, with a much stronger balance sheet, positive cash following the complete elimination of debt, and solid trading results."


Nichols FY06 EPS Rises - Quick Facts
Thursday, March 15, 2007; Posted: 05:47 AM

Nichols PLC (NICL.L) on Thursday posted financial results for fiscal 2006, reporting a profit of GBP 5.85 million compared to GBP 3.96 million in the previous year. Earnings on a per share basis increased to 15.92p from 10.79p per share in the prior year.

Earnings from continuing operations increased to 15.92p per share from 9.76p per share in the previous year.

Annual turnover totaled GBP 52.3 million compared to GBP 63.34 million a year ago, while gross profit increased to GBP 27.53 million from GBP 33.1 million in the previous year.

[tole] 17/11/2006 16:20

Nice to see you aborad here chester - looking good for a move to 300p imo.

Buys going through @ 251 - though finding it hard to get stock online and have to go to broker.

L2 1v1 250-252

Sell 25000 @ 250.3
Buy 750 @ 252

[chester] 17/11/2006 08:29

I've bought a few this morning.

[tole] 16/11/2006 15:42

Added a few more here - looks good for a move forward to attempt a break through recent highs.

L2 5v3 242-247

[amedin] 18/9/2006 16:02

I was in Costco the other day & was pleased to see crates of Panda juice. I thought this was a good sign, as Costco obviously don't stock slow moving items

I bought a crate for research purposes. The drinks are nicely packaged in a number of flavours & all taste quite good (lemon flavour & lime flavour are especially nice).

[davebowler] 26/7/2006 13:44

This hot weather must help sales!

[tole] 26/7/2006 11:54

WHI Investment bulletin. July 2006

John Lee's Small Company Recommendations – Update

Nichols (AIM listed) Soft Drinks - Strong Hold following share price outperformance.

[tole] 26/7/2006 11:48

Vimto Manufacturer Saves £100k Per Year With Shared Services and Version One (12th July, 2006)

Nichols plc, famous for its Vimto, Panda and Sunkist brands, has moved all its financial operations to a shared services centre with the help of electronic document management and imaging author, Version One. Nichols' new shared services centre has replaced financial departments at six different operating companies across the UK.
Allan Doyle, IT Manager for Nichols says, "Shared services would have been totally unworkable without Version One's solutions. Each operating company's financial department had up to twelve storage cabinets full of documents. The shared services office simply couldn't accommodate all of these. By electronically archiving all documents, physical storage has been eliminated, making the move to shared services possible. Version One's technology has also solved the problem of how to get invoices approved quickly and easily when approvers are scattered all over the country."

Nichols implemented Version One's technology into its Sage Line 500 system, enabling shared services to create, deliver, store, retrieve and authorise the whole group's financial documents directly from Sage. With the new technology in place, Nichols electronically archives all incoming and outgoing financial documents including purchase orders, invoices, remittance advices, statements, contracts and payslips. Version One's technology also enables the electronic authorisation of purchase invoices via Nichols' already established Wide Area Network (WAN), replacing the time-consuming and costly method of posting invoices for approval.

Doyle says, "Staff time is now much better utilised. Staff no longer need to hunt around in filing cabinets and cardboard boxes for financial documents, make multiple copies of documents and then manually process each and every one of them. All documents are now instantly retrievable at a click of a button and are electronically processed and delivered within seconds", says Doyle. As a direct result of implementing Version One's technology, we have redeployed up to 70 per cent of the accounts staff's time on value added activities!"

"Another benefit is that Version One's solutions have removed the administration overheads of processing, photocopying, enveloping, posting and manually filing every document. With 20,000 sales invoices being produced every month just for soft drinks vending company, Cabana, the cost and efficiency savings are considerable! Across the business, we are saving over £100,000 per annum."

-Ends-

About Nichols plc www.nichols.plc.co.uk

Nichols plc is a multi million pound business, specialising in soft drinks and beverage systems. Nichols plc can trace its development back to the establishment of Vimto in 1908. Since then, the company has developed progressively, entering new markets abroad and acquiring a number of companies along the way. Today, Nichols' companies include Vimto soft drinks, Vimto International, Cabana soft drinks and Beacon drinks. It is also licensed to sell Sunkist in the UK.

The group employs over 150 people across the UK and its turnover is nearly £90 million.

About Version One www.versionone.co.uk

Version One Ltd is the author of electronic document management and imaging software. These solutions enable the automated electronic storage, retrieval, management, enhancement and delivery of business documents such as invoices, purchase orders and statements. This 'paperless office' technology is seamlessly integrated into all major ERP and accounting systems and with a typical ROI of less than six months, Version One's solutions are enabling thousands of organisations to save dramatic amounts of time and money.

Contacts:

Liz Ebbrell, Version One
[e-mail]
[phone] or 07917 634 705

[volex] 11/6/2006 11:56

likely to go well, especially if weather holds up during the summer. Noticed that Waitrose are stocking the "Panda" range, they would not do this if they thought it below par.

Vimto sales appeal to the Middle East sweet tooth. looks good for future increase in sales.

Move to AIM could well be part of nichols family IHT planning, and once two years have passed may be prepared to accept an offer. Unless, the business develops and they feel more comfortable hanging on.

Either way, looks good for medium term play

[wiganer] 16/5/2006 12:29

Looks like the RNS is sinking in...

[cwa1] 16/5/2006 12:17

You and me both Wiganer. Good luck with the purchase :-)

[wiganer] 16/5/2006 12:08

I agree- have just gone long for a few at 199.85p

[cwa1] 16/5/2006 11:58

Pretty decent AGM Statement IMHO:-

Nichols plc

AGM Statement


John Nichols, Chairman of Nichols plc, the soft drinks group, made the following
statement at the company's Annual General Meeting held today:


"In overall group terms, both our Soft Drinks and Beverage Systems Operations
are trading in line with our expectations at this early stage in the year".


"We are also pleased to announce agreement has been reached to franchise our
north west and north east Beverage Systems Operation to DJ Drink Solutions Ltd,
a new company established by Terry Bates, the Managing Director of our Cabana
business. This move is in line with our strategy to convert the majority of our
Systems business to a franchised distributor model, with lower capital
expenditure".


"As a result, Terry has stepped down from his current role and I would like to
thank him for his contribution to the business over the last 10 years. We wish
him every success in his new business venture as a Cabana franchisee. This
development means we have successfully secured six new regional franchisees for
Cabana in the last twelve months. Additionally, we directly own three regional
Cabana businesses based in Brighton, London and Glasgow".


"In our Soft Drinks Operation, the re-launch of the Panda brand as a natural
flavoured, sugar free drink was completed in April 2006 and to date it has been
very well received by the trade".



- ENDS -

[hectorp] 30/3/2006 11:03

" 'Eee knows, ya know" !

[hectorp] 30/3/2006 11:03

Director's Shareholding



Mr J Diggines has purchased 10,000 ordinary 10p shares in Nichols plc, 0.03% of
the issued share capital, at 212p per share.


His beneficial holding following the purchase is 13,227 shares amounting to
0.04% of the issued share capital.

[hectorp] 24/3/2006 13:42

and, the downturn from last year has been breached upside ... 20-30p more to come in next couple of weeks IMO.

[hectorp] 24/3/2006 11:24

i DID say!

[hectorp] 23/3/2006 09:11

Last chance before 210p... get on board, anchors aweigh!