Optare Share Discussion Threads

[kimoldfield] 08/4/2015 17:13

That's odd, I've been working on charts, graphs etc and I make it a profit of £5.25 million. Oh, hang on, I've been working with the Optare method, they are all upside down; well it looks better that way! 😃 I hope the loss won't be any more than that JSB!

[kimoldfield] 08/4/2015 15:09

Well, 38 registrations in March. Get your calculators out!

[kimoldfield] 08/4/2015 11:33

I don't think that they are illiterate at Optare JSB, it's just that they have so much news to put out, they don't have time to check for mistakes!😀 We can but hope that Master Luke, Master Liam and Miss Elvi brought in enough profit to pay for a cup of tea for the overworked PR department! As you have said, SMMT figures out this afternoon, they must surely be an improvement on last month?!

[kimoldfield] 07/4/2015 16:54

Desperate indeed JSB! I see that there is another job advertised on the News page, Business Development Manager - South England/Wales. A severe case of over-optimism again maybe? Mind you, Wales could do with a few MetroDeckers! :o)

[jsbach123] 07/4/2015 12:43

It might be thought to be desperate times Kim when the sale of a single bus is judged to be newsworthy! SMMT registration numbers due tomorrow I think will be more than usually interesting being the final month for the last financial year, and will provide a basis on which PIs can estimate the annual loss for 2014-2015.

[kimoldfield] 03/4/2015 00:13

Break open the champers, they've sold another Solo!



It has gone from news starvation almost to news overflow! Still, not complaining, it is good that the PR department is beginning to earn it's keep!

[kimoldfield] 01/4/2015 13:04

Quite a bit of activity on the Optare website these days, including confirmation of an order for 7 fully electric, zero emissions, Optare MetroCity single deck buses which will operate on route 312. Adverts for employees on the electric side plus a video which may well show the future CEO of Optare! ;o)

[jsbach123] 24/3/2015 13:38

Thanks Kim for noting museum update. Our Press and PR copywriter could perhaps take a lesson in reality when she states it is suitable for 0-year-olds lol.

Even more recently posted on company website, and possibly more interesting for PIs is the news that the newly appointed G Belgum (I guess and infer) has begun empire building recruiting service managers (see company website). This move in recruitment IMHO suggests that the company thinks it isn't selling more buses because of poor after-sales service to support (unreliable?) vehicles whereas many poor PIs might think that the chief problem with the company is its continuing inability to build a bus at a profit. In short are low sales numbers a result of poor back up and will better back up (eventually) fix this particular company problem? Perhaps anyone with detailed industry expertise and/or contacts could give this Board a view?

Reported in 2014 Annual Report and Accounts Fickling the non-Executive Chairman received remuneration of £63,795 (yes, more than £5,000 per month) for presiding over yet another year of multimillion pound company losses. Nice work if you can get it IMHO. But in view of this (how many hours per month does Fickling devote to Optare business I wonder?) recruiting a few service managers seems like a flea bite on the company balance sheet also IMHO.

[kimoldfield] 24/3/2015 10:48

Well, Optare seem to have come up with a plan, if we can't sell them, why not just give them away! ;o)

[jsbach123] 23/3/2015 19:00

You phrase it apt Kim, but (a depressing thought really IMHO) in the bigger picture one executive salary more or less will not make any difference to the (mis)fortunes PIs have had, and continue, to endure.

[kimoldfield] 20/3/2015 11:40

Another mouth to feed!

[jsbach123] 14/3/2015 13:35

Thanks for information Steve, even though it is disappointing to me as I had hoped that one day I might spot the Bonito on a road in the UK.

And on the subject of 'spotting' as it were, has anyone seen a new DD on trial on roads yet I wonder? I seem to remember that the company said that it had a modest target of sales of between 20 to 40 in the first year (though I am open to correction) but did they mean financial or calendar year I wonder? It doesn't really matter I suppose as the bus was 'launched' last calendar year and the end of the financial year is rapidly approaching. Be great if they could announce an order though.

[steve517499] 13/3/2015 18:10

You won't see the Bonito unless you go to Australia as the only one produced (the demonstrator) was sold to the dealer of the dutch company that made the things ... Can't remember the name off the top of my head but began with a P.

A great Optare export!

[jsbach123] 12/3/2015 20:17

Great spin but when did Optare last sell a bus to South Africa, even knocked down? And why not trumpet the single EV sold to Switzerland a while back? This piece of PR (some may say 'puff') may prompt PIs to ask where are the orders from Australia which were anticipated with much company-trumpeting quite recently? And the Middle East - apart of course from the ten buses that sank in the Solent recently. I note that the spin of the importance of Optare to the local economy is Optare's view (not that stated by the poor MP). Miss Optare PR seems to have one skill at least - getting high=profile persons to visit the Assembly Shed, now if she could show equal talent in shareholder relations...

I note in passing that Vassallo should not state that Optare builds about 450 buses per year without recorded fact to back up his statement. Aspirations are not facts.

Actually despite my lack of confidence in Optare's Press and PR I do feel a little sorrow for them, it is hard to make silk purses out of... as the traditional phrase has it.

Has anyone seen Bonito? lol

[kimoldfield] 12/3/2015 12:17

No, it was a typo, should have been re-elected of course, though it could be a new word for misplaced MPs!:o)

[m.t.glass] 12/3/2015 11:23

re-ellecated ?
Is that a cross between re-elected and re-allocated?

[kimoldfield] 12/3/2015 11:08

Nigel Adams MP visits Optare.



Maybe he was looking for a job in case he does not get re-ellecated!

[stud-muffin] 12/3/2015 06:41

It was a bizarre price move on Tuesday. Rarely does a trading opportunity wave so clearly as selling at .3p and buying back later.

You really would think OPE would have got on top of building a bus profitably by now, what will it take?

[jsbach123] 11/3/2015 17:29

I hope that he has sufficient red ink when drawing up the balance sheet. Seriously hope that not too many people have been burnt today and that those who wished to exit were able to do so at the best possible price. Nothing to sustain a price of over .15 IMHO.

[kimoldfield] 11/3/2015 16:30

I hope he can add up! :o)

[stud-muffin] 10/3/2015 14:42

Been the biggest sustained rise for a very long time - good opportunity to have sold and repurchased. So unless you know they have another good RNS in the offing selling this am will net you 30-40% more shares than you had before.

Simples.

[jsbach123] 10/3/2015 14:32

You are right Steve about the irrational and uninformed excitement displayed by many posters when these annual orders are announced but I disagree with you that it will enable the company to operate for a month (Iam guesstimating that losses will be greater than for last year) at a profit. Optare has never made a profit - it won't this financial year which ends in three weeks and I will make a prediction that it will not in the next financial year. No DD orders yet and interest costs rising every day - the net profit on this entire order will not be sufficient to pay the interest on company debt for a year.

I do hope as written before that not too many PIs who do not read company accounts will lose money being 'sucked in' by the current hype.