Pittards Share Discussion Threads

[somertrade] 01/6/2023 23:13

meijiman, I have no idea other than perhaps there's no one else more competent available, or everyone is too scared to stand up and speak the truth. (I've seen people in the past taken out for speaking up / 'out of turn'...!)
Clocktower, I haven't seen anything in the local news, which is strange.

[clocktower] 01/6/2023 11:08

Dr Martins numbers today will have done nothing to help PTD I suspect, as at one time (if not now) they were using Pittards Leather.

The longer this drags on without news the lower the share price is likely to go.

The workforce must be desperate to find out their future.

[scepticalinvestor] 31/5/2023 16:15

Nah this is a bargepole stock. The tree huggers aka great unwashed dont want animal products anymore

[my retirement fund] 31/5/2023 15:52

A foreign owner will pick this business up for next to nothing once the banks pull the plug. Watch and weep! Seen it all before.

[smithie6] 31/5/2023 12:56

Pittards

I struggle to understand how a UK company needing to sell its products in order to pay wages every month etc

can be so f@+& incompetent !!

take the web page trying to sell ladies' orange clutch bags/purses.



There is only 1 external photo, & of only 1 side !

There are NO MORE PHOTOS !!

There is no photo of the inside of this clutch purse. Apparently there is a zipped section inside but there is no photo. What is it like inside, who knows ??!!

Is it nice inside, is it lined inside, who knows, there is no photo !

Does the name Pittards appear somewhere on the outside ?
I do not know, I can see it.

Does the name Pittards appear somewhere on the inside ?
I do not know, I can see it.

Does it have a Union Jack on it anywhere, even if attached by a string ?
I can not see one.

How big is it ?
no idea, there is size info at all !

how big is it compared to a woman's hand or a bank card or a bottle of wine or...?
no idea. there is no photo to show anything.

Although the price is reduced to £115 it is still expensive & more expensive than what you can buy in the high street (for products not made in the UK). £50 in the high street ?
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In a normal company complete gross incompetence like this would never happen.
So why does it happen at Pittards ?

It almost seems like the bosses (or Mulberry ?) do not want to sell any products, then buy all the stock for peanuts because it can not be sold.....& then provide normal photos etc & suddenly sell it all & bag a nice profit.
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There is at least 1 big shareholder owning >20%, why are they not visiting the co. & banging the table with their fist & demanding instant action ??!!

or are they over 80 & in a care home ??

it does not make sense.

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a sixteen year kid (or fourteen) could improve their web pages trying to sell products.

[smithie6] 31/5/2023 12:35

meijiman
your post criticising the MD.

you have my vote.

(& despite crashing the share price for shareholders, under his leadership....he & the other dirs. put thru a scheme to give 5% of the co. to them, despite shareholders losing lots of money !
morally disgraceful/shameful imo.)

[clocktower] 30/5/2023 09:17

How much longer can this drag on without further news beats me.

Somertrade as you worked at the factory, are you still living in the area and if so have the local news outlets been reporting on the staff situation?

[meijiman] 24/5/2023 08:21

Interesting post Somer. What is your theory as to why the ceo has remained for years despite being utterly incompetent. There must be some reason which is not in the public domain. The company has been run into the ground by countless blunders yet this clown remains coming out with a litany of pathetic excuses for failure.

[my retirement fund] 24/5/2023 08:03

It's time to switch the lights out and pay the piper.

[somertrade] 23/5/2023 23:06

A few quick points on comments made on this thread:
The Pittards pension schemes went into the PPF back in about 2005, so pensions should be safe (if not worth what they once were).
Over valued stock - it's been like that for as far back as I can remember. I worked there for 25+ years until redundancy 15 years ago. You're correct, it should have been written down much more than it ever was. Much was years old and no one wanted it.
When John Pittard was chairman there were several local gloving companies who would make a claim on every order they could when it was clearly due to their actions, not Pittards that caused any problems. JWWP let them get away with it, ignoring lab reports, costing money. Then large overseas gloving companies squeezed them on price (demanding to know the actual costs) until the pips squeaked.
Since the current MD/CEO took over it's been a gradual one way street to decline.
Every year the same excuses - the pound's too strong/ the pound's too weak...
Back in the early 2000's there were staff share option schemes. £2,000+ of shares bought then were recently sold by Pittards (disenfranchising many small shareholders) for £8.06. Not the best investment I ever made! At least those in charge have likely lost far more.

[clocktower] 19/5/2023 14:47

callumross - I guess if they did that it would send out even more warning signals to any company that trades with them around the world. I doubt if many businesses that trade with them are aware of the serious position they seem to be in.

You just have to look at the discount that FAB has had to give to raise funds today - 84% discount to the market price at the time of setting the price.

I am all for a funding to wipe out the debt as this could be a very good and profitable business if run by a top rate BOD that put shareholders interests on the same playing field as their own.

However can they raise the many millions required to save the business?

If they raise only part of the dent, I will not be investing in the stock but if they raise sufficient to get ride of the debt then I would be back in, even if it is at 2p a share.

[callumross] 17/5/2023 16:37

Why has the board not requested a suspension of the shares? Strange.

[clocktower] 15/5/2023 15:50

What I have not noticed before is the few changes on the PTD corporate website:

[clocktower] 12/5/2023 13:31

Not the MD the Chairman and certain others also need to carry the can - The Chairman being the biggest issue impo.

As far as I am aware Mulberry do not source their leather from Pittards - although a board member sits on PTD's board, I believe it is more historical.

Dr Martins has also suffered has it not recently?

Spot on about being the brand owner S - however gloves have been a traditional product of PTD but who the heck is looking for a brand in standard leather gloves. Maybe in Motor Bike Gloves/ Golf Gloves etc but they are going to go with top club brands anyway, I guess if it is golf gloves.

Top brands are only going to want the very best of the leather, be it in gloves or saddle leather - Headphones covers - clothes (jackets in the main) or even shoes - so what do you do with the rest of the leather? Make things for other people that are demanding a certain end price rather than the very best.

Hill & Friends website - you only seem to be able to buy refurbished bags - nothing new. Very odd.



Still plenty of bags on SALE on Pittards website though - Bargain Prices as well.

[smithie6] 12/5/2023 11:23

the MD

my guess is that the MD has had loyalty to the workers too close to his heart, over many years

& as a result has not taken dynamic or hard decisions over the years as an exec. director should but has chosen instead to 'lets plod along much the same as last year'
while I guess he did try to make a success of the Ethiopian venture & that venture branching out to make shoes but that clearly hasn't produced the profits to support the group.

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imo making stuff for other people, where you have to compete on price against competitors
& you don't have patents or unique technology

is almost always a waste of time for investors.
The buyer will always ensure that the margin is small.

One needs to be the brand owner, imo, Adidas, Burberry, Lluis Vuitton, Dr Martins, Benetton etc.

[smithie6] 12/5/2023 11:14

old leather stock

Dr Martins boots is I think a customer of PTD, yes ?
they use shed loads of leather every year, they have global sales.

clearly they have never wanted to buy that old stock. nor Mulberry, another client of PTD.

[clocktower] 11/5/2023 22:08

MRF - I could explain the reasons for the stock position, as I understand how this has grown to the level it has but it should have been written down each and every year, and virtually written down to the level of a liquidation price but I bet his was not done so to support the borrowing.

The auditors should be taken to task over allowing the company to overstate its value. However I guess they would say they checked the stock and it was and is all still there. While the stock is sitting around, I believe virtually none of it was or is saleable and it was only store to allow the auditors to keep it on the books.

No it was not a mistake it was intentional but I believe they could trade their way out of the situation, so I would give them the benefit of the doubt on this score.

baner, thank you for your comment, and I believe you are correct but he and the rest of the board have put their own interests above those the employees when they awarded themselves around 5% of the company if the shares had held at 70p.This grates with me and always did, and that was the reason I sold some time ago at a reasonable profit fortunately.

Come what may I hope everyone’s pension is protected if the worst occurs.

[volsung] 11/5/2023 20:43

Pittards worth a pittance

[baner] 11/5/2023 19:37

i am behind clocktower in this - i actually believe the CEO is an absolutely honest person, however not up to his tasks here.

[my retirement fund] 11/5/2023 16:51

Are you sure, its not difficult to run inventory at a sensible level. Yes occasionally inventory can swing both ways of an ideal level. However if you read the historic annual returns over the years, it an on going theme of being over stocked. Are you seriously suggesting this was just a honest mistake, bad luck etc ? Surely management cannot be that incompetent or unlucky, can they ?

[clocktower] 11/5/2023 15:52

MRF - I think you are wrong and out of order to suggest that there was wrong doing - while I agree that dead stock should have been written off sooner, I do believe they have the stock sitting in their huge factory in Yeovil and I expect the same in Ethiopia.

As for the vacuum dryer, I think this was needed, as they had been turning a small profit. The stupidity was in part the loss due to the exchange fiasco. Plus rise in interest rates etc etc.

The greed of the BOD did damage as well impo.

As always the workforce are let down by the BOD. The directors must not be rewarded for failure.

[my retirement fund] 11/5/2023 15:31

It doesn't have big stocks of inventory, never has had imo! That's just a classic scam this listed companies do time and time again to pretend they are worth more than they really are and to bleed the company dry whilst cooking the books.

[smithie6] 11/5/2023 14:33

....I wonder if that £800k (updated/corrected) spent on a vacuum drying machine about 1.3 years ago would be very useful money to have now.

Was it a good investment or reckless spending ?

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clearly absolutely no one, I mean no one !
is interested to buy the massive stock of leather that the company has, otherwise big chunks of that would already have been sold to bring in hard cash.

And that infers a big write off in the value of that stock, imo, which would make the accounts worse but I guess that the mkt has already assumed that, by looking at the share price.

[clocktower] 11/5/2023 14:06

Seeing the share price drop again on very small volume and what looks like a buy, suggests to me that it's days are very numbered now.

The bell tolls unless they can raise and wipe out the debt but at what price 5p?