Tasty Share Discussion Threads

[lbo] 10/11/2017 08:11

https://www.ft.com/content/02707f42-c54a-11e7-a1d2-6786f39ef675Private equity loses its appetite for London's restaurants

[hybrasil] 10/11/2017 07:45

tab hair

According to advfn the map is £18.9m

[dropside] 09/11/2017 14:24

Good to see the new Centuno format is getting some excellent reviews, with the odd bad one, but overall very good.

[tabhair] 09/11/2017 12:22

£10.4M market cap divided by 65 restaurants gives me £160k per location.

[hybrasil] 08/11/2017 16:36

oh dear this is really going for its tea

Cost per restaurant is now £288,000 as opposed to £500,000 when I invested,.

Not my brightest investment

[lbo] 15/10/2017 19:42

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/zombies-that-stalk-the-restaurant-group-lst6pws8s

[fillipe] 13/10/2017 14:45

Anyone with thoughts on what might be a pivot point at the share price which might precipitate a spot of risky buying? No doubt it's still early days for that, but the mkt is forever looking forwards, and sometimes quite a long way suchlike.

f

[fillipe] 13/10/2017 14:28

Ilkley also has a recent Carluccio's and another smaller local Italian, although C's didn't make the ducks fly off the water, for me.
No doubt last man standing will do well in Ilkley and I am not surprised that TAST chucked in the tea-towel.

I was most surprised they ever made a start there. A chat with a few of the locals could have saved them a lot of £££;.

f

[totalgeek69] 08/10/2017 09:50

Yes, The mistake was the original decision to go there but sometimes these things are worth a go. It isn't a mistake to leave when you clearly don't have space to compete in this town. I am pretty sure some of the restaurants are heavily revenue positive so this sort of decision will help balance the books through these tough times for the sector. Then when the dust settles (could be a while!) they can reap the benefits of being prudent.

[bookbroker] 08/10/2017 09:21

Total - Agree, the Ilkley branch was a Burton’s Menswear store prior, but took a very effort and financing to convert, maybe the research was insufficient, already has Pizza Express around the corner, and Piccolino’s Italian almost opposite, always a risk, nice conversion with retail part selling oils, pasta, etc, but never hit the ground running, always quiet, and a large premises with upstairs to boot. A good try for them, but a crowded market in a small town, Ilkley can be lively, but many come from out of town, quite an aged place in demographics, lots of elderly retirees!

[tabhair] 04/10/2017 10:52

I see Ilkley has been removed from their list of locations on their website as well.

[totalgeek69] 27/9/2017 16:39

This is the reason for the write downs... If a restaurant is clearly loss making and will continue to be loss making they have decided cut their losses. Makes sense..

[bookbroker] 27/9/2017 14:18

Ilkley Wildwood closed, now becoming a Banyan wine bar, seems crazy after spending most likely best part of half a million on the Burton's store conversion just two years ago! Probably more!

[lbo] 24/9/2017 11:18

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/luke-johnson-opening-restaurants-is-food-for-entrepreneurs-souls-l08bgzm2f

[lbo] 13/9/2017 09:19

https://www.bloombergquint.com/opinion/2017/08/18/britain-has-too-many-restaurants

[tiredoldbroker] 12/9/2017 11:33

The present Theresa May government is actually getting a really easy ride from the media; consumer confidence and spending power is quite clearly at a very poor place, yet there's no criticism of the government for the fact that after 7 years of Tory rule with austerity and making the rich richer, the average person is squeezed flat with no sign of improvement. All the casual dining companies are victims of that.

[hybrasil] 12/9/2017 11:00

I think its the brexit effect.

The consumer has no money and/or is afraid to spend.

Quite the opposite in european countries.

[tabhair] 12/9/2017 10:44

We knew these results were not going to be good and they've certainly lived up to managements guidance in the last trading update. I estimate that LFL sales are down by about 8-9% over the trailing 12 month period. We know the sector is difficult, but this decline is far in excess of what the sector has reported as a whole.

The £9.5m site impairment based on £34m worth of property plant and equipment reported in the last interim is spectacular for all the wrong reasons. When you consider these write-off's and the weak balance sheet, it's not surprising that site openings have been stopped for the rest of 2017 and 2018.

As an unfortunate holder, I do see a few reasons to be optimistic. The growth story is well and truly dead (I never really cared for it in the first place). I think that this will actually help in the recovery of TAST as management are going to be fully concentrated in turning around their existing base and generating cash rather than looking at developing new sites. Secondly, as awful as these numbers were, the company is still cash generative (before new build capex). If some of the worse locations can be shuttered and we even get marginal improvement in the existing locations, I don't think a return to an 8% margin is out of the realms of possibility in the next 2 years.

[hybrasil] 12/9/2017 09:58

or indeed less than zero!!!

[jonc] 12/9/2017 08:10

Yes but some are clearly worth zero.

[hybrasil] 12/9/2017 08:09

Now valued at £335k per restaurant

[jonc] 12/9/2017 07:11

I wonder what the bank loan covenants are. No new openings in 2018. That is not why the bank gave them a £12m facility.

[topvest] 09/9/2017 19:54

Hi yes, still have about 10% of my portfolio in property companies. Think the restaurant sector is one to avoid for now. Most of the chains seem to be struggling with lower consumer confidence and higher costs. Not a pleasant combination!