United Carpets Share Discussion Threads

[red army] 19/11/2020 10:48

Added to position this morning.

[my retirement fund] 16/11/2020 14:16

Mark1000 its a ridiculous argument to say the industry can't pass on inflation pressures because of competition. The giant out of town slash margins to the bone model worked well in the 90's peaked in 00's and failed in the 10's. This is a new age of service driven value added growth, where online marketing needs to be coupled with good old fashioned customer service. From what I can see this is what the United Carpets model does best.

[my retirement fund] 16/11/2020 14:09

This looks ready to pop back to 6 p imo

[mark1000] 26/10/2020 23:19

My Retirement sure but increase prices you may maintain the margin percentages but your sales volumes will be lower and by definition this will hurt the P&L. In order to maintain volumes for the franchisees depending on the action of your competitors you will in all likelyhood absorb some or even most of the higher costs certainly in the short term. The alternative is lower sales volumes and this means probably shrinking your network of stores. The RNS spells out the concern over higher costs it can never be good news in such a competitive market as floor coverings where customers can delay their purchases or trade down for cheaper solutions.

Retirement I do not expect the Company to go bust in the next 2 or 3 years they have lots of cash. The Directors own 40% plus of the shares for a small business they pay themselves large sums they will want the gravy train to remain on the track as long as possible. The Directors are no ones fools they are actually quite good at their jobs I am sure that they will tell you that they are the third largest carpet retailer and number one Carpetright and number two Tapi have been making huge losses for years as they fight each other to the death. I know people will say Uniteds customers are not the same as Carpetrights but hell if those Companies are prepared to loose hundreds of millions fighting each other for supremacy it does not make life easy for United. I think you have Lord Harris of Peckham to thank for making United shares uninvestable. If Carpetright or Tapi go bust or merge I would buy in here while their fight goes on with both sides prepared to loose tens of millions every year United are collateral damage.

If I am right in my negative opinion on United you will see the share price drift back down. The good news today is they are not going bust anytime soon although I fail to see any more positives than that.

If you are interested put CPR in the search click on Carpetright PLC although no longer quoted having been taken private at 5p per share at the start of this year you will see a share price of 1250p in 2007/8 it was a stock market darling Lord Harris could do no wrong. He had founded the Company and built it up to one of the most valuable retailers in the Country. Then things fell apart he had hoped his son would take over but his son left to start up his own business. Lord Harris decided to sell up and quit the business he had built from scatch. He joined his son with Tapi in direct competition to Carpetright and then spent the next ten years or so murdering his old creation. To be fair after he left Carpetright were poorly managed and contributed to their own downfall. Tapi grew rapidly they had institutions willing to back the Harris family king of carpets after all in taking on Carpetright they had enormous knowledge. They hired the best Carpetright managers they knew the most profitable stores so they had an inside track to hammer Carpetright and as a result the market cap fell by many hundreds of millions may be even a billion. Today that war continues with both these retailers fighting hard to survive as both sets of investors take heavy losses to stay in the game.

[mark1000] 26/10/2020 14:29

Babbler 6 months upto 31/03/20 445K loss if you add IFRS 16 745K loss a small amount of the loss down to lock down as it only hit end of March. Sales were down I think 2.6% and Covid was to blame for 1.6% the real issue was margin/ cost pressures. In a strange way Covid has ridden to the rescue of UCG by hiding the true position giving the Directors a big cash pile to slowly work through with their overly generous pay packages.

[babbler] 26/10/2020 13:41

"recovered much of the ground lost in lockdown...". They were making profit pre li kdown right? The hint is there.

[mark1000] 26/10/2020 13:31

The big thing folks are latching on to is 5M cash some think it can be given to the shareholders not a chance. As at least 3 to 4million of it is Government loans and deffered VAT. No where on the RNS does it say anything about the Company trading profitably. As for the future the directors have warned you all margins are under pressure, Brexit could add extra cost if no deal is done. Like the housing market the Company has gained from pent up demand and people wanting to move house in this Covid world. If you think this will continue in the face of higher unemployment and higher infection rates you are away with the fairies. The Directors more or less said that in their RNS if you bother to read it carefully. If you look at the share volumes today they are tiny most folk realise this is a get poor share slòwly not a get rich share quickly unless you are a director.

[topnotch] 26/10/2020 12:06

Was that comment supposed to be from another acoount?

[my retirement fund] 26/10/2020 10:59

Somewhat wide if the Mark1000 LOL !!!

[my retirement fund] 26/10/2020 10:58

Market cap half of its cash and cash equivalents. They own a load of property and some 60 odd very profitable franchises. Looks like a decent business.

[my retirement fund] 26/10/2020 10:55

Looks like your assessment was somewhat wide of the mark to say the least!

[mark1000] 25/9/2020 15:25

Barely profitable before Covid now a Zombie organisation with a 2M Government loan they will never repay. I have not read any where that the Directors have cut their overly generous sallaries they have always been the main beneficiaries of UCG and continue to be so while it lasts.

[value hound] 01/9/2020 17:20

First upward move since December 2015! :-)

[gelp] 26/8/2020 13:49

Great - that's what it's all about!

[gelp] 26/8/2020 07:16

2 million cash - very handy. Cash probably now exceeds market cap. Good support for any easy pay programmes and moral booster for franchisees.

[gelp] 30/7/2020 07:33

Franchise model has distinct advantages & unemployment brings more hungry franchisees. I could not resist coming on board this morning at 2.77p. Loads of new houses with young first time government assisted buyers need coverings. Report is Comprehensive. 24 million t/o business with2 million m/c. Dividend held for now. But prospects. I love Franchises!

[mark1000] 08/7/2020 14:48

If the directors do not take it private one thing they should do is rebase their pay eg pay themselves a basic of say a 100K and the rest based on profit share. This would be an honest attempt to readdress the imbalance in reward between shareholders and directors. With the company headed for heavy losses from the very small precovid profits the directors remuneration has to be central
to the companies cashflow and importantly to the relationship with shareholders and franchisees proving we are all in this together and no one has a golden ticket to avoid the mayhem.

[spob] 08/7/2020 11:34

Yes makes sense to take it private at this price

[mark1000] 08/7/2020 11:26

Did the over paid directors reduce their pay and benefits at the time they shoved the majority of staff into furlow ?
I have been dissapointed by the lack of communication over the last 3 months and the communication given could have been more detailed.
I would think with the market cap 3M and the directors and associates holding 60% plus there must come a point to save costs they look to take the whole thing private. Be interested to know what percentage of the franchisees hold shares.

[my retirement fund] 26/6/2020 11:38

I think the share price has to go up now

[my retirement fund] 09/4/2020 17:38

Looking stupidly cheap here

[callumross] 01/4/2020 15:55

Couldn't resist a quick nibble at the close for 50k at these prices. Not indebted, should access government funding schemes etc.. and in long term these prices may look cheap.