William Ransom Share Discussion Threads

[thehangman] 22/11/2011 11:34

playful
Cash flow is heresay.
But you must agree out of stocks to their premier customers is a no no.Go and look in Boots and you will see LIFEPLAN in RANSOMS place.

I lost on this share a couple years back and looked in at bb out of curiousity.
What was the mistake they made regards EU legislation?
gl

[playful] 21/11/2011 18:09

As you would say it's the word on the terraces. I don't believe for one minute they have any cash flow problems and suggest such a comment to be ridiculous.

They know where they made the mistake and I feel confident it will not happen again.

[thehangman] 21/11/2011 15:40

From what source did you get that?
Only im hearing different stories to that from within the Industry.
From what i hear they have massive cash flow problems,there lesser selling products ie Musseltone is being greatly reduced in cost price to Independant retailers to try and generate cash.
I stress this is heresay from retailers and reps in the health food industry.
DYOR
What a idiotic company to run out of stock of their biggest selling product to their biggest customer.

[playful] 21/11/2011 12:19

I have been told H&B will be re-stocked by the end of the month

[thehangman] 21/11/2011 10:16

Checked out my local Holland and Barrett
Out of stock of OPTIMAS ALOEPURA, but selling their own brand !!!

[thehangman] 19/11/2011 11:40

Ive just been in BOOTS in central London.
I went to look for OPTIMA/RANSOM ALOE PURA.They had zero stock which is bad,but whats worse in its place is the same products in very similiar packaging from a company called LIFEPLAN
Cheaper RSP than OPTIMA ,plus 3 for 2
OH dear RANSOM

I will check out stock levels in Holland and Barrett when next in town
And check out LIFEPLAN to see if AIM listed

RANSOM sack your sales director!!

[playful] 18/11/2011 20:20

My major issue is the fact that everyone knew the EU legislation was coming so they had ample opportunity to make alternative arrangements, but did nothing and now they are in a sorry situation having probably lost over £200k in sales and damaged their reputation with retailers too.

[thehangman] 18/11/2011 18:32

Word on the terraces from within the industry.

The Sales director is way out of depth with this position as his previous post was as a Sales manager in a very small vitamin company??.
dyor.

playful
Your post 65
Is true, but the problem for RNSM will increase as retailers battling in tough times will find alternatives rather than wait and loose sales,they cant sell from empty shelves.

Who would buy them???

[playful] 18/11/2011 09:54

Despite being assured that best selling products would be available from today retailers are being told that yet again delivery is delayed until next month, which is what they have been saying every month.

[playful] 02/11/2011 16:15

Availability of stock is becoming a major issue now! The email extract below is just one of many...

"I love this product and have never had a product that has worked so effectively. But for some reason, the aloe Vera colax is out of stock everywhere!!!!. Please help!!!. Have tried alternatives but with no success. Does anyone know if this product is now discontinued and if so why???. Thanx."

[deswalker] 25/10/2011 09:36

Based on underlying Operating Profit we have ...

H1/10 £33k
H2/10 -£493k
FY/10 -£460k

H1/11 £754k
H2/11 -£314k
FY/11 £440k

But, for the Pharma division (which is very cyclical with H1 much better than H2) on the same basis we have ...

H1/10 -£164k
H2/10 -£266k (a relatively good performance cf H1 and the previous year)
FY/10 -£430k

H1/11 £13k
H2/11 -£473k
FY/11 -£460k (my estimate based on TS dated 24/10/11 saying losses in this division had increased yoy).

The Pharma division has now been divested so on a continuing division basis we have ...

H1/10 £197k
H2/10 -£227k
FY/10 £30k

H1/11 £741k
H2/11 £159k
FY/11 £900k

which IMO is a fantastic turnaround of the continuing businesses. There clearly remains some large cyclicality between H1 and H2.

My estimate of continuing Depreciation and Amortization for FY/11 is £380k giving a continuing historical EBITDA of £1280k.

As for net-debt, based on £2.7mill for 31 March 2010, £2.6mill for 30 September 2010 (cyclically higher than the year end) and the sale of the Pharma division, I estimate the net-debt for 31 March 2011 to be £2.2mill, for 30 September 2011 to be £2.2mill and for 31 March 2012 to be £1.9mill giving an average for the current year of £2.1mill.

So a 6p share price gives a £5.07mill market cap and a £7.17 mill EV and if they can repeat my estimate of last year's EBITDA of £1.28mill then it would be trading on a current year EV/EBITDA of 5.6 which sounds about right to me. Add on a premium for any sale and 6.5p looks a fair price for the whole company IMO.

[graham1ty] 24/10/2011 12:41

Just seen the announcement. No indication of when the results will actually be !! Surely 7 months after the year end, they should have just issued the results instead of this !! It is called a trading update, but apart from "trading conditions remaining difficult" there is actually nothing to tell us if RNSM is trading ahead/behind last year, or whether it is profitable, or what has happened to net debt.

Really tells us nothing and is not the "deal" that rumour said we were expecting.

[playful] 24/10/2011 12:18

The Company expects to report an underlying operating profit (before exceptional costs, non recurring items and goodwill impairment) for the year ended 31 March 2011 of approximately £0.44 million (2010:
loss 0.46 million).



"Further simplification of the Company's structure" - What could this mean?

[davidosh] 21/10/2011 10:21

Graham1TY.....I think after the Agm we attended and gave them a pretty hard time it is unlikely they will try anything to blatantly 'leg us over'. They are well aware of this core group and we do have contact with the company. Any deal would have to be approved by all of us and I do have contact with PG from time to time.

[deswalker] 21/10/2011 09:11

Any such deal would have to be voted on by shareholders excluding the FW & SQ Concert Party and would need 75% approval.

I'm hopeful of a straight sale to a third party.

[graham1ty] 21/10/2011 08:56

Wonder if rolling into another business of his ? Then shareholders may not get the best deal.......

[playful] 17/10/2011 14:18

I am not against a sale if the price reflects the true value of the business and all shareholders are treated equally. I guess Fred will confirm if there is any truth to the speculation within the upcoming results.

[deswalker] 14/10/2011 14:19

Thanks alot.

Any more info gratefully received. Which terraces and any idea of the sale price they are looking for ?

Cheers

[investor concerned] 14/10/2011 14:05

The talk on the terraces is just that !

[deswalker] 13/10/2011 19:22

Investor concerned - can you clarify please ? Are you suggesting that the whole company has been put up for sale ?

[investor concerned] 13/10/2011 17:28

Ok guys whats the story behind the company up for sale lock,stock and everything !!

[deswalker] 06/10/2011 11:37

Some work has been done on the corporate website in the last few days. Not major, just some updating of certain parts of the "About us" and "Investors" tabs.

In particular I notice a clarification of the Trust William deal. The Optima division bought the assets and some of the liabilities of Trust William Limited and in return Optima sold its shares in Trust William Limited back to MDY for £1. Unsure why it would be done this way (tax ?) but it leads to yet more simplification with one less subsidiary to worry about. Good news but it leads me wondering whether we will stick with the Trust William name or rebrand altogether ? Perhaps one of the bought assets was the name otherwise it might be time for playful to dust off his website skills IMO ;o)

Also I notice they have an AGM date as 30 March 2012 although this is probably a place holder at the moment.

Hopefully we'll get some accounts before the end of the month. Definitely some real operational progress being made here. Fingers crossed we see some reasonable numbers to back it up.

Fred & Ran, keep up the good work.

[playful] 28/9/2011 12:00

Interesting to learn we are involved with a potentially new verruca treatment product:



Problems with the link?

Run a search on "Cryotherapy No Better Than 50% Salicylic Acid, Costs More" click first result

[playful] 15/9/2011 09:26

Well done Fred!

[deswalker] 15/9/2011 08:10

And notification of the deal is already on our website ...



Sir Roger Jones, Chairman, commented:

"The purchase of the Trust William Business is part of the ongoing simplification of the structure and business of the Company. The board believes the transaction is in the best interests of the Company and its stakeholders. Furthermore, the transaction will enable the Company to develop the on line sales of its consumer healthcare products."

Yet more simplification which is to be very much welcomed. Definitely worth keeping an eye on the TW website and its reviews going forward.