National Milk Records in 2 minutes 34 seconds
More speculative than it looks With an oligopolistic position in the milk recording market National Milk Records is a promising candidate for the Thrifty 30 but its pension obligation leaves [...]
Johnson Service in 1 minute 58 seconds
Good business, bad liabilities Johnson Service’s operational heart is beating strongly, but its strengths as a business are weighed down by hefty liabilities. Maybe management makes the difference. What it [...]
PV Crystalox Solar in 1 minute 56 seconds
Blood on the silicon streets I don’t know if hibernating PV Crystalox Solar can survive the down-cycle in wafer prices, but the market says it won’t. The shares are outrageously [...]
Towards the perfect PE
Exposing Johnson’s beating heart If you scrape away the nasties, the pension fund, the debt and the operating leases, there’s a perfectly viable business at the heart of Johnson Service [...]
Johnson Service plans next moves
Two steps forward… Johnson Service‘s results, published in the recent annual report, are a model of consistency. While sales and profits are up and debt is down, the overall effect [...]
Metalrax in two minutes sixteen seconds
A two minute monologue. What it does: steelsmith Metalrax is a hodge-podge of specialist engineering companies and two pot and pan producers. The common denominator is metal, the pre-coated metals [...]
A year of qualified progress at Metalrax
Nerves of steel Judging by Metalrax‘s full-year results, published earlier this week, the company, which manufactures pots, pans and baking trays and a range of engineered metals, components and products [...]
Corin in transition
First impressions Corin‘s a likely candidate for the Thrifty 30. It makes a product we should need in ten years time, in fact we should need more, and it looks [...]
Another painful year for French Connection
High end high street is recipe for pain As expected, French Connection‘s full year profits are lower than expected due to losses in its UK and European retail division. The [...]
Colefax: more indebted than I thought
‘Orrible operating leases Thanks to a reader I spent Friday afternoon pondering my least favourite investment subject: operating leases. As usual, they’re complicated, but also important because they subtly shift [...]
Colefax in two minutes
A two minute monologue update. What’s changed I’ve updated the company finances section to account for operating leases. What it does: Designer of fabrics and wallpaper Colefax designs luxury fabrics [...]
Board room coup seeds distrust
Out with the old, in with the older So the votes have been cast, and the battle is almost over. Members of the founding Anton family with some institutional support [...]
