The EU debate - Part III

What proportion of marmite is imported?

Marmite is a by product of another process that uses barley, hops and yeast. Almost none of which is imported. Most of the glass used in the UK is UK produced and that's made of silica.

 

In the highly unlikely event that you've actually got something intelligent to say, please do try to enlighten us.

Until then, **** off you tedious little twat!...

 

See, you're still doing it, and only a few posts after I'd posted the text of an article that commented on the differences between the discount supermarkets and the big four.

You two prove the argument with your persistent childish abuse and bigotry.

 

Input prices across the entire UK manufacturing base are up around 8% year on year.

Most of this hike to date has been lost within producers or retailers margins, but that can't and won't last much longer, as it's completely unsustainable

Therefore the 8% will find its way to the consumer and WILL drive inflation in the coming months.

 

It seems you're right. Marmite appears to be made in the UK from local products, so maybe Unilever are just being ****s. Or maybe Marmite was just a bad example.

It's still the case though that 40% of our food is imported, so we can expect food inflation to gather pace in the coming months.

 

What has the business model of Aldi and Lidl got to do with Brexit and the issue of currency devaluation driving inflation?

 

You were both right.

On that particular product Unilevers actions are obviously more about protecting their margins due to the fall of sterling against the dollar, which was Stevens original point

 

More great Brexit news!...


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-13/brexit-bulletin-high-street-headaches

That goes without saying, it's just a matter of time.

Then you'll hear all the brave Brexiteers squealing like stuck pigs...

 

Nothing! Just another of his tangential bullshit posts.

Just ignore the ****...,

 

Squealing like stuck pigs?......You do seem to be the expert where squealing
is concerned.Do you where a skirt by any chance?

 

It left them better positioned.

 

If only you did, the board would be far less cluttered by your childish replies.

Why not give it a go?

 

Go away, you ghastly, infantile, ignorant fool!.

 

Their positioning ultimately won't alter the simple fact that their imported goods will have to increase in retail price.

They work on low margins anyway, so won't be able to sustain absorbing a reduction in margin driven by sterlings collapse

 

Did you ever learn to spell, by any chance, wetty?...

You're as ignorant as your thicko mate from Hull...

 

Remind me again, who is it cluttering the board up with bullshit and childish abuse and advising others to ignore me?

 

Longer term perhaps, but at present, their model has left them better positioned.

 

They're better positioned to take more market share when the recession hits, same as they did last time. When people feel the pinch they start trying the discount stores.

No wonder they've got expansion plans for the next few years...

Germans taking advantage of Brexit, lol

 

Their model and Tesco's problems preceded brexit, which has added to an existing situation.

Last year, MT noted that Dave Lewis was faced with a crucial strategic dilemma: cut costs to fix Tesco’s wayward financials, or invest in the brand to restore customer love. Lewis listened to his inner FD, rather than his inner CMO, and set about closing unprofitable stores, selling non-core businesses like South Korea’s Homeplus and cutting Tesco’s considerable product range.

It was the right call, at the time. The pay-off is that Tesco’s 2015 full-year results show a return to pre-tax profit (just) - £163m, compared to a £6.3bn loss in 2014. That frankly horrific figure was directly caused by impairments on Tesco’s property assets, but behind that was the decline in sales and prices as German low-cost rivals Aldi and Lidl waged a successful price war against the Big Four, snatching considerable market share in the process.

Lewis has managed to arrest one of those declines – like-for-like sales finally rose (by 0.9% in the UK) in the fourth quarter to February 27 on growing volumes – but has had no such success with the other. The price of a basket of goods at Tesco is now 4% lower than last year, Lewis confirmed.

This deflation is the straight jacket that Lewis has to wear and the reason he will be unable to restore Tesco to the glories of its halcyon days. Four years ago, Tesco was posting profits of £4bn, but with the price war destroying its margins, such figures are now impossible.

Crucially, there’s no good reason to expect conditions to become more favourable in the future. Aldi and Lidl are growing their store counts rapidly, which means if anything competition is going to increase. Tesco has been thoroughly and permanently outflanked on price – unless he can come up with something new with which to tempt customers back to the shrinking middle market in which Tesco sits, Lewis will be unable to deliver anything other than negligible sales growth off razor thin margins.

It comes back to the dilemma he faced when he first took the helm last year – brand or budget. Cutting costs has averted the crisis and is likely to remain a feature of Lewis’ strategy, but it will never be enough to regain Tesco’s lost market share. Low costs are built into Aldi and Lidl’s business models in a way Tesco can never match.

Now that the profit loss account has been appeased, the emphasis is instead likely to fall on getting more people to choose Tesco. There are signs of it already with the launch of Tesco’s budget ‘farm ranges’, an own brand marketing device straight out the Lidl playbook.

Making a meaningful change to Tesco’s proposition will require much more than that, however – and no matter how Lewis decides to approach the problem, it will almost certainly require serious time and money, two things he really doesn’t have. ‘We have to invest in our business in a time when the market is deflating and there are some significant challenges ahead,’ Lewisadmitted to the BBC.

Investors hoping for a dramatic turnaround in the near future – or more specifically a return to the good old dividend days – are likely to be disappointed as a result. Tesco stock fell 5.6% by lunchtime to 185p – up from its December nadir, but still only half what it was worth three years ago.



Read more at http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/da...mma-tesco/article/1390979#E1chu2F2ZDIdJPUr.99

 

People like Aldi, Poundland, etc, work on extremely low margins. It won't be long before they're forced to raise prices to remain profitable....