Some salient points below based on Paul's write up on 6th April 2021 and on 25th May 2021 :
Pros
- Capital-light international low risk franchising model.
- Over 1,000 stores in 40 territories being operated by franchisees.
- Two cornerstone investors who support restructuring.
Cons
- Large pension scheme liabilities & substantial over-payments totalling circa £104.5m versus current market cap of £123.43m
- Adjusted enterprise value of £227.93m
- Pension scheme accounting questionable
- Hard to value it because of incomplete information such as future profit & cashflow and effect of huge pension scheme payments
Today's trading update:
"Whilst we still anticipate that the steady state operation of our existing retail franchise operations, in more normal circumstances, should exceed annual operating profits of £15 million, the Group has continued to be impacted by Covid-19 during this financial year. For the first 21 weeks of our current financial year to March 2022 our total retail sales were £136 million, generating an adjusted EBITDA of approximately £4.0 million representing a significant improvement over the adjusted EBITDA of £2.2 million reported for the year ended 27 March 2021."
