Marchpole is one of those stocks which have had a really bad time. Boardroom battles, losses, price collapse, profit warnings up the ying yang.

Now all of those things seem to be sorted out, new management are getting to grips, new contracts and the price is on the up. So much so that Monday ought to see a 50/200 day MA golden cross.

DYOR of course, but I think I will be putting a few of these away at the open.

Socco

50P by Christmas what a share. Interims soon could be very interesting up until then. Sitting on a 100% profit at the moment and hoping for more.

BULLISH!!!

Seems good to me....

Just released:

Marchpole Holdings PLC
12 October 2004


12 October 2004

Embargoed for 7.00am



Marchpole Holdings plc

(the 'Company')


Trading update


YSL and Boateng

Sales for the YSL and Boateng collections remain ahead of the Directors'
expectations following the half-year close, with the YSL Autumn Winter 2004
order book 70 per cent. delivered and the Boateng Autumn Winter 2004 order book
85 per cent. delivered to customers.


Jean-Charles de Castelbajac ('JCC)

Over 80 per cent. of the Autumn Winter 2004 customer programme has now been
delivered, giving an overall performance in line with Directors' expectations.


Spring Summer 2005 order books

The YSL and Boateng order books for this season now stand at 10 million
compared to orders for 8.5 million for Spring Summer 2004 season at the same
time last year.

The JCC order book for this season's collections currently stands at 3.4
million.


Overall performance

The Directors are pleased with the group's overall performance which continues
to be above their expectations.


Interim results

The Company expects to release its interim results for the six months ended 30
September on 9 November 2004.


For further information contact:


Marchpole 020 7908 7700

Greg Tufnell - Chief Executive
Justin Hampshire - Finance Director
Michael Morris - Executive Director



Shore Capital 020 7408 4090

Alex Borrelli / Simon Edwards



Buchanan

Tim Thompson 07710 718 649



This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

Nice rise yesterday. The Spring/Summer 2005 order books up 1.5m on this time last year. Looking good to me.

"The Directors are pleased with the group's overall performance which continues
to be above their expectations." - Nice!!!

LONDON (AFX) - Marchpole Holdings PLC said its trading performance is
continuing above management expectations.
In a trading statement ahead of its six months to September results, due Nov
9, the fashion group said sales of the YSL and Boateng ranges remained ahead of
company expectations after the end of the first half, with the YSL Autumn Winter
2004 order book 70 pct delivered and the Boateng Autumn Winter 2004 order book
85 pct delivered to customers, while Jean-Charles de Castelbajac is more than 80
pct delivered, "giving an overall performance in line with directors'
expectations".
Spring/Summer 2005 order books for YSL and Boateng now stand at 10 mln stg,
compared to 8.5 mln at the same time last yeark, while the JCC order book stands
at 3.4 mln eur.
"The directors are pleased with the group's overall performance which
continues to be above their expectations," the company said.
email: newsdesk@afxnews.com

With results on the 9th November this gives more time for people to take a position in Marchpole. Very nice !!

capa

surprising reaction to the news! Maybe a temporary lull? I would have thought it would have carried on North at a pace this morning!

bit of profit taking...

Bit of early profit taking first thing. 34.5 offer didn't last too long though. Maybe a few short term holders thought results out before 9/11 as 22/10 last year? I thought the trading update was excellent, very happy.

yes likewise, expected somewhere around c 37/8p given various news, perhaps by 9th Nov

Gav is probably correct. Traders taking their profit and going off elsewhere until closer to results, lets face it theres nothing in the news to scare you off.

Added some at 35.25p this a.m and looking for some more if offer drops below 34p, theres easy 20% uplift at these levels. JCC trading update particularly impressive.

capa

Capa,

Good call on topping up and well done on your CCN. Looked at it before but never bought in, more fool me! Agreed nothing in the statement to scare people off, seemed bullish to me. Didn't get more this morning, but also looking to add on any short term drop. Maybe we will consolidate here for a while, but not for very long! Guess that wouldn't do us any harm before another push upwards pre results. T+ traders perhaps getting back in in a week or so? Still feel that there is a lot of interest in this stock and rightly so.

Gav

Cheers Gav, yes CCN doing very well, 25p my initial target but I reckon could go further.

MPH my biggest holding and can see it being a nice safe long term hold.

No sleepless nights holding this one.

capa

Just a snippet from the Scotsman.com Business:

MARCHPOLE AHEAD

Menswear producer Marchpole Holdings said sales of Yves Saint Laurent and Boateng collections remained ahead of directors expectations after the end of the first half, with order books now standing at 10 million.

No sleepless nights with this one either.

The Independant today are calling MPH a "daring buy". Just makes sense to me.

never heard that before "a daring buy" what does that mean?

sure it is a misprint and should have read a darling buy

capa

Good point!!

A "daring buy", guess that's just the writers opinion. Not daring in my opinion considering what we now know about the company from this years RNS's. A snippet from the article:

"But Marchpole, under new management since 2002, has turned around its performance. Its YSL license expires in 2007, but Marchpole now designs for Oswald Boateng, the upmarket French label Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, and also Emanuel Ungaro. Its team of designers produces the range, which is shown to retailers. They select what they want, and Marchpole orders the items to be manufactured. This means it has low fixed costs and little stock overhang risk. Its labels are proving resilient to any signs of a slowdown in consumer spending and the group said in a trading statement yesterday that its order book for the summer collection for YSL and Boateng labels is 15 per cent ahead of last year."

Seems good to me, little stock overhang, low fixed costs, and we produce the ranges that the retailers actually want. Throw in new management who have turned this company around, rising sales and lots to come from JCC. Very happy here.

I suppose the daring bit may be referring to the past problems when the price of the stock collapsed.

Look forward not back in my opinion, this is a company that has been turned around.

capa

Exactly Capa. People need to look where we have came from and think about where we are going.

When we get rid of this persistant seller I think this will fly.

capa