Grief, £1 a year ago (Dec 2010, and that was a discount!) _DYOR - and now a shadow of that.

- perhaps they should introduce the Exploding chocco - these contain a small amount of TNT and although it's only a small amount, it can practically blow your head off, so you are left speechless, at least until the sinues manage to flip your skull back and normality is restored.

Not sure that a Yield of 6% will last much longer . . . . is there oodles of debt?

News of inferior profits sent stock down 38% - give me some of those new sweetmeats.
EDIT (23Jan2012)...jump up 38% today....MM's playing Buys/Sells about evens.

Coming along nicely today.

16.25 / 16.50p +0.875p

for those buying lately it seems they are on the profit now, I did get some @ 13.62p
Share price has finally decided to move forward today and ahead of Thursday 16th Interim results. Some good buying earlier on and for the last week, but did not move forward.

6 days chart

there is a buyer on the market at 16.50p, at the moment it comes as 10K on the order book and every time is taken another one comes up, is a way of disguise the full amount the investors has put on.

other investors have noticed that also and are now buying in larger size 29K 11K

only 5K left at offer 17p now

Making some progress today. Much more AT buying than usuall, and an intra day auction to boot.

Another +5% so far today. Currently unable to buy on line in size.

A five per cent rise in the morning is quite respectable. I should think we might go into the Easter holiday weekend clear of 35.

After that there will be the Easter trading report to look forward to.

Trading Update.

Key points:

· Total sales for the nine weeks increased by £1.8 million to £24.7 million, an improvement of 7.8%.

· Commercial sales grew by £2.9m to £9.3 million, due to the introduction of this summer's 'Best of British' range and some differences in the timing of deliveries to our Commercial customers.

· Own Store like for like sales increased by 0.7%. Overall sales in Own Stores declined £0.7m to £13.7 million as a result of the 36 store closures during the year, in line with the Company's strategy.

· Franchise sales declined to £0.9 million. Sales were adversely affected by the administration of Clinton Cards Plc. Thorntons had franchises in 30 Birthdays stores and 16 Clinton Cards stores.

· Thorntons Direct sales were broadly flat at £0.8 million.

· We anticipate profit before tax, impairment and onerous lease charges for the full year to be in line with our expectations.

Trading Statement

Key points

· Total sales for the 14 weeks increased by £4.5 million to £88.0 million, an improvement of 5.4% compared with the same period last year.

· Thorntons branded Commercial sales grew strongly by 26.4% to £34.7 million. Thorntons' share of the Total Boxed Chocolate market increased from 11.7% to 12.1% and its share of the Inlaid Boxed Chocolate market increased from 33.5% to 35.0%.*

· In Own Stores like for like sales declined by 1.3%. A further three stores were closed in the quarter, in line with the strategy, resulting in 27 fewer stores than a year ago. This was the major contributor to the sales decrease of 9.0% to £40.9 million in Own Stores.

· Franchise sales declined by £1.1 million to £3.0 million as expected, mainly reflecting the placing into administration of our major franchisee in May 2012.

· Thorntons Direct sales decreased by £0.7 million to £4.8 million as the late deployment of the new website combined with operational issues had a significant impact on sales in the period.

· Private label sales substantially increased to £2.5 million.

· International sales grew by 69.0% to £2.1 million reflecting a positive first response to our strategic initiatives over the past year in this area.

* Nielsen MAT (Moving Annual Total) to week ended 29/12/12

Notice of Half Year Results

Thorntons will announce its half year results for the 28 weeks ended 12(th) January 2013 on Monday 25(th) February 2013.

Continuing with the bounce and a good rise today

results due on 12 days time


Thorntons gives notice of results
Chocolate retailer Thorntons (LON:THT) will announce its half year results for the 28 weeks ended 12th January 2013
on Monday 25th February 2013.

Looking very strong here - although maybe a tad over bought.

re- overbought

A share with RSI moving to over 60 ( just the right time ) for a large movement up and with volume today ready for a BREAK OUT 46p.

overbought will be when goes to 85/90 on the RSI, has been there before ( july and September )

I was alluding to the Williams % - anyhow, looking good atm.

Half Yearly Report

Financial

· Revenues up 2.9% to £133.7 million (2012: £130.0 million).

· Profit before tax and exceptional items rose by £2.2 million to £5.3 million (2012: £3.1 million).

· Profit after tax rose by 49.3% to £4.0 million (2012: £2.7 million)

· Exceptional items total £0.7 million (2012: £2.4 million) consisting of impairment and onerous lease provision movements.

· Cash generated from operations £15.0 million (2012: £11.6 million).

· Net debt at period end was £17.5 million (2012: £16.2 million).

· There is no interim dividend (2012: Nil).


Operational

· Sales of Thorntons branded product in the UK Commercial channel increased strongly by 16.1% to £51.8 million (2012: £44.6 million).

· Significant market share gains in UK Commercial channel.

· Own Store sales declined by 8.3% to £62.6 million (2012: £68.3 million), mainly due to the closure of a further 13 stores in line with the long-term strategy. Like for like sales decreased by 1.5%.

· Franchise sales declined by 25.4% to £5.0 million (2012: £6.7 million), mainly reflecting the placing into administration of our major franchisee in May 2012.

· Thorntons Direct sales declined by 11.9% to £5.9 million (2012: £6.7 million) due to the late deployment of our new website and operational issues in the peak selling period.

· International sales grew by 57.7% to £4.1 million (2012: £2.6 million).

· Sales of Private Label grew to £3.9 million from £0.8 million.

· As a consequence of the continued rebalancing of sales away from Own Stores
into Commercial channels gross margin declined by 1.1% points.

Classic chart.

a corner has been turned - foot is on the gas - skys the limit imho

Bit annoyed that despite banging on about these since last summer, I only had a token amount before the results. Hey ho!

Higher BREAK OUT

Is moving higher after yesterday's good results and director buying stock

Director Deals - Thorntons PLC (THT)

Paul Wilkinson, Non Executive Director, bought 310,000 shares in the company on the 25th February 2013 at a price of 47.00p. The Director now holds 1,000,503 shares.

just added more on the pull back.

Not far of Easter now.

Surely they wil give an update after the holiday.

Fingers crossed it should be good.