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

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

Remember what happened the last time there was a big seller who stopped selling. At least we finished back at 34 bid. Found this little snippet in just-style.com:

UK: Marchpole Beats Predictions With Half-Year Figures
13 Oct 2004
Source: just-style.com



Mens fashion group Marchpole Holdings has reported half-year sales ahead of expectations.

The autumn/winter order book for fashion house Yves Saint Laurent has been 70 per cent delivered, whilst 85 per cent of its Ozwald Boateng book has been delivered the company said.

Over 80 per cent of the Jean-Charles de Castlebajac line has also been delivered, meaning the groups performance has so far fulfilled directors predictions.


The group said in a trading statement: "The YSL and Boateng order books for this season now stand at 10 million compared with orders 8.5m for the spring-summer 2004 season at the same time last year."

Happy days!

another licence in the pipeline but even more exciting, 42m approved but not yet issued shares ready and waiting for a new acquisition!

If they can turn JCC round, that is where the big money is going to be earned and the trading statement implied that they are. As far as I am concerned this is not factored into the share price at all.

another new high today.

capa

Yep these shares must be for something.

Agree with Capa re JCC and big money to be made there. Will find out in the next results how JCC is doing so far. Managed to get some more today under 35p. Well chuffed, nice end to the week!

Gav

Anyone seen the financial mail this morning?

"Bardot fashion for sale"

Marchpole the mens fashion group behind Yves Saint Laurent and Ozwald Boateng, is in talks to buy the Louis Feraud fashion brand, above.
Louis Feraud, who died four years ago, rose to fame in the sixties when he dressed the young Brigitte Bardot and the brand is now run by his daughter.
Marchpole would not comment, but said last week that its order books for the summer collection of its YSL and Boateng labels were 15 per cent up on last year. A source confirmed that the companies were holding talks.

Very interesting, news just out today. Anybodys thoughts? Not very clued up on Feraud fashion brand...

yes i saw it, right on the front page... It is something I too don't know much about

Going to try and do a little homework, will post anything of interest later on.

Evening all,
This talk of buying Feraud seems interesting, not to sure if it positive news for the short term though guess it would all depend upon the price paid etc etc.
Theres no doubting the quality of the brand itself, recent history shows that in 1999 there are about 50 Feraud outlets around the world whose annual turnover was about 81m.
French fashion designer Louis Feraud retired in 1995 and his business was run by his daughter, ex wife and colleagues until it was took over in 99 by Dutch firm Secon. It appears that a German fashion company, Escada now owns the feraud brand, who bought out Secon in 2002.
Hope that makes sense!
Buys outweigh sells today, but no real move in the sp

Can't find any info on recent collections from Louis Feraud. Head designer is a Danish man I've not heard of who has held the post for about a year. The last one was sacked as his collections were not commercially viable after two seasons.They do a jewellery line as well as accessories( handbags,etc)furs and perfume - not sure, do we cover the lot? It appears Norma Major and Edwina Currie were both fans, at least of the same outfit..but now may not be after a picture of them wearing the same outfit was put together and hung in the Feraud shop window with the caption....they may not like each other but they both like Louis Feraud. Doubt whether their lack of custom would seriously harm sales overall.Appears to be a well recognized brand...used to do haute couture but like many fashion houses stopped a few years ago. I don't know if that helps account for the lower profile and lack of newsflow.

I've brought this up before but had no comment...
looking at trades today, there was thin trading (cos the ftse's falling) then you have 2 MM trades pushing the price down with sales of 15,000 a piece and then they put through a 50,000 (purchase)trade from 8.58!!
It seems that especially on this stock, mm's are (hiding) purchases and manipulating the price lower to encourage sales.

SP fell on low volumes today, no doubt some were shaken out by this. Maybe the MM's thought a good chance to shake a few sellers out and get some stock cheaply. My guess is that this will move up sharply when buyers get in ahead of the results.

016622 - If what you say re MM's manipulating the stock to encourage sales is true, then they must want the shares for a reason. Perhaps for a sharp upturn in the run up to 9/11.

Having looked around, find it quite hard to find out much info on Louis Feraud.

Found this on Fibre2fashion.com:


France : Marchpole targets Louis Feraud
20th October 2004


Louis Feraud, the French fashion brand, may be the latest brand to be added to the expanding portfolio of Marchpole Plc, the British menswear maker already owning Castelbajac as well as licences for Yves Saint Laurent, Ozwald Boateng and Emanuel Ungaro.

The London-based group, which is actively looking to acquire new licences, informed it was in talks with a number of brands, but that British weekend press reports saying it was negotiating to acquire the Paris-based fashion house were speculation.

The group has the licences for the Yves Saint Laurent and Ozwald Boateng in the UK and recently obtained the worldwide licence for Ungaro, excluding the US.

Feraud Paris is in charge of the Feraud brand and licensing operations and has been put up for sales together with a new company by the name of Feraud Fashion GmbH, which was formed after the former Germany-based company filed for bankruptcy in June.

The brand's long-standing British licensee, Robert de Keyser has been granted the additional distribution rights for Australia and North America.

Feraud GmbH in Krefeld also declined to comment on Marchpole's alleged intends to buy the brand.

Should see share price moving up prior to results.Chance to buy for under 35p.

I feel that there is a persistant seller in the background holding this back.

No doubt this should be higher.

capa