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.

Full steam ahead.

Gaining momentum now.

Yep up over 5% on the day Mitzy. Numis have a 100p SP target.

Bugger!

lol.

RNS - results ahead of expectations :)

EASTER TRADING UPDATE

The Board of Thorntons confirms that Easter trading has been satisfactory.

When combined with similarly satisfactory results from both Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, the Board now anticipates that the pre-exceptional Profit Before Tax for the 52 weeks to June 29th 2013 will be ahead of the current market expectation of £3.1 million.

However, we remain cautious of the prevailing economy and its continuing impact on consumer expenditure.

We will continue to work through the detail of the recent trading period and will provide further information in our Q3 IMS currently scheduled for Wednesday 24th April 2013.


ENDS

BRIEF-Thorntons sees FY profit ahead of expectations03 Apr 2013 - 07:07

LONDON, April 3 (Reuters) - Thorntons PLC : * The board of Thorntons confirms that easter trading has been satisfactory * Pre-exceptional profit before tax for year will be ahead of current market expectation of £3.1 million ((London Equities Newsroom; +44 20 7542 7717)) ((For more news, please click here [THT.L]))

UPDATE 1-Easter egg sales boost Thorntons' profit outlook03 Apr 2013 - 08:43

(Adds detail, background, shares) LONDON, April 3 (Reuters) - British chocolate maker Thorntons PLC said full year profit should beat market expectations after 'satisfactory' trading over Easter, Valentine's Day and Mother's Day. The group said it expected its pre-exceptional profit before tax for the year ending June 29 to be ahead of the current market expectations of 3.1 million pounds ($4.7 million). Shares in Thorntons, which have more than doubled over the last 12 months, rose over 5 percent to 72.75 pence by 0727 GMT on Wednesday. The company, established by Joseph William Thornton in 1911, has been coping with a slowdown in consumer demand by closing its high street stores and focusing more on its online business and selling wholesale. In February it reported a 70 percent rise in first-half profit to 5.3 million pounds. [ID:nL4N0BP2UL] Brokers at Investec reiterated their 'buy' recommendation on Thorntons' stock, saying Wednesday's statement showed "continued positive momentum in the business". ($1 = 0.6610 British pounds) (Reporting By Dasha Afanasieva, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien) ((Dasha.Afanasieva@thomsonreuters.com)(+44)(0)(207 542 4673)(Reuters Messaging: Dasha.Afanasieva.thomsonreuters@thomsonreuters.net)) Keywords: THORNTONS/

Brokers at Investec reiterated their 'buy' recommendation on Thorntons' stock, saying Wednesday's statement showed "continued positive momentum in the business".

03 Apr Thorntons PLC THT Investec Buy 71.38 69.00 80.00 - Reiterates

SP TARGET 80p.

Trading Statement

Key points

· Total sales for the period which includes Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Easter increased by 4.0% to £60.6 million compared to the same period last year.

· Thorntons branded UK Commercial sales grew by 10.0% to £27.4 million with good growth across all three seasons. Thorntons' share of the Total Boxed Chocolate market increased from 11.7% to 12.2% in the last 52 weeks and its share of the Inlaid Boxed Chocolate market increased from 32.9% to 35.6%*. Sales of Easter specialities grew by 23.5% and Easter market share grew to 4.7% from 4.0% last year**.

· Own Stores like for like sales grew by 0.2% with growth during each of the three key seasons. Total sales were down 4.1% to £26.0 million as a further 9 stores were closed in the quarter, in line with the strategy, resulting in 24 fewer stores than a year ago.

· Franchise sales declined by £0.6 million to £2.2 million as expected, mainly reflecting the placing into administration of our major franchisee in May 2012.

· Thorntons Direct sales decreased by 4.6% to £2.2 million with the Consumer Direct business delivering growth at Easter as improvements from the new website began to feed through.

· Private label sales increased to £1.7 million.

· International sales grew by 30.8% to £1.1 million.

* Nielsen: Total Boxed Chocolates & Inlaid Boxed Chocolates 52 weeks to week ending 30th March 2013
** Nielsen: Easter Specialities 14 weeks to week ending 6th April 2013

Investec Buy 79.50 75.75 80.00 100.00 Reiterates

100p soon.

No stopping it now for 100p.

CLOSE OF FINAL QUARTER


At the time of its trading update on 24 April, Thorntons stated that as a result of growing market share and improvement in margins due to actions taken over the past two years there was potential for further profit improvement in the final quarter. The Board is pleased to report that a combination of sales growth and careful cost management has enabled the additional profit potential to be realised and accordingly pre-exceptional profit before tax for the full year to 29 June 2013 will be ahead of current market expectations*.

Thorntons will provide a final-quarter trading update on 15 July and its full year results will be announced on 11 September 2013.

* Current market consensus is £4.6m

ENDS

Trading Statement

Thorntons today reports its fourth quarter trading update for the ten weeks up to and including 29 June 2013, which demonstrates further progress in transforming the business. As this quarter is a ten week period (last year nine weeks), the figures for 2012 have been adjusted to allow comparison.

· Total sales - Increase of 5.6% to £26.8 million.

· Commercial (FMCG) Division- Continued strong growth in the Commercial division which will become Thorntons' largest division by the end of the current financial year in line with the strategy to rebalance the business. The prospects for the International channel continue to be encouraging, although currently still a small proportion of overall sales.
- UK Commercial sales grew by 11.8% to £9.2 million.
- International sales more than doubled to £0.9 million.
- Private label sales increased to £0.7 million.

· Retail Division - Showed good progress towards the objective of creating a sustainable retail estate of 180-200 stores. The period saw positive like-for-like sales in Own Stores, a trend also reflected in the Franchise channel.
- Own Store like-for-like sales increased by 0.5%. Overall sales in Own Stores declined 3.8% to £13.9 million as a result of the 34 store closures during the year, in line with the Company's strategy.
- Franchise sales improved by £0.2 million to £1.3 million.
- Thorntons Direct sales decreased by £0.1 million to £0.8 million.

· As announced on 2 July 2013 we anticipate profit before tax, impairment and onerous lease charges for the full year to be ahead of current market expectations.*

* Current market consensus is £4.6m

Some signs of ready for the turn TARGET 100p

Late this afternoon has broken from the 84p top during the last 2 weeks

Covered the gap at 75p from late april and report I think next week. Could be a good trading buy.