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.

Trading Statement

THIRD QUARTER TRADING UPDATE & INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT

Thorntons today reports on trading during its third quarter for the 15 weeks up to and including 26 April 2014. Both operating divisions reported good sales of Easter specialities.

Sales in the third quarter saw a reduction of 7.6% against the same period last year due to the combined effect of early spring deliveries in our second quarter, slower sales through February and March in our UK Commercial channel and the cumulative effect of planned store closures.

For the year to date, UK Commercial sales have increased by 8.6% and the Retail division has delivered positive like-for-like growth of 1.8%.

FMCG Division
· UK Commercial sales declined by 8.0%. A strong Easter performance, where sales of our seasonal specialities grew in excess of 20%, was offset by the impact of the early spring sales reported in the second quarter combined with slower sales in February and March and a performance at Valentine's Day and Mother's Day that fell below expectations.
· International sales increased by 3.4%, accounting for just under 3% of total revenue.

Retail Division
· Like-for-like sales increased by 1.2% driven by a consistent performance over the key spring seasons including Easter.
· Own store sales declined by 8.8% reflecting 38 store closures compared to the same period last year in line with its strategy. Ten stores closed in the period resulting in 271 Own Stores at the end of the quarter.
· Consumer Direct sales increased by 5.6%.
· Franchise sales increased by 5.7%.

Jonathan Hart, Thorntons' Chief Executive, commented:
"Set against the continuing backdrop of a competitive and challenging trading environment the key Easter season saw all our channels delivering sales growth. Customers responded positively to our Easter innovations and we anticipate further good growth in our Easter market share.

"Despite this third quarter result we are satisfied with the overall performance of the business for the year to date and we look forward to our UK Commercial channel returning to growth in our short final quarter. The Board remains confident that Thorntons will perform in line with market expectations for the full year* and we continue to be confident that our transformation is on track and our strategy is appropriate and working."

The finance director has bought 20,000 - Director Shareholding

Final Results

Financial

· Revenues increased by 0.6% to £222.4 million (2013: £221.1 million)
· Profit before tax and exceptional items increased by 60.4% to £7.5 million (2013*: £4.7 million)
· EBIT margin increased to 4.5% (2013*: 3.4%)
· Basic EPS 7.8p (2013*: 4.6p)
· Cash generated from operations £4.6 million (2013: £8.3 million)
· Net debt £32.9 million (2013: £27.5 million)

Operational

· Successfully delivered our strategy to rebalance the business, revitalise our brand and restore profitability
- FMCG division grew by 7.8% to £111.0 million (2013*: £103.0 million):
- Sales in UK Commercial, our largest channel, increased by 9.7% to £99.4 million (2013*: £90.6 million)
- International sales grew by 4.9% to £6.4 million (2013: 6.1 million). Prospects for our International channel continue to be encouraging, although it is still a small proportion of overall sales
- Private label sales fell by 17.5% to £5.2 million (2013: £6.3 million)
- Significant investment committed to our manufacturing facilities

· Retail division delivered 1.1% growth in like-for-like sales over the period (2013: 0.8% decline), our best performance for more than six years:
- Own Store sales were £94.9 million (2013*: £102.5 million) with a net 36 stores closed during the year in line with the strategy
- Consumer Direct sales increased by 14.3% to £6.4 million (2013*: £5.6 million)
- Franchise sales rose by 1.2% to £8.6 million (2013: £8.5 million)

THT THONTONS PLC ...looks no reason why it cant go on and replicate last years upward action going into XMAS Mothers Day and Easter.

Looking to take out resistance at 134p 148p 160p and previous top of 165p.

Recent increase in volume and MACD positive.

FUNDIES

Year Ending Revenue (£m) Pre-tax (£m) EPS P/E PEG EPS Grth. Div Yield

29-Jun-13 221.05 4.29 5.31p 17.4 0.2 +101% n/a 0.0%

Historical P/E of 17 to june 2013.

Thorntons PLC

FORECASTS

2015 2016
Date Rec Pre-tax (£) EPS (p) DPS (p) Pre-tax (£) EPS (p) DPS (p)
N+1 Singer
12-11-14 BUY 10.68 10.90 13.97 14.40
Investec Securities
07-11-14 BUY 9.40 9.68 11.80 12.15
Charles Stanley Securities [R]
15-01-14 BUY 9.80 10.45 13.20 13.98

GROWTH

2014 (A) 2015 (E) 2016 (E)
Norm. EPS 111.97% 11.13% 29.36%
DPS % % %

INVESTMENT RATIOS
2014 (A) 2015 (E) 2016 (E)
EBITDA £18.40m £20.62m £23.79m
EBIT £10.95m £m £m
Dividend Yield 0.00% % %
Dividend Cover x x x
PER 12.98x 11.68x 9.03x
PEG 0.12f 1.05f 0.31f
Net Asset Value PS 24.16p 38.70p 55.20p

First Quarter Interim Statement.

http://www.investegate.co.uk/thorntons-plc--tht-/rns/trading-statement/201410130700070494U/

Off to a strong open.

THT up over 5% on the day. XMAS run in?????????

21 Nov 2014 Thorntons PLC THT Investec Buy 121.38 121.50 175.00 168.00 Reiterates

THT Thorntons.Double Bottom developed. Been accumulating these as I think a repeat of last year could be on the cards.

perhaps i'm too snooty by half - a sentiment with which i'm sure stan, gf, fred and a few others would readily agree :-) - but thornton's chocolates really are very nasty indeed

with that in mind, i really do wonder if this company truly has a future

as with their chocolates, this is one i shall definitely not be buying

Lovely chocolates.

Flying off the shelves at M@S

Or are you just sulking because you cocked up Ashrcrofts poll figures a bit like that time over the debate on tax when you cocked up and TANKER took you to task.

stupid boy!
no; i truly think the product is really nasty ... but then i wouldn't buy McD or Subway either .... but i have DOM shares and that's a pretty ugly product too

Ohhhhhhhhhh your a snob.

Sometime you can enjoy yourself coming down to my pleb level.

well i quite like jellied eels and certainly do whelks if properly cooked ; does that count? :-)

Shiteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

its only southerners who eat them.

cockles and mussels are nice.

mussels are frightfully posh!

Not vinegar mussels in a jar from Van Smirren.

I agree cynic the chockos are rubbish and the chart doesn't look good either - 95p on the cards again.

Mr 90% seems to have got this one completely wrong. 119p right now and the chart is saying 95p is far more likely than 134p!

"goldfinger - 13 Nov 2014 00:50 - 72 of 86

THT THONTONS PLC ...looks no reason why it cant go on and replicate last years upward action going into XMAS Mothers Day and Easter.

Looking to take out resistance at 134p 148p 160p and previous top of 165p.

Recent increase in volume and MACD positive."

May be worth a punt in January going by last three years above. Xmas sales, Valentines Day. Results if same as last year end of March and Easter 5th April. You would like to think they should be selling chocolate over these periods. GF maybe got his timing a bit early (wrong) :0)