CITY WHISPERS: Greggs gets a buy rating on stocks … and his pizza, which ‘represents good value’
Greggs will reveal how rising ingredient costs are eating away at profits and – crucially for UK baking enthusiasts – whether prices for its baked goods will also need to rise when it reports annual results on Tuesday.
City forecasters estimate that revenues rose by about a fifth last year, but profits remained virtually unchanged.
One company’s analysts, however, took the opportunity to do their own quality check on Greggs’ new takeout, sold through JustEat.
Fast food: City forecasters estimate revenue rose by about a fifth last year
Jefferies brokers sampled the ‘Pizza Box, Large Wedges & 2 Drinks’ split deal at their offices, which a recent note said ‘was a treat’ and ‘represented excellent value’ at 10 £.70 plus 50p service charge.
Along with a candid snapshot of the takeaways, analysts reiterated their “buy” rating on the budget baker’s stock — or is it on their dinners?
Virgin UK boss wants the best for Britain
Who is expected to appear as a signatory to the latest publication from pro-EU campaign group Best for Britain than Peter Norris, chairman of Virgin UK.
It can now rank among the remnants of Ocracy with the likes of Dragons’ Den star Deborah Meaden and former BT chairman Sir Mike Rake.
But older readers will remember him as the boss of Barings when rogue trader Nick Leeson destroyed the age-old bank.
Norris was later banned for serving as a director for four years.
But the world turns – and we believe in second chances.
Schreyer puts the pedal to the metal at Go-Ahead
Go-Ahead boss Christian Schreyer has certainly put his foot down in his first nine months with the transportation group.
The German won a salary of £976,000 in the year to July 2022, according to the latest annual report, including 98.2% of his potential performance-related bonus.
As well as being tied to mundane metrics like profits, it included starting railroad operations in Bavaria, where he incidentally went to college.
The 55-year-old is an avid cyclist, but perhaps he could use some of his bumper salary to take advantage of single UK bus fares outside London capped at £2 until the end of June .
There’s never a bad time for a stay, Christian.
A Serbian boost for Rio Tinto?
Rio Tinto suffered a major setback last year when Serbian authorities revoked mining licenses for a massive lithium project.
The move by the government – which at the time was preparing for an election – followed environmental protests which drew support from Serbian-born tennis prodigy Novak Djokovic.
The Jadar mine received little mention in the recent annual report and miner’s FTSE 100 results.
What was there was mostly limited to saying that Rio Tinto was in talks with “all stakeholders” to get the project going again.
But are things improving in Belgrade? American engineer Bechtel recently listed a series of job postings for positions such as “mine shaft access specialist”… at none other than the Jadar mine.
