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The new private equity owner of Patisserie Valerie is to shut a further 14 stores at the cost of 100 jobs.
The Times writes this morning that Causeway Capital has taken the decision to close another 14 outlets on top of the 71 sites closed by administrators KPGM after a detail review of its remaining 96-strong estate.
The 14 stores slated for closure reportedly include branches in Leicester’s Highcross shopping centre and in Chichester, West Sussex.
A poster on the front of the cafés states “Dear valued customer, we are sorry to confirm that this patisserie has now permanently closed. We would like to take this opportunity to thank both our loyal customers and the team that ran the patisserie for their dedication and hard work.”
Causeway Capital confirmed the 14 store closures and told The Times: “The difficult decision was reached following a detailed review of the size, trading performance and location of each store over the past five months.”
Patisserie Valerie collapsed into administration in January after the discovery of “significant” potentially fraudulent activities and a £94m hole in its balance sheet.
Finance director Chris Marsh was arrested soon afterwards and a further five unnamed individuals were arrested and questions last month.
Morning update
Imperial Brands (IMB) has instructed Barclays Bank to purchase its shares for immediate on-sale to the company up to the value of £200m beginning from 10 July.
The announcement comes after the tobacco company said on Monday it planned to begin a share buyback programme.
The share purchases have a deadline of 31 December.
The purpose of the share buyback is to reduce the company’s capital.
It is part of a wider plan that includes continued investment in organic growth opportunities in tobacco and Next Generation Products (NGP).
It is also part of an ambition to target investment at M&A opportunities to build on the capabilities and technologies of its NGP portfolio and other related areas of growth.
The company’s brands include JPS, blu, Gauloises, Winston, Golden Virginia and Rizla.
On the markets this morning, the FTSE 100 continued yesterday’s fall, dropping 0.1% in early trading to 7,530.3pts.
Early risers include McColl’s Retail Group (MCLS), up 3.6% at 65.1p, Greene King (GNK), up 1% at 622.6p, B&M European Value Retail (BME), up 0.7% at 377.4p, Tesco (TSCO), up 0.6% at 235,1p, Sainsbury’s (SBRY), up 0.6% at 202.1p and Hilton Food Group (HFG), up 0.3% at 978p.
Fallers so far today include Stock Spirits Group (STCK), down 2.7% at 215p, Premier Foods (PFD), off 2.2% at 37.1p, Fevertree Drinks (FEVR), down 1.8% at 2,032p and PayPoint (PAY), down 1.3% at 905p.
Yesterday in the City
The FTSE 100 closed down 0.2% at 7,536.5p.
PepsiCo has reported its second-quarter 2019 results with net revenue growth up 2.2% to $16.4bn. Operating profit climbed from $5.8bn in the same period last year to $6.3bn.
Ramon Laguarta, chairman and chief executive, said while adverse foreign exchange translation negatively impacted its reported net revenue performance, its organic revenue growth was 4.5% in the quarter.
“We are also pleased with the progress on our priorities to make PepsiCo a faster, stronger and better company by building new capabilities, strengthening our brands, adding capacity to grow and transforming our culture.
“Our performance for the first half and the progress we are making on our strategic priorities give us increased confidence in achieving the 2019 financial targets we communicated earlier this year.”
The company said it continued to expect full-year organic revenue to be 4%, a core effective tax rate of about 21%, a decline in core constant currency earnings per share of about 1%, about $9bn in cash from operating activities and free cash flow of about $5bn which assumed net capital spending of about $4.5bn.
FTSE 100 fallers included McColl’s Retail Group (MCLS), down 4% at 62.8p, Majestic Wine (WINE), down 2.8% at 263p, DS Smith (SMDS), down 2.6% to 350,9p and British American Tobacco (BATS), off 2.2% at 2,964.5p.
Stocks on the up included Ocado Group (OCDO), up 5.6% to 1,236.5p following its interim statement. Science in Sport (SIS), which also posted half-year figures, climbed 2.5% to 61.5p. PureCircle (PURE) rose 1% to 250p and Compass Group, edged 0.8% higher at 1,942.5p.
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