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Darwen dares, madness at Meldex

Last month Andrew Brian, Darwen (DHP) chief executive, explained how he planned to shake up bus manufacturing and create a range of hybrid diesel-electric buses,  but there are a couple of surprises in the detail now he’s putting the acquisition of  rival bus manufacturer Optare to shareholders. The new name is Optare, not Darwen, and [...]

Finance books to mend your soul

Sometimes I find it helpful to take a step back from the day-to-day work of evaluating companies and markets and think about what I’m looking for and why. Regular readers know I find the reports of James Montier*1 at Societe Generale and his book Behavioural Investing (review) particularly useful.
Last week he sent around brief reviews [...]

A company and a book to cheer you up

If you thought my last post on Dairy Crest was a reluctant vote of confidence, you’re right.
Posting links to news stories like the ones in the right sidebar of this blog it’s hard not to let gloom seep into my stockpicking brain. Sadly hysteria is an occupational hazard, which explains why journalists don’t make good [...]

Giving Dairy Crest the benefit of the doubt

With a suite of strongly growing brands like Country Life, Clover, Utterly Butterly, Frijj drinks and Cathedral Cheddar and its less profitable but nevertheless essential milk distribution business you might expect Dairy Crest (DCG) to be immune to a faltering economy, for no better reason than the old ‘you’ve got to eat’ argument.
In fact, Dairy [...]

SCS (and me) crunched

So much for championing SCS Upholstery (SUY). It was around 50p when I wrote about it on March 10 but the stock crashed yesterday and it’s 12p three months and a few days later. Normally, I wouldn’t comment on short-term trading in a stock because I don’t think it’s meaningful for the long-term investor. SCS [...]

Blogging resumed

Apologies for the lack of blog-flow for the last couple of weeks. I’ve been working on columns about Dairy Crest (DCG) and George Soros (who doesn’t, as far as I’m aware, have a ticker code) for the July edition of Moneywise magazine and Haynes Publishing (HYNS) for July’s Money Observer.
Haynes, which publishes the famous motor [...]