When Geoff Wilding took the helm at carpet maker Victoria, the shares were the equivalent of 48p. By the summer of 2018, they were £8.50 and the business, whose customers include the Royal Family, seemed to be riding high.
Within a few months, however, sentiment turned against Victoria. When Wilding tried to raise €450million (£390million) in the bond markets, investors baulked.
When he restructured the business to improve profit margins, investors feared the worst.
Midas recommended Victoria at the equivalent of £2.76 in March 2016
And when a significant shareholder was caught in the Woodford crossfire, investors took fright. Add in concerns about Covid-19 and, by May 2020, Victoria shares had slumped to less than £2.
Think of the US army in action and chances are a khaki-coloured Hummer truck will come to mind.
The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, to give the souped-up truck its proper name, is one of the most widely recognised in the world and the US army has about 150,000 of them.
But Hummers can roll over, killing and injuring soldiers on the battlefield and at home. Now the British engineering group Ricardo is helping the US defence department to make its Hummers safer by installing devices that keep the trucks stable.
Stable profits: Ricardo makes devices that prevent the US army’s Hummers from rolling over
Recently, however, views have begun to change as industry experts have realised that large stores work for both digital and traditional shoppers.
General e-commerce wisdom suggests online shopping is at its best when goods are dispatched from centralised warehouses. Food retailing is different, however, because so much of it is perishable and profit margins are very low.
Smaller warehouses attached to existing stores are often more cost-effective, allowing supermarkets to serve old-school and online customers from one site.
As this realisation sets in, the big beasts of food retail are looking at their estates with new eyes, seeing big stores as key to their future rather than dinosaurs past their sell-by date.
Why do people invest directly in shares rather than letting a fund manager do the work for them?
For some it is because they think they can beat the market and the manager, for others it s the attraction of owning a direct stake in a company, and for many share investors it comes down to the simple fact that they find it interesting.
Whatever an individual investor s reason, buying shares directly remains a resoundingly popular option – and it s something that has seen a resurgence over the past year.
Britain s biggest DIY investing platforms have reported increased interest in buying company shares during the coronavirus lockdowns – and a new breed of younger share investors coming through, dubbed the lockdown traders.
Why do people invest directly in shares rather than letting a fund manager do the work for them?
For some it is because they think they can beat the market and the manager, for others it s the attraction of owning a direct stake in a company, and for many share investors it comes down to the simple fact that they find it interesting.
Whatever an individual investor s reason, buying shares directly remains a resoundingly popular option – and it s something that has seen a resurgence over the past year.
Britain s biggest DIY investing platforms have reported increased interest in buying company shares during the coronavirus lockdowns – and a new breed of younger share investors coming through, dubbed the lockdown traders.