G&M wrote:

"Capitol" wrote in message
...


B & Q are successful in sales volume terms, but judging by my filthy
local stores, have serious problems in display, quality and stock
control.


Sound like they need new store managers. We have six local stores with 15
miles or so, three of which are warehouses, but two are indeed filthy so I
never use these. There have been stock issues with tools in all branches
recently but there are apology notices up. B&Qs are generally rarely out of
stock.



Following from the advice I was given many years ago, about
buying shares to hold long term in companies, B & Q fails the customer
buy test of "I WANT to buy goods there".( Screwfix is now joining this
category) The P/E ratio on their shares is poor,


Haven't noticed them on any sell notices yet though.

They're on a lot of "Hold" notices and relatively few "Buy". Long term
investment requires that the current price is not inflated by takeover
rumours and you believe in the ability of the company to keep growing
turnover and earnings. The best example over the past 10 years I can
think of is Tesco.


as is their retail margin.


How do you work that out? They get the best prices from suppliers - in fact
they tell suppliers how much they will pay for an item - take it or leave
it.



Sorry, for retail margin, I meant net profit on turnover. Walmart does
the same sort of diy hardware buying, frequently you don't buy the
product twice. ( Also true of Home Depot, has the worst wood quality
I've ever seen.) Poor products and limited ranges send some customers
elsewhere.

Regards
Capitol