Shares sink at vets chain that can’t hire new vets!
Investors had their claws out for CVS after it posted slowing sales growth and admitted it was struggling to recruit new vets.
the firm, which is Britain’s largest supplier of veterinary services for cats and dogs, said it would be forced to hike prices to cover the cost of salary increases as it seeks to woo new staff.
It came as it revealed a 4.3pc increase in comparable sales in the four months to the end of october. However, stripping out sales of its animal medicine business Animed Direct, like-for-like sales were up just 1.5pc.
the growth was slower than in any other recently reported periods, which Cvs attributed to general uncertainty in the market.
richard Connell, chairman of Cvs, said: ‘For many years it has been challenging to recruit veterinary surgeons in the UK. In spite of the fact that Cvs believes it is able to offer new recruits the broadest range of career paths and opportunities within the UK industry, we note that these challenges have increased since the vote to leave the european Union.’
He added that the group now plans to increase salaries and improve flexible working opportunities to encourage more surgeons and nurses to work for Cvs. All salary increases will be funded through price increases.
shares fell 21.8pc, or 282p, to 1010p as a result.
the FTSE 100 finished down 0.9pc, or 66.89 points, at 7326.67 points, while the FTSE 250 finished down 0.5pc, or 106.69 points, at 19952.89. online travel agency On The
Beach warmed up investors with surging full-year sales and profits. the Manchester-based company sells holidays to destinations such as Madrid and Ibiza. It said that profits jumped 33.8pc to £28.5m in the year to the end of september, while sales increased 17.2pc to £83.6m.
It increased its dividend by 27.2pc to 2.8p per share.
on the Beach said it had managed to capitalise on the shift in consumer behaviour, which has seen more customers book holidays online, despite demand for short-haul beach holidays being flat on the previous year.
the firm snapped up rival sunshine for £12m in May in order to expand its customer base and said it had now fully integrated the business into its operations.
shares finished up 11.5pc, or 45.8p, at 444.8p.
Meanwhile, shares in Lamprell fell after it admitted it expects to make a ‘significant loss’ on one of its projects.
the oil rig construction specialist said it will incur extra costs on its east Anglia one offshore windfarm project and full-year earnings will be ‘materially below’ expectations as a result. Lamprell did not disclose the size of the financial hit but said it will make an announcement in due course.
the news sent shares down 2.9pc, or 2p, to 68p.
the owner of strike-hit rail franchise southern said it is focused on improving service for passengers after its lengthy dispute with staff came to an end.
Go-Ahead, which owns 65pc of southern through its Govia thameslink railway business, said performance across the franchise had ‘consistently improved’ after train drivers’ union Aslef ended its dispute over driver-only services in october.
It added that it welcomed the Department for transport’s new plans to overhaul Britain’s rail network – which includes splitting thameslink, southern and Great northern franchises when Govia’s contract expires in 2021.
However, investors were unconvinced, and sent shares falling 2.9pc, or 46p to 1554p.