Updates & Ideas

Inspecs - Key European rival goes into administration

May 2025

Investing in shares may lose you all or some of your money. Past performance is no indication of future performance. Some of the shares recommended here may be small company shares, which can be relatively illiquid and hard to trade and this makes such shares more risky than other investments.

Inspecs (SPEC; 40p), the British eyewear manufacturer, has seen its shares ease off their recent highs amid investor anxiety over new US tariffs on optical frames. But the broader picture suggests there are more ‘shots on goal’ as competition falls away for US buyers and has also fallen away in Europe with a key rival going bust. During the month, Inspecs reported FY25 results showing sales down 2.5% to £198m - a shortfall that occurred entirely in the first half. The second half saw a recovery, with sales up 3.4%. EBITDA declined slightly to £17.6m from £18m and EBITDA margin was flat at 8.9%, reflecting continued focus on supply chain efficiency and operational cost control. EPS were 3.9p. Net debt also fell modestly b ...

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Growth Portfolio 3 - May '25

Inspecs - Healthy signs for Inspecs (March 2025)

Inspecs (February 2025)

Inspecs - Large US business wins enhance H2 (October 2024)

Inspecs - Pretax profit guided to grow 22% to £9.9m (July 2024)

Inspecs - Q1 signals the corner is turned (May 2024)

Inspecs (February 2024)

Inspecs - Margins enhanced by moving Eschenbach acetate manufacture to Vietnam (January 2024)

Inspecs (October 2023)

Inspecs (August 2023)

Inspecs - EBITDA forecast to jump US$6m this year (July 2023)

Inspecs (May 2023)

Inspecs (February 2023)

Inspecs - Interesting new issue (March 2020)

With small companies there is an above average degree of risk compared to buying blue chips. Please be aware that we have not assessed the suitability of any of these investments for you. The newsletter simply states a personal view and diarises the editor’s investment decisions. Please speak to your stockbroker or other qualified individual to ascertain whether any of these companies mentioned would form useful additions to your own portfolios. Past performance is no indication of future success.

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