Reg Vardy PLC financial analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Reg Vardy PLC financial analysis - Essay Example The company, which is named after founder Reg Vardy, is one of the leading motor retail groups in the United Kingdom. Reg Vardy was initially established as a haulage business at Houghton-le-Spring. Due to the success of the business, it diversified into the sale of vehicles (Yahoo! Finance 2005). Under the leadership of the founder's successor, Chief Executive Officer Sir Peter Vardy, the firm acquired franchises from a number of the finest motor and car manufacturers in the world. Through the course of the company history, Reg Vardy was appointed as the sole distributor of Aston Martin for the North of England. This was followed by the company's franchise of Ferrari and Rolls Royce. Reg Vardy was also awarded the main dealer franchise for other marques such as Jaguar/Daimler, Mercedes and BMW among others. (Company History 2005) In 1989, Reg Vardy became listed in the London Stock Exchange. The initial flotation has raised about 5 million and allowed for expansion outside North East Heathen. With this, the company expanded further as it acquired more dealerships from other volume marques. (Company History 2005) To finance its expansion binge, the company issued rights in 1998 and raised 26 million. The fund was used to acquire Trust Motor Group, the firm's largest acquisition to date. In the same period, the company also established Vardy Contract Motoring, which is focused on the contract hiring and leasing operations (Company History 2005). This year, Reg Vardy pushes through with its strategic acquisitions given the upcoming purchase of five dealerships from the Priory Motor Group. This highlights the company's strategy of acquiring performing and high quality business that accounts from payments of goodwill. (Reg Vardy PLC Annual Report 2005) So far, Reg Vardy sells about 200,000 vehicles annually and employs around 6,000 workers. It has also substantially increased its total franchises to 98 dealerships in 2005 from only 63 dealerships in 1998 (Reg Vardy PLC Annual Report 2005). The company continues to distribute new and used cars for Aston Martin, Renault, Alfa Romeo, Audi, BMW, Citroen, Fiat, Mercedes and Jaguar. Its major shareholders include the Vardy family (28%), Deutche Bank (20.6%) and Aegon (3.59%). (Yahoo! Finance 2005) Financial Highlights Table 1 - Balance Sheet Balance Sheet (in millions) 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 Assets Current Assets Cash and Equivalents 39.2 24.3 45.5 39.7 12.0 Receivables 73.6 66.6 61.9 52.6 64.0 Inventories 243.2 247.5 174.8 123.1 128.2 Other Current Assets 14.5 12.0 15.0 6.5 8.5 Total Current Assets 370.5 350.4 297.2 221.9 212.7 Property Plant and Equipment-Net 180.9 181.7 154.8 162.0 165.6 Intangible Other Assets 3.5 3.2 1.3 1.3 1.8 Other Assets 3.5 3.2 1.3 1.3 1.9 Total Assets 555.0 535.3 453.3 385.2 380.3 Liabilities and Shareholders' Equity Current Liabilities Accounts Payable 186.2 184.3 146.9 96.5 78.8 Short-Term Debt 34.1 38.7 70.1 42.3 35.7 Other Current Liabilities 44.4 37.0 28.8 25.6 47.3 Total Current Liabilities 277.2 271.3 256.8 174.5 169.3 Long-Term Debt 47.9 49.7 12.7 53.0 57.1 Provision for Risks/Charges 5.4 1.2 1.4 2.8 4.0 Deferred Taxes 6.4 5.9 5.1 4.1 4.8 Other Liabilities 12.6 10.8 6.3 1.7 12.4 Total

Sustainability at ASDA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Sustainability at ASDA - Essay Example Supermarkets in Europe are investing time and effort into the accomplishment of sustainability in their operations since this is the new competitive advantage they ought to possess. The paper discusses the drivers as well as the sustainability initiatives to be undertaken by ASDA in its shopping centre at Wolverhampton, keeping in view dynamics of the industry as well as social, political, legal, economic and other factors. Before delving into the concept of sustainability, it is useful to understand the nature of the grocery industry in the U.K. The U.K supermarkets industry was worth more than ? 150.8 bn in 2010 which showed considerable increase of 3.1% compared to the last year (Schnedlitz et al., 2010). Food and grocery expenditure accounted for 0.52% of retail expenditure (Schnedlitz et al., 2010). Of this 0.53%, 21% is roughly spent shopping for the same in convenience stores (Schnedlitz et al., 2010). The private label brands, including Tesco, Asda, Morrison’s and Sain sbury’s have their unique brand identity and are not me-too or imitations of their branded competitors (Schnedlitz et al., 2010). The U.K retail market seems to be on the maturity stage of its lifecycle, however, growth is still quite prominent. The market is on its verge to a 15% growth in the next 5 years (IGD, 2010). Economic dynamics such as rising interest rates and consumer prices, house prices as well job insecurity are only few of a plethora of factors affecting firms in this sector (IGD, 2010).The new government following the election in May, 2010 also seems to bear impact by way of its proposed contractionary fiscal and monetary policy which could mean tough times for the high end markets. The history of ASDA can be traced back to the 1920’s when farmers in Yorkshire created the Hindell’s dairies in 1920 (ASDA, 2011). The company was an instant hit and diversified and expanded to become the Associated Dairies and Farm Stores Ltd in 1949, hence the name ASDA (ASDA, 2011). At the same time, in 1958, two brothers came up with The Asquiths store which offered, to some extent, convenience shopping to customers at a single place (ASDA, 2011). In 1965, the Asquiths merged with Associated Dairies and Farm Stores Ltd. to create ASDA (ASDA, 2011). Thereon, the company was named as ASDA in 1970 when The Asquiths was acquired by Associated Dairies and Farm Stores Ltd (ASDA, 2011). Today, ASDA is known as a subsidiary of Wal-Mart, and is a merchandising and grocery retailing giant in the U.K. The company owns about 583 stores that stock various items ranging from grocery to apparel (ASDA, 2011). ASDA has its headquarters in Leeds, U.K and is home to approximately 178,000 workers (ASDA, 2011). The company is widely known for its staunch sustainability initiatives and has undertaken massive reforms in the same area in order to maintain its competitive edge over competitors such as Morrisons, Sainsbury’s Tesco and Waitrose. Sustainability is defined as the ability to survive or sustain. Popularly, the term environmental sustainability is being used to represent efforts to sustain and prolong the survival of all species and the ecosystem in the environment. A more comprehensive definition of sustainability encompasses all three foundations of sustainability, including the people, economy and the environment (Dunphy, 2000). The relation between these three foundations suggests that there exist limitations on the