Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Tractor Supply bills itself as a “rural lifestyle retailer”. The Tennessee-based company became a stock market darling during the pandemic as more Americans moved away from cities and took up hobby farming. Post-Covid, even as other pandemic trends like Pelotons lost their appeal, the homesteading lifestyle has stuck. It turns out millennials really like growing their own chickens, vegetables, and fruits.
All this has been a boon for Tractor Supply. The company, which sells everything from chicken coops to cattle gates and tractor parts, pulled in a record $14.5bn in revenue across its 2,216 stores last year. That compares with the $8.3bn it took in 2019 and works out to a 15 per cent compound annual growth rate for the period.
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Wall Street has noticed. Tractor Supply’s share price has nearly tripled since March 2020 to give the company a market valuation of over $30bn. That is despite the controversy over the company’s decision to end its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and climate goals following pressure from conservative activists.
Climbing to the top of the retail pecking order is one thing. Staying there is tough. Tractor Supply’s revenue is expected to grow just 2.4 per cent this year. Tough comparatives are to blame. The numbers also do not look too shabby considering big box retailers like Target and Lowes are expected to report flat or lower sales this year.
Still, with Tractor Supply shares trading at nearly 27 times forward earnings, compared with its three-year average of around 22 times, the stock will struggle to keep rising from here in the near term.
For investors who take the long view, Tractor Supply remains a decent bet. Unlike large commercial farms, which have been hit by falling crop prices, the company’s core customers — hobby farmers, small ranchers, suburban and rural homeowners — are little affected by ups and downs of the agricultural commodities supercycle.
The company’s specialised focus — providing small-scale farmer everything they need to raise their chickens or heirloom tomatoes — gives it a formidable economic moat. You can’t buy 40lbs bales of chopped hay or live chicks and ducklings on Amazon or Temu. An emphasis on selling its own private label brands offers another advantage. Its ebitda margin of about 13 per cent is more than twice that of Walmart’s.
There is room for further improvement. Tractor Supply should make more of its one-stop shop business model and expand more aggressively into adjacent product categories like gardening and plants. It can and should take market share from the likes of Home Depot and Lowes.
WEIGH IT UP: Gram for gram, porridge oats make one of the best value breakfasts at under 5p a serving — half the price of supermarket own-brand cornflakes.
A morning bowl can be jazzed up with syrup, brown sugar, thawed-out frozen berries, banana, seeds or nuts.
SMOOTHIE OPERATOR: Use frozen berries and oats to make a tasty, healthy smoothie. Blend with milk and yoghurt for a filling drink that will release energy throughout the morning.
OH CRUMBS: Make a spicy, crispy crumb to coat around 400g of chicken or fish fillets for four people.
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Use a mixer to whizz up 150g oats with two tablespoons of oil and a teaspoon each of herbs and spices — try oregano, paprika and garlic granules.
Dip the fillets in a dish of flour to cover, then in whisked egg, and follow with the oat crumb, before frying.
FLIP DON’T FLAP: For a simple flapjack swap, make some easy oat biscuits.
Use 100g each of oats, flour, sugar and butter. Mix the oats and flour with a teaspoon of mixed spice. Melt the sugar and butter with a tablespoon of honey.
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Mix together and cool slightly before shaping into balls. Place on a baking sheet, press down slightly, then bake at 180C for 15 to 20 minutes.
BURGER BOOST: Beef up your burgers by adding some oats. You can mix around 400g of minced beef or turkey with 80g oats. Stir in a finely chopped and fried onion, then add a dash of salt, pepper and garlic granules.
Bind the mixture together with a beaten egg — add a bit at a time until you get the right consistency, where the mixture holds together without being too wet. Form into patties and gently fry.
All prices on page correct at time of going to press. Deals and offers subject to availability.
Deal of the day
THIS handy Scandi air fryer from Asda will look good in your kitchen, and it’s a great price too, reduced from £45 to £28.
SAVE: £17
Cheap treat
BRIGHTEN your walls with a classic poster, now half price at the London Transport Museum shop. The 18in x 13in Off To The Zoo is down from £15 to £7.50.
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SAVE: £7.50
What’s new?
TOY store Smyths is offering £5 off when you spend £50 or more, or £10 off when you spend £100 or more, before midnight on Wednesday.
Top swap
THE Aeroccino milk frother, from nespresso.com will help you make a tasty at home latte for £79. Or you can have foam and fortune with Aldi’s Ambiano frother, £19.99, which hits stores today.
SAVE: £59.01
Little helper
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SAVE £30 on a silver annual pass for Legoland Windsor, down from £99 to £69, allowing you to visit again and again. But hurry, the offer ends tomorrow.
PLAY NOW TO WIN £200
JOIN thousands of readers taking part in The Sun Raffle.
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A MAJOR cinema chain will shut its doors for good tomorrow, devastating locals.
Cineworld‘s site in Glasgow Parkhead is set to permanently shutter on October 6.
In a Facebook post Cineworld said: “After years of providing movie lovers with a place to feel more, we have made the difficult decision to close Cineworld Glasgow Parkhead.
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“Thank you to all of you movie-loving customers for choosing us over the years. We hope you continue to enjoy watching movies at our local cinemas”
Locals were quick to chime in and share their heartbreak at the popular cinema’s closure.
“I am so saddened by this news, I love this cinema, I go at least once a week and find all the staff very nice and helpful,” said one.
Another said: “Gutted I’ve been going to this cinema since I was young.”
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While a third described the news as “brutal”.
Cineworld confirmed this week it would close five locations across the UK.
Bosses at the troubled entertainment group have been pushing for the closures since July, but the move needed to be approved by the courts first.
The reduction in its portfolio forms part of a major restructuring plan to keep the company’s head above water.
Major cinema chain with 100 branches ‘to close dozens of sites’ in major blow to high street
The cash came from the business’s parent company, with an extra £35million to also be made available.
Its four companies. Cine-UK Ltd, Cineworld Cinemas Ltd, Cineworld Cinema Properties Ltd and Cineworld Estates Ltd, will also negotiate leases for each of their 101 sites across the UK.
The five sites will shut for good on these exact dates:
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Glasgow Parkhead (closing October 6)
Bedford (closing October 6)
Swindon Regent Circus (closing October 6)
Loughborough (closing October 13)
Yate (closing October 13)
It comes as the chain is also said to be renegotiating rent agreements for around 50 of its sites.
Struggling businesses often do this to help lower their operating costs and help retain more of their brick-and-mortar estate.
However, landlords don’t need to accept what’s put forward in these discussions
This means that up to 50 additional Cineworld complexes could also be at risk of closure if the chain and its landlords cannot reach an agreement.
What else has happened at Cineworld?
This development follows a long period of trouble at Cineworld.
Filing for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy means a company intends to reorganise its debts and assets while remaining in business.
The company’s shares plunged almost 99% in the five years to 2023, as it was hit particularly hard by the pandemic and the enforced closure of its cinema sites.
Shortly after, Cineworld’s UK arm collapsed into administration on July 31.
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The cinema chain was delisted from the London Stock Exchange a day later.
When a company enters administration in the UK, all control is passed to an appointed administrator, who must be a licensed insolvency practitioner.
Big blockbusters such as the Barbie Movie and Oppenheimer drove punters back to the movie theatre last year, but it has not been enough to keep some venues afloat.
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What is happening across hospitality and the cinema sector?
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The scorching rally in Chinese stocks over the past week or so underlines one of the key rules of markets: always keep an eye on the crowd.
Shortly before an extended market holiday, authorities in Beijing sent a forceful message that enough was enough. The economy is stuck (by Chinese standards — most western economies would be delighted with growth rates of a bit above 4.5 per cent) and the stock market had been bleeding out for months.
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So the central bank and other authorities unleashed a volley of turnaround measures, ranging from interest rate easing, to lighter demands on banks to stuff reserves away, to direct stock market-boosting efforts and the promise of fiscal support to come. Are these fiscal measures super detailed? No. Will a sliver of a percentage point off interest rates turn the long-suffering property sector around? Also no. But do traders care about that? Again, no.
The result, then, is a rip-your-face-off rally for the ages. The CSI 300 index of Chinese stocks added more than 20 per cent in less than a week. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index is now the best-performing major market in the world this year, having added 30 per cent, compared with a relatively puny 19 per cent in the US S&P 500.
Timing played a role here — the broad assumption was that Beijing would hold out for longer before taking anything like this kind of action. Scale matters, too; Deutsche Bank says the fiscal stimulus is a “big deal” that, when measured against the size of the economy, is the third biggest of its kind for the country ever — a Mario Draghi-style “whatever it takes” moment.
It could take months until we know the real economic impact. But markets are not hanging around to find out. That is because before this injection of support, investors were just allergic to China. Bank of America’s regular survey of fund managers found last month that “macro pessimism was centred on China” with growth expectations at the lowest point in the three years the bank has been tracking them in this form.
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At around the same time, I spoke to Amundi’s chief investment officer, Vincent Mortier, who said he had “never seen such a big pushback” from clients against the idea of putting money to work there. He was making the case that it was unwise to avoid China entirely, but the conversation was a non-starter. The bet was “totally, totally dead”, he said.
Pity the hedge fund manager who told me this week he almost took that as a trigger to buy China, but backed out. As any good professional investor will tell you, when everyone seems to hate a particular corner of global markets, it is time to buy. But it can be hard to pluck up the courage.
It is not the first time this year that the power of positioning has been made clear, with the other prime example being Japan. In its quarterly markets review earlier this month, the Bank for International Settlements noted that “concentrated hedge fund positions” played a key role in the speed and size of the Japanese “turbulence” in early August.
Carry trades — selling currencies with low interest rates and buying those with higher rates — were unusually popular with hedgies in the run-up to August’s shake-out, the BIS said. Over the period from 2022, that meant there was a lot of speculative money buying dollars at the expense of yen — a force that helped cram the yen down to its lowest point in decades. Carry trades, and related bets around US stock market volatility, became an unusually weighty influence on hedge fund returns.
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At the same time, speculators gravitated towards buying Japanese stocks too. This was all fine until, in early August, it abruptly wasn’t. A scare over US growth that raised expectations of interest rate cuts hit these strategies on several fronts, denting the dollar, particularly against the yen where it was especially stretched, and fuelling volatility in stocks. The exits from this correlated set of trades proved to be crowded on the way out.
Cue an alarming drop in the dollar-yen exchange rate and, on one especially scary Monday, a double-digit decline in the Japanese stock market — the biggest fall since the great crash three decades ago and leaving a shadow over the “buy Japan” thesis that had become popular. “Crowdedness, combined with high leverage, set the stage for the amplification of stress and cross-asset spillovers,” the BIS report said.
Other examples are easy to find, such as the massive accumulation of bets on US chipmaker Nvidia — a stock that became overcrowded over the summer and shed a third in value in six weeks.
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With all that in mind, it is worth looking for the points of greatest consensus among investors now, just in case it makes sense to take the other side. For instance, the same survey from BofA that said China was a contrarian buy also pointed to buying commodities, which investors are avoiding on the greatest scale since 2017.
Thematically, the biggest point of consensus is for a soft landing in the US economy — an expectation held by nearly 80 per cent of fund managers. That many clever people can’t all be wrong about something, right?
This scheme’s support is available to British Gas and non-British Gas customers.
However, if your provider is Ovo Energy, E.ON Next, EDF Energy, Scottish Power, Octopus Energy or Utilita it asks your go to them for assistance first.
There are certain criteria that you need to meet to be considered for the Individual and Families Fund, including:
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Pre-payment meter customers must have between £50 and £1,700 of energy debt
Credit customers must have between £250 and £1,700 of energy debt
You live in England, Scotland, or Wales
You have not received a grant from the British Gas Energy Trust within the last 2 years
You must be seeking a grant to clear an outstanding debt on a current or open gas, electricity or dual fuel energy account
The account must be in your name and relate to your main residence
You have received help from a money advice agency within the last six months
The Sun launches our Winter Fuel SOS campaign
Customers with energy debts worth more than £1,700 will not be eligible for support through the fund.
You can check out your eligibility for the scheme here.
Match debt repayments
Earlier this year, British Gas also launched a £15million “You Pay: We Pay” initiative.
This scheme works by matching 100% of a customer’s energy debt repayments to help them clear their arrears faster.
For example, if a customer pays £100, British Gas will pay off £100, too, effectively wiping half the amount owed and getting them back on track sooner.
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The scheme opened in June and June and eligible customers will be contacted directly – they won’t need to apply.
A detailed assessment will be made to determine if customers qualify for the scheme but broadly, they must:
Be in or facing fuel poverty
Must have obtained or will obtain debt advice
Have been a British Gas customer for at least six months
Pre-agree a payment amount following the assessment
You must be a British Gas customer for at least six months to be considered.
Help with energy bills worth £150
British Gas is giving eligible customers £150 worth of extra cash through the government’s Warm Home Discount scheme.
The payment is issued to those on the lowest incomes and is designed to cover the additional heating costs over the colder months.
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Households in England and Wales don’t have to apply to get the cash and receive it automatically.
However, some Scottish households do have to apply for the discount.
Eligible households get the cash credited to their electricity bill between October and March 2024.
To qualify for the Warm Home Discount, you need to claim either the guaranteed credit element of pension credit or a different means-tested benefit, including:
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If you weren’t claiming any of the above benefits on August 11, 2024, you won’t be eligible for the payment.
What other support is available?
You do not need to be a customer at British Gas to get help with your energy bills this winter.
EDF has a customer support fund which on average wipes £1,250 off customers’ bills.
It is available to vulnerable customers experiencing hardship.
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To apply, visit EDF’s website and make sure you have details of your account number (find it on your energy bills or EDF emails) and the current debt balance on all EDF accounts you have.
Meanwhile, Octopus Energy offers a range of support, including cash from its Octopus Energy Assist Fund.
It could also include loaning a thermal imagery camera to find heat leaks in your home, which you can fix to reduce energy usage and your bill.
But eligibility criteria varies depending on the supplier and the amount you can get depends on your financial circumstances.
For example, British Gas or Scottish Gas customers struggling to pay their energy bills can get grants worth up to £2,000.
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British Gas also offers help via its British Gas Energy Trust and Individuals Family Fund.
You don’t need to be a British Gas customer to apply for the second fund.
EDF, E.ON, Octopus Energy and Scottish Power all offer grants to struggling customers too.
Thousands of vulnerable households are missing out on extra help and protections by not signing up to the Priority Services Register (PSR).
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The service helps support vulnerable households, such as those who are elderly or ill, and some of the perks include being given advance warning of blackouts, free gas safety checks and extra support if you’re struggling.
Get in touch with your energy firm to see if you can apply.
PASSENGERS have been left fuming after being forced to check in their hand luggage – only to find the overhead lockers empty anyway.
Several disgruntled travellers took to social media to share their fury – targeted at multiple airlines.
One United Airlines passenger posted on X: “thank you for stopping me on the jetway saying the overhead bins are full and I have to check my bag.
“Really appreciate you lying to our faces to save yourself time but cost me time on the backend.”
The passenger went on to say they’d been forced to part ways with their bag despite paying for priority boarding.
They said: “Glad priority boarding comes with no perks anymore.”
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Another passenger, who had boarded an American Airlines flight from San Luis Obispo, USA to Dallas, USA, wrote: “So angry rn @AmericanAir.
“Was just forced to gate check my roll aboard because I was told the overhead space was full.
“This is the overhead bin directly across from my seat. #AmateurHour.”
A second American Airlines customer posted a picture of empty overhead lockers to the r/americanairlines subreddit, saying: “Weird experience with gate agent checking bags.”
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It comes as European passengers learn they will likely experience a hike in flight prices as several airlines bump up hidden costs.
This includes an increase in seat reservation prices by the Lufthansa group – affecting Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa and Swiss Air.
EasyJet passenger left fuming after being told luggage is too big to board
Meanwhile, Wizz Air passengers were furious to discover their flights had been cancelled amid a confusing “technical issue” impacting the airline’s booking system.
This came after a frustrating summer for flyers, with 40,000 Brits affected by ongoing air traffic control issues last month.
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However, jet-setters did receive the more encouraging update that airlines across Europe were working to set standardised rules for hand luggage dimensions.
United Airlines and American Airlines have both been contacted by the Sun for comment.
Worst passengers to have to deal with
A flight attendant has revealed the worst passengers to deal with on flights, here’s what she said:
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Drunk passengers
“People who make the most of the booze on board are really irritating. We have a lot to think about on our flights as it is, without looking after people who have drunk themselves into a stupor.
“My advice for passengers is to enjoy the included booze, in moderation.
“If there’s an emergency and you’re hammered, you’re going to be no use to anybody, least of all yourself. So it’s best to stay alert.”
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Vapers
“Vaping on board is becoming more popular and it’s ridiculous that people think they can get away with it.
“The big plume of fruity smoke is always a bit of a giveaway.
“But it can also cause panic in the rest of the cabin as well – imagine seeing a big smokey cloud in a plane? It’s definitely not something you’re expecting, so will definitely leave people feeling a little frightened.”
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Listening to music without headphones
“There’s few things worse than tinny phone music blaring out through the plane cabin, or an episode of Breaking Bad being broadcast from one passenger to the people around them.
“The thing I always tell people to remember is that there are other people on board the plane and they aren’t all travelling for the same reason.
“So keep your music and TV to yourself and just think long and hard about whether the other people on board want to listen to your awful dance music.”
SHOPPERS are racing to get their hands on an energy gadget after its price was slashed from a whopping £99 to just £9.99 and it will help keep the heating off.
With energy prices still high and the winter fuel payment cuts affecting thousands of pensioners, finding ways to keep warm this winter is proving challenging.
However, the EGL 2000W Oil Filled Radiator could be the money-saver households are looking for.
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The easy-to-use heating device has been reduced by a staggering 90 per cent after its price was slashed from £99 to £9.99, saving shoppers an eye-watering £89.01.
Several shoppers left great reviews about the product on HotUKDeals, with many eager to get their hands on the portable radiator.
One user wrote: “These are great to have, only heat one space in the home rather than the entire thing, I’ve used them for years.”
“Ordered mine, fingers crossed,” another added.
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A third said: “Absolute steal.”
And a fourth shopper commented: “Very good deal.”
The EGL 2000W Oil Filled Radiator is estimated to cost around 50p per hour, meaning an 8-hour day would add up to £4 in total.
This would make it “cheaper to stay at home rather than driving to work and staying warm in the office,” another user added.
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Unfortunately, this deal is no longer available but there are still similar heaters for discounted prices on offer.
I tried a cheap gadget for keeping warm and it’s a game changer – you’ll never have cold hands again
Similarly, Amazon has stocked up on heating devices, with the cheapest portable radiator selling for just under £30.
B&Q’s Oil-filled radiator is currently scanning for just £24.
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How to bag a bargain
SUN Savers Editor Lana Clements explains how to find a cut-price item and bag a bargain…
Sign up to loyalty schemes of the brands that you regularly shop with.
Big names regularly offer discounts or special lower prices for members, among other perks.
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Sales are when you can pick up a real steal.
Retailers usually have periodic promotions that tie into payday at the end of the month or Bank Holiday weekends, so keep a lookout and shop when these deals are on.
Sign up to mailing lists and you’ll also be first to know of special offers. It can be worth following retailers on social media too.
When buying online, always do a search for money off codes or vouchers that you can use vouchercodes.co.uk and myvouchercodes.co.uk are just two sites that round up promotions by retailer.
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Scanner apps are useful to have on your phone. Trolley.co.uk app has a scanner that you can use to compare prices on branded items when out shopping.
Bargain hunters can also use B&M’s scanner in the app to find discounts in-store before staff have marked them out.
And always check if you can get cashback before paying which in effect means you’ll get some of your money back or a discount on the item.
Ways to save this winter
Heated airers are a great way to save money when you can’t dry your clothes outdoors, but they’re not the only gadget you should seriously consider investing in.
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Heated throws are great for keeping warm without switching on the heating. Pop one over you while you’re on the sofa watching TV, drape one over your bed – there’s even one from Lakeland you can wear. They offer several temperature levels and often have timers to automatically switch off.
Dehumidifiers remove moisture from the air and when it’s drier in your home you tend to feel warmer. They can also be great for drying washing and some brands even have a laundry setting.
Air Fryers are the kitchen must-have of the last few years. They generally cook food quicker than your main oven does and in less time, using much less electricity.
Heavy or lined curtains can help keep out the cold, while draft excluders not only help keep cold air out but warm air in.
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Before it gets really cold and you turn to your central heating for the winter, check to see if your radiators need bleeding. It’s a simple job whereby you use a radiator key to release any build-up of air bubbles that can stop the radiator from functioning effectively.
5 ways to keep your house warm in winter
Property expert Joshua Houston shared his tips.
1. Curtains
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“Windows are a common place for the outside cold to get into your home, this is because of small gaps that can let in air so always close your curtains as soon as it gets dark,” he said.
This simple method gives you an extra layer of warmth as it can provide a kind of “insulation” between your window and curtain.
2. Rugs
“Your floor is another area of your home where heat can be lost and can make your home feel chilly,” he continued. “You might notice on cold days, that your floor is not nice to walk on due to it freezing your feet.
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“Add rugs to areas that don’t already have a carpet, this provides a layer of insulation between your bare floor and the room above.”
3. Check your insulation
Check your pipes, loft space, crawlspaces and underneath floorboards.
“Loose-fill insulation is very good for this, and is a more affordable type of insulation, with a big bag being able to be picked up for around £30,” Joshua explained.
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4. Keep your internal doors closed
“Household members often gather in one room in the evening, and this is usually either the kitchen or living room,” Joshua said.
“This means you only have to heat a small area of your home, and closing the doors keeps the heat in and the cold out.”
5. Block drafts
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Don’t forget to check cat flaps, chimneys and letterboxes, as they can let in old air if they aren’t secure.
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