Old Chang Kee

OCK reported their half year results today http://info.sgx.com/webcorannc.nsf/Annou...endocument.
Net Profit up 38%, EPS 2.33 cents. No dividends, however.

(09-02-2012, 11:38 PM)VestedInterest Wrote: OCK reported their half year results today http://info.sgx.com/webcorannc.nsf/Annou...endocument.
Net Profit up 38%, EPS 2.33 cents. No dividends, however.

Just found out that there is no dividend this time around because they have chnaged their financial year end to 31 Mar from 31 Dec.

How the company handles the eight-legged-creature incident is important.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singapore...10682.html

did anyone notice OCK's trucks around Singapore? I saw one recently near my workplace at newton and think it might provide better profit margin? Price are rather similar to those at shopping mall (i rarely buy from ock, so this is what i guess), for e.g. $1.40 for nuggets. And they offer packed meal too.

(not vested)

(03-03-2012, 08:49 PM)wsreader Wrote: How the company handles the eight-legged-creature incident is important.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singapore...10682.html

This is going to be a PR nightmare for any F and B coy. The company will have to carry out a thorough investigation. Must not appear to be too defensive. Though must admit that the 'bug' looks rather uncooked and the bite of the curry puff looks rather uncharacteristic.

send the bug corpse for analysis, determine the time of death and internal content of the bug, submit report with NEA's findings.

meantime,
Stop central kitchen and outlets for 1 day for thorough spring cleaning with NEA's inspectors verifications.

that should address the issue.

In my youth before going for national service, I used to work part time at a small factory business that fabricates and installs refrigeration systems - big huge refrigerator for cold storage that are massive rooms that can you can walk in and out of. This was a family enterprise and they did things the old ways by hand fabricating everything they needed with strong emphasis on workmanship, fabricating the wall panels, the chemicals contained in it for insulation, hand spray painting them, hand assembling compressors for the air conditioning even provisioning for the electrical wiring it was really really tough physical heavy labor with a lots of grease and grime in between. But I guess at that time it was better than idling away waiting to go NS.

Some the interesting clients that we install for are food factories producing birds nest, processed sharkfins, pork bak kua, beef ball/fishball, frozen fish, fruits and vegetables. After work when the employees go home you can usually see huge rats scurrying about scare the hell out of me

I can say almost all food companies are plagued with this kinds of hygiene issues. Anything that is cooked, left in the open will attract pests and impossible to eradicate because nobody can remember to clean up 100% there will always be 1 or 2 clever pests that manage to get thru. But sometimes could also be deliberate or sabotage.

(05-03-2012, 11:29 AM)sgd Wrote: I can say almost all food companies are plagued with this kinds of hygiene issues. Anything that is cooked, left in the open will attract pests and impossible to eradicate because nobody can remember to clean up 100% there will always be 1 or 2 clever pests that manage to get thru. But sometimes could also be deliberate or sabotage.

Your paragraph here has essentially captured the essence of the risks of investing in food businesses and eateries (i.e. those which serve food/drink). It basically only takes one complaint and confirmation of contamination (bug or whatever) to generate a huge avalanche of negative sentiment towards the Company/business. Some businesses can survive and recover, others struggle to achieve the same volume that they did before.

This isn't entirely confined to the food industry though. Other product companies must also ensure product compliance (e.g. handphone batteries which don't explode when charged, cars which are safe), or else there will also be an explosion of negative press.

So I guess all companies need to be on their toes - it's just the nature of the potential complaint changes; but the essence of it is that the Company has to deliver high quality and reliability to sustain customer goodwill.

Any forumer happen to passby any ock outlet last few days? Did you see a queue? That is a telling indicator on customer goodwill.

I think in singapore many people don't read newspapers.

the bad news is these days you have twitter facebook email where things can spread like wildfire in several hours.

the saving grace is singaporeans are largely forgetful. Anything controversal will hog the limelight for a while.

Give it a few weeks people tend to move on to other things.