UK 22:28 Friday, 18 September 2026
Breaking news and expert analysis on fast-moving AIM and LSE listed shares
Be it for Thanksgiving or Christmas (or for some of you - good luck with that! - both), I guess a lot of meat will be eaten over the next five weeks or so. Somewhere close to 99% of the time I am a pescatarian, so protein comes more from fish rather than chicken, beef, pork et al. None of this though has stopped me holding Cranswick (CWK) shares this year which, despite all its “passionate about producing only the best quality food”, is really all about meat, meat and…meat. And despite the cost of living crisis, labour force supply issues and other worries, it was good to read this morning that the Cranswick “outlook for the current financial year ending 30 March 2024 is now expected to be at the upper end of current market consensus”. Bring on the Christmas special a bit early then!
A year ago, I concluded an article by observing that “Hull is not about Lib Dem success, Philip Larkin poetry or being the ‘City of Culture 2017’...it is clearly all about Cranswick (CWK) share potential!”. Before we get onto today’s rather good update from the company which is “passionate about producing only the best quality food, efficiently and sustainably in well invested facilities across the UK”, I am very grateful for the reader who pointed out that in my analysis of Hull I had missed out that “Siemens has its blade factory there” and “Peter Levy from Look North of course should not be overlooked as lead ambassador”. I would therefore like to take this opportunity to add those extra insights and now back onto Cranswick.
Nowadays Cranswick (CWK) is more than just “one of the UK’s leading producers of fresh pork”. I got all excited about sausages and more back in November last year, but I never got around to picking up any shares. Maybe that was wise or lucky given the 35 quid shares back then are now about 32 quid. What do I think after today’s full year numbers?
I will leave others to talk about the joke that is AO World (AO.) which - after today’s return of losses, more debt and a messy outlook - should change its advert to ‘A..O...let’s not go’. I thought this one was overvalued at the time of the IPO,more than 5 years ago but, after it regained that level during the early COVID-19 days, shares in the electrical retailer have correctly fallen over 75% year-to-date. It is a very clear avoid to me so I move onto something far more sensible...
Eleven months ago I described Cranswick (CWK) as a ‘high quality, predominantly fresh food, including fresh pork, poultry, convenience and gourmet products’ producer with a 40 quid share price HERE. The FTSE 250 name has been a huge success for anyone who bought it five or ten years ago, but the shares today are pretty much unchanged versus last August. So whilst technically it would have been smart to buy the shares last November (a comment that can be made for about 90 per cent of stocks), how do I feel today?
