Cars, Guns and Hovis

Soon you won’t even be able to shoot yourself. Legendary US gunmaker Smith&Wesson – remember all those Doc Halliday and Wyatt Earp epics? – has turned in gross profit figures of $20 million. It sounds a lot but it’s down more than 13% year on year.

Unemployment is biting into every sector. The car and vehicle manufacturers’ travails have been well-documented in the US, Europe and the UK. The world’s largest car retailer, Inchcape, scrapped its final dividend.

It’s made gloomy noises about next year’s sales, its share price has plunged and it’s given out two profit warnings in two months. It’s cutting its 17,000 strong workforce – scattered around the world – by 1900 jobs.

A spokesman said the crisis is as much to do with consumer confidence as it is to do with liquidity and the credit crisis. Who wants a shiny new motor if you’re worried about your job – or haven’t got one – paying your mortgage – if you’re lucky enough to have secured one – or putting food on the table, assuming you’re not all starving?

Newly-rich Russia – its fledgeling economy is now writhing in anguish – was one of Inchape’s top markets. It had enjoyed phenomenal growth. But its suppliers are starting to price their vehicles in dollars rather than in roubles.

This is another worrying indication of the way confidence in the rouble is falling. The Russian currency has been devalued six times in five weeks.

Inchcape operates in 25 different countries and after Pendragon it has the second largest dealership network in the UK.

From guns to cars to Hovis bread it’s the same sad saga. All those Hovis ads with little lads playing hoopla in cobbled streets and comforting Northern brass bands oom-pa-pa-ing in the background still haven’t saved Britain’s biggest food maker, Premier Foods, from holding out the begging bowl.

It’s the baker that bakes Hovis – it’s Mr. Kipling as well ( every Granny’s favourite) – and it wants investors to raise £300 million – though that’s still an unconfirmed figure - so that it can start to slice into its £1.8bn of debt. A debt of that order eclipses the £220 million stock market value of the company.