Fancy Buying The Company Rather Than The Stamps?

SG is up for sale

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40245067

So, Gibbons is up for sale again? Some of us who've been around while have seen this many times in the past, it seldom ends well. Usually they are purchased by some outfit knowing nothing about stamps. I remember back in the 80's a brief period when they were owned by a company that mostly sold drilling equipment. Then the 'flower' company. With any luck this time they will probably be completely run into the ground.

The article linked to is not reassuring. Company spokesmen spouting gobbledygook:

"Unlocking this incremental long-term value is likely to require further investment and the directors believe that it is likely therefore that such value is best delivered either within a larger group or alongside a strategic investment."

Capped by the fact that the company interested is 'Disruptive Capital Finance' I read the article twice to be sure it wasn't a joke. Sadly it isn't.

Just this once I'd like to see someone buy this venerable company who doesn't plan to use it as fodder in some write off scheme. What needs to happen is for the current owners to break off the stamps division and sell that separately. Perhaps an established dealer can keep the line of catalogs and albums going. I once suggested that Amos Publications look to partner with someone in the UK and do it.

Ah well, it's nice to dream, isn't it?

There has been - maybe still is - extensive discussion on the forum down under about SG's share price, which probably doesn't reflect the value of the stock, let alone anything else. There'd be lots of fits for the catalogue business - Yvert, Michel or Scott. The stamp business would only dovetail with Yvert, however, and I'm uncertain how big a business Yvert is.

Any idea which division of their business are they selling?

Stamps or coins or the whole company as such?

As far as I can make out, the whole brand is up for sale. I'm not sure where this puts subsidiaries like Apex or Murray Payne but I would assume that they will be part of the deal.

A couple of problems with this firm . Did they have any earnings over that last three years? My guess from the action of the stock ,it has no earnings. There inventory of stamps has been shrinking over the past few years .
What is there to buy ? Some catalogs with out of date pricing and stamp supplies which is out of date . They didn't go ditial with their catalogs or albums . They should of had print your album pages in 120 languages . They could of put their catalogs on line so you can print one set of each for a set yearly price .
Lots of mistakes and poor planning by management over many years .

They are a public company and their annual reports are available for download online. Understanding how a public company like SG is setup, how they handle their books and numbers, really takes a financial professional. Ditto for trying to figure out their actual value; typically it requires sitting down with their accountants and asking a lot of questions for a better understanding on how and why they did the things they did.
Don

http://www.stanleygibbons.com/blog/...WEB_2015.pdf

Get real. They are a business, not a charity.

EYEONWALL------My mistake .....I though computers are advance enough ,once you write a program for album pages that a program can be added that can print words like Coil, Imperf and Block into a different language -----maybe in the near future.....My Mistake .

floortrader,

I think you will find that the catalogue division of SG is probably the only part that is profitable. Their demise is because of their reckless acquisitions, their disasterous collectables marketplace and their guaranteed stamp investment plans.

As for printing out a catalogue, who in their right mind would do this? Take probably their most successful catalogue, the Commonwealth & British Empire Stamps, 1840 to 1970. The cost in colour on a home printer or even from a specialist shop would most likely be more than the cost of the catalogue from SG. Also, once you have the files you could easily distribute it to your friends / sell on ebay. Look what happened with the 2009 Scott catalogue, easily available for free on the internet in pdf format.

They also have electronic editions of some of their catalogues on the more secure ipad. I won't comment on 120 languages.....

The internet has driven change throughout the publishing print and music industry. Those which have not figured out how to change and redesign their business models are quickly dying off. Philatelic publishers like Amos and SG are small compared to some of the big newspaper and music publishing companies who have already closed their doors.

If the philatelic publishers do not quickly start giving away the basic catalog away for free, and developing other online profit centers to take the place of the legacy catalog sales, they too will be pushed out of business.

No one can compete with the entire internet. Every day more and more hobbyists can find the information they seek online.

The day of thinking that 'gee someone might steal and republish our catalog' was over about 10 years ago. It takes little effort to publish things on the 'dark web' and takes huge amount of money to chase a pirate across the globe or bring legal action against someone in Kathmandu.

It is little wonder that SG is being sold*, they have failed at making the digital transition and they see the hand writing on the wall. The only hope they have is that a very tech-experienced company will purchase them and implement a digital vision that allows them to make money on something other than selling hard copy books.
Don

*I concur with mikyh that they have made some other significant business misteps.

Did I miss something .....I was talking about album pages printed in different languages not catalogs .
Just a side note .....I read their financial statements ,which are linked here . All their profits are coming from their acquisitions not from there stamp business.

Actually, album pages are pretty simple to understand with (or even without) the basic glossary that appears in stamp catalogues. I don't see that as a niche worth chasing. It would be interesting to know how Yvert's catalogue subscription service does in financial terms. Anyone in France know?

I'm not sure I buy Don's argument about "basic" catalogues in the current world. You may be able to find all of the content of Gibbons's Stamps of the World in a dispersed form on the web, but there's plainly still a market for it amongst the many people who want to pick up a book from a shelf rather than trawl through masses of information that may or may not be accurate. I seem to recall that SG intended to make SOTW an online-only offering, and retreated because of customer resistance.

GeoffHa,
I understand the resistant, I have a library and I love my books too. But I am sure that folks liked the slow, laid back travel of horse carriage too. It will only take a bit more time before the population of people with who have grown up reading on a device surpasses those who did not.

In terms of albums, traditional publishers should figure out how to sell GOOD quality albums and pages. In other words, dispel the myth that printing at home on cheap "acid free" paper is good and instead offer true archival quality paper supplements and albums. Offer drilled and proper sized paper blank page for the home printing marketplace. Offer digital downloads for the album and supplements.

There are ways of surviving, even thriving, in the digital age but it surely is not done by resisting the inevitable evolution.

Not too long ago our societies had over 90% of its people working in agriculture. The industrial age changed everything but people figured out how to change with it. The current digital age is no different.
Don

Don, Gibbons is reprinting some of their classic British Empire albums. as you may know. I have their six volume George VI set and may be adding the New Age set (52-62) to my bookshelf one of these days. They just released a George VI set and plan to work backwards to Victoria. These albums have a feel and quality I could never get on downloaded pages housed in generic binders. To each his own- I find using quality product like this enhances my collecting enjoyment.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why more album publishers haven't followed Steiner's lead and sell printable pages. There's vitually no overhead associated with selling digital files, you don't have to worry about returns of defective products, no shipping costs, nothing to warehouse, etc. The risk of piracy is real but is unlikely to cost them all that many sales. The benefits of going digital far outweighs the risks, in my opion.