Gamble of the week: A washed-out gardening stock

The profits of this garden compost maker have been bogged down in the dreadful weather of last summer, says Phil Oakley. Can the company look forward to brighter times?

For William Sinclair which makes J Arthur Bower's composts 2012 was a washout. The firm needs people to be in their gardens using its composts, soil improvers, lawn products and weed killers but the wet summer kept us indoors, and Sinclair's profits were all but wiped out.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the government wants to stop the use of peat in the gardening and commercial growing markets. Peat harvesting releases trapped carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming.

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Phil spent 13 years as an investment analyst for both stockbroking and fund management companies.

 

After graduating with a MSc in International Banking, Economics & Finance from Liverpool Business School in 1996, Phil went to work for BWD Rensburg, a Liverpool based investment manager. In 2001, he joined ABN AMRO as a transport analyst. After a brief spell as a food retail analyst, he spent five years with ABN's very successful UK Smaller Companies team where he covered engineering, transport and support services stocks.

 

In 2007, Phil joined Halbis Capital Management as a European equities analyst. He began writing for MoneyWeek in 2010.