Linn - is the end near?

[CN211276]

https://www.scotsman.com/business/scott ... -1-5050109

They have reported a loss of £636,000. This sits with £2.4M investment in "R&D" which I find rather strange.

ADMIN EDIT - unevidenced allegations removed.

[savvypaul]

There is no suggestion of tax evasion in the article.

Do you have evidence of such?

[karatestu]

I wouldn't read too much in to it. They made a profit of £872,000 the previous year.

[Ordinaryman]

hope not for the sake of what, 171 employees? if the article is to be believed. great news for those who feel wounded I would think? no aspersions intended

[savvypaul]

Casting aspersions without evidence is something that should be avoided. We are better than that...

[Ordinaryman]

aspersions seemed to be evident in the first post? I apologised for any conceived inference in my post, should that be what you are referring to? if not my apologies. yes I hope we are all better than that!

[savvypaul]

aspersions seemed to be evident in the first post?

Yes, they do. In the absence of any evidence, I will edit the OP.

I apologised for any conceived inference in my post, should that be what you are referring to? if not my apologies. yes I hope we are all better than that!

Nothing wrong in your post.

[Classicrock]

According to the accounts Linn made a net loss of £256K in the year to June 2019. Turnover was £15.7 million a drop of 3.8%. They paid out £512K in dividends. Since this is a private company I think there is not really a big problem since further dividends aren't being paid at present. Obviously they need to cut costs and increase turnover. Shows that high prices don't guarantee a good profit. I would love to compare this to Rega and Project who have run with the vinyl boom producing many models, while Linn retrenched to making expensive LP12 updates and overpriced streamers.

[CN211276]

Low turn over with high margins is risky and the high "R&D" expenditure and dividend payments seem all the more strange in this context.

[savvypaul]

Linn probably made the right decision for them - high end products aimed at 'lifestyle' customers - but they didn't execute (the products or the marketing) quite as well as they might have done.

Their competitors are people like Meridian and Diavelet, not the likes of Rega and Project.

I would rather see a company swallow a loss in one year but maintain R&D expenditure than see it have to cut back on R&D for short term cashflow.