From the Expert: New Year’s Resolutions & Related Stocks
Also trying to get fitter and eat more healthily?👌
As is quite typical in December, I spent a large part of last Sunday afternoon wallowing on my sofa watching Elf and working my way through a tub of Haagen Dazs, all the while assuring myself that my New Year’s resolutions would be to get fitter and eat more healthily. A quick Google search tells me that these are actually the two most popular January goals. One in five Brits makes resolutions every year, so I thought I’d take a look at the most popular ones and the companies on the stock market that might be affected by them:
1. Get fit.
January is the busiest time of the year for gyms, and low-cost operators such as the Gym Group will surely be anticipating a surge of new memberships come the new year. Gym enthusiasm should be good news for sportswear brands such as Nike, Adidas and Lululemon, as well as running shoe experts Asics.
Our intake of nutritional supplements has boomed in recent years, and Brits are expected to spend over £8bn on protein products this year. Sports nutrition companies such a Science in Sport (SIS) should benefit from a further increase in gym-related protein consumption.
2. Lose weight and eat more healthily.
Weightwatchers is still a three billion dollar business, but it has declined in recent years as competition in the weight loss market has increased, with dozens of cheap calorie counting apps available as well as motivational cookbooks such as the Lean in 15 series. We’re becoming increasingly likely to use meal delivery programmes like Hello Fresh, which joined the stock exchange this year. Supermarkets with perceived higher quality offerings such as Ocado may also do well in January as we embark upon our new healthy eating regimes.
Companies making treat foods could well have a tough time as we strive to exercise restraint, so perceived unhealthy brands such as McDonalds and Cadbury’s owner Mondelez probably don’t count January as their best month.
3. Drink less alcohol.
The phrase ‘Dry January’ has been registered as a trademark by the charity Alcohol Concern, and nearly four million Brits tried to not drink in January last year. This may have hit sales for drinks giants such as Diageo and Heineken, but could well have been good news for Starbucks and Costa-owner Whitbread as bars and clubs were swapped out for coffee shops.
4. Read more.
I do try not to mention Amazon in every single one of my articles, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult as the company worms its way into more and more markets! Bookselling was the first market to be revolutionised by the e-commerce giant, and it’s highly likely that those of us committing to reading more will be ordering our books from Amazon or downloading them on our Kindles. Other potential beneficiaries of more book-buying include publishing firms, such as Harry Potter printer Bloomsbury.
5. Get a new job.
Apparently the first Wednesday of January is the most popular day of the year to search for a new job, with online searches generally about 70% higher than average on this day. The first quarter of the year tends to be the best for hiring new staff, as companies make the most of new annual budgets. January should therefore be an important month for recruitment firms such as PageGroup, Hays, and Robert Walters.
Disclaimer: This article is meant to be commentary only. It’s not intended to be taken as investment advice, so please don’t assume I’m telling you that investing in one of these companies would be suitable for you. If you are thinking about getting into investing that’s great, but you should always take advice from a professional advisor before deciding.
As with a lot of things in life, investing is not without risks. Investments can go up, but they can also go down, so you might lose some of your money or in the worst case you might not get back any of the money you put in. Just because a company or investment has done well in the past does not mean that it will do well in the future.
*Please note that this is NOT a sponsored post*
Photo by Jerry Kiesewetter on Unsplash.
Written by Rachel Winter, Senior investment manager at killik & co
I have a degree in Economics and have completed the Chartered Wealth Manager qualification, and now I’m enjoying applying the theory to everyday life. We’re all making decisions every day about what we like or dislike and what to buy or not to buy, and at Killik we look at these trends and try to relate them to companies on the stock market. For example, when we picked up on a noticeable increase in the number of Londoners wearing their trainers to work we started looking at shares in the big sportswear brands. We have also looked at shares in cosmetics companies because of the spike in makeup sales that has taken place since people started taking more selfies.
I’m really keen to make investment more engaging, and I try to get to know my clients and speak to them about companies they will find interesting. I also act as a spokesperson for Killik & Co and write regularly for financial publications such as the Investors Chronicle and MoneyWeek, as well as presenting a weekly YouTube video which aims to explain what is happening with the stock market.