Getting their retaliation in early was a tactic usually employed by hard-as-nails Scottish midfielders in the 1970s.
Back in those no-nonsense days, when physical challenges were not subject to over-analysis and referees were reluctant to book players, an opposing forward could expect to find himself dumped on his backside inside five minutes and advised, in no uncertain terms, that the same would happen again should he have the temerity to cross the halfway line.
This simple tactic proved extremely effective, although it doesn’t necessarily transfer too readily to other areas, as credit checking agency Experian found out, to investors’ horror, last week.
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Though the company’s annual results exceeded expectations as pre-tax profits more than doubled and the final dividend rose by 8.3 percent, the market chose to ignore this stellar set of figures and concentrate instead on comments made by Experian’s chief executive, Don Roberts.
Mr Roberts took the opportunity to advise analysts that the forthcoming World Cup would have a temporary impact upon the company’s consumer services which, in turn, would hamper growth.
“In the short term,” said Mr Roberts, “we face a number of one-off headwinds, most notably a subdued trading environment in Brazil over the World Cup… which will constrain growth in the first half (of the financial year).
Despite Experian’s earnings per share more than doubling, Mr Roberts’ cautionary comments caused the company’s share price to fall by 6.5 percent last Thursday, making it the day’s worst FTSE100 performer.
While executives at Experian are clearly not looking forward to Brazil’s football fiesta, due to kick off three weeks today, a host of other companies, from pet stores and sportswear outfits to supermarkets and pizza delivery firms, are rubbing their hands in eager anticipation.
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Let’s deal with pet stores first as these appear to be an incongruous addition to the list of probable commercial winners during the World Cup.
It would appear that the backing given by some pet-owning fans to their national team surpasses that of even the most dedicated supporters.
Evidence of this came at the last World Cup when Pets-At-Home, the pet supplies chain, sold a staggering 20,000 England t-shirts for dogs before Fabio Capello & Co returned home, tails between their legs.
Earlier this year, the group floated its shares on the stock market at 240p and although the share price has since fallen, pre-tax profits are expected to be around £86 million for the current trading period, which ends on 31 March 2015.
Assuming England do well in Brazil, the number of canine top sales could presumably exceed those of four years ago.
In the run-up to the tournament, other retailers are already reporting strong demand for items such as flat-screen televisions as fans prepare for a month in front of the goggle-box. Sales of households goods, particularly electrical equipment, are also expected to drive a marked increase in retail sales this month.
Conversely, there is likely to be less demand for footwear, leather goods, hardware and china, while DIY retailers expect to report reduced sales as homeowners down tools and switch on the box.
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Yet while some observers believe, correctly, that this is a great time to be selling over-sized televisions, the current surge in demand for flat screen technology with accompanying whistles and bells, is what many call a ‘zero-sum game’.
In other words, the World Cup only tends to bring demand for some high-ticket products forward. Over the course of say, twelve months, the tournament doesn’t actually grow the market as a whole.
Indeed, prior to the 2010 World Cup, DSG, the retail group behind Dixons and Currys, saw television sales rocket by 40 percent as fans upgraded their existing sets.
Expensive, larger screen sets, especially those with 50-inch screens, were big sellers. Yet this success didn’t translate into a surging share price. In July 2010, DSG’s shares were priced at 26p; by the end of the year, they had fallen by more than 11 percent because consumer demand had effectively shifted from Christmas to a World Cup summer.
Nevertheless, DSG’s shares currently trade around 50p and the company’s pre-tax profits are expected to grow from a forecasted £156 million to £180 million over the 12 month period from 1 May 2014 in the wake of what is expected to be a positive World Cup-related impact.
Television sales more than doubled at Tesco four years ago and the troubled, if still ubiquitous, supermarket chain would welcome a similar surge in sales.
The company might be valued at £23.9 billion, but its share price has tumbled since the last World Cup, falling by more than 24 percent.
Not surprisingly, the World Cup is traditionally an extremely busy time for food retailers offering a home delivery service.
Once slumped in front of their cinema-sized television sets, armchair fans rarely like taking their eyes of the ball by (Heaven forbid) venturing into the kitchen. Such adherence to on-screen punditry and matches featuring Ivory Coast against Japan (live on ITV), boost profits at companies such as Domino’s Pizza.
Immediately following South Africa’s Word Cup, the company reported a 13.7 percent rise in like for like sales in the six months covering the period when the tournament was played.
Unlike high-value television sales, revenues generated from selling more pizzas is incremental – in other words, the home delivery food market does expand and sales generated during a World Cup provide a regular, quadrennial boost to profits.
Similarly, retailers like JD Sport, which created themed footwear and clothing ranges for the last World Cup, are expected to do well.
The company’s marketing initiatives, driven by major football tournaments, has ensured it’s enjoyed a prolonged, successful run. In fact, JD Sports’ share price has more than doubled since Spain were crowned world champions.
In July 2010, the company’s shares were worth 683p each; by last weekend, they were priced at 1,680p. Furthermore, the company’s pre-tax profits are forecast to rise by 43 percent over the twelve month period to 1 February 2015 should trading around the 2014 World Cup prove as successful as it did four years ago.
Of course, not everyone plans to be glued to a big screen eating pizza and drinking beer during the forthcoming 32-day footiefest.
High streets tend to see a sharp drop in footfall during the tournament; the average is 23 percent. However, as sales of DIY equipment and men’s clothing plummet, the additional in-store space released by an absence of males offers women in particular an opportunity to avoid the football and go shopping instead.
Sales of women’s clothing, accessories, cosmetics and shoes tend to rise significantly during the World Cup, although as the earliest matches kick off this time at 5pm GMT, astute shop owners will, presumably, already be planning late-night opening.
Our tendency to treat a World Cup as an opportunity to behave like uber-consumers is likely to generate more than £2 billion in extra spending across the retail sector, providing a timely boost for hard-pressed retailers.
Whether England’s performances can justify their supporters’ significant investment is, unfortunately, another matter altogether.