Richard Beddard returns with the latest 5 Strikes update, highlighting three new companies that have passed his quality filter and earned a place on his research list. He also takes a closer look at Me Group, reassessing its photobooth business, growth credentials and the risks facing one of this year’s lowest-scoring shares.
In this update Warpaint, Aeorema, and Anpario pass the 5 Strikes filter. After accounting for a change in its year-end a few years ago, Me Group’s financials came up smelling of roses.
Firstly, some good news. ShareScope has added the custom table I use to evaluate shares to its library. To add it to your setup all you need to do is:
- Click on Financials > Custom (in the green menus)
- Then click on Setting: > Add from library… (in the drop down box at the bottom of the Custom window)
- Select 5 Strikes – Richard Beddard
The mothership has also renamed my minimum quality filter. It reduces the number of shares I appraise using the 5 Strikes method to a manageable number (222 currently pass). To install the filter:
- In the blue view click on Filter > Apply or Manage filter… >
- Then click on Library
- Select Richard Beddard: 5 Strikes – minimum quality
5 Strikes
Ten companies that have published annual reports since my last update also passed my minimum quality filter. Only three of them achieved less than 3 strikes after a cursory examination of the directors’ holdings and their financial histories.
|
Name |
TIDM |
Prev AR |
Strikes |
# Strikes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
AAZ |
Anglo Asian Mining |
2/6/26 |
– CROCI ? Debt – Growth – ROCE |
3 |
|
ANP |
Anpario |
1/6/26 |
? CROCI – Growth ? ROCE |
2 |
|
MKS |
Marks & Spencer |
1/6/26 |
? Holdings – Debt – Growth – ROCE |
4 |
|
NAH |
NAHL |
29/5/26 |
– Debt – Growth – ROCE |
3 |
|
BRBY |
Burberry |
28/5/26 |
– Holdings – Debt – Growth – ROCE |
4 |
|
CTG |
Christie |
22/5/26 |
– CROCI – Growth – ROCE |
3 |
|
W7L |
Warpaint London |
22/5/26 |
– Shares ? Growth |
1 |
|
PEB |
Pebble Beach Systems |
19/5/26 |
– Holdings – Debt – Growth – ROCE |
4 |
|
AEO |
Aeorema Communications |
18/5/26 |
– CROCI ? Growth ? ROCE |
2 |
|
TST |
Touchstar |
15/5/26 |
– CROCI – Growth – ROCE |
3 |
|
09/06/2026 |
||||
The three companies are cosmetics supplier Warpaint [- Shares ? Growth], marketing agency and events firm Aeroma [- CROCI ? Growth ? ROCE] and Anpario, a manufacturer of animal feed additives [? CROCI – Growth ? ROCE].
These shares join my research list, comprising all the 0’s, 1’s and 2’s so far this year. I am researching them in order, starting with the companies that scored 0 strikes, then companies that scored 1 strike and, if I get around to it, companies that scored 2 strikes.
Strikes, you see, are glitches. Things that need explaining. I like to keep things simple, so the fewer glitches there are to investigate, the better.
All the 0’s, 1’s and 2’s
Here is the list. Fifty-nine have made the cut. Seven shares are unblemished. Seventeen achieved only one strike. Thirty-five achieved two strikes.
The companies I have already examined more closely are hyperlinked:
|
Name |
TIDM |
Prev AR |
Strikes |
# Strikes |
Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
CER |
Cerillion |
12/1/26 |
0 |
||
|
HWDN |
Howden Joinery |
25/2/26 |
? Holdings |
0 |
|
|
PRV |
Porvair |
11/3/26 |
? Holdings |
0 |
|
|
QTX |
Quartix |
25/3/26 |
? ROCE |
0 |
|
|
CCC |
Computacenter |
8/4/26 |
0 |
||
|
FOUR |
4imprint |
14/4/26 |
? Holdings |
0 |
|
|
KEYS |
Keystone Law |
13/5/26 |
0 |
||
|
BOWL |
Hollywood Bowl |
5/1/26 |
– Debt |
1 |
|
|
MEGP |
Me Group |
23/3/26 |
– Growth ? ROCE |
1 |
|
|
ALFA |
Alfa Financial Software |
24/3/26 |
– Growth |
1 |
|
|
GAMA |
Gamma Communications |
24/3/26 |
? Acquisitions – Holdings |
1 |
|
|
INCH |
Inchcape |
24/3/26 |
– Growth |
1 |
|
|
ROR |
Rotork |
27/3/26 |
– Holdings ? Growth |
1 |
|
|
CKN |
Clarkson |
30/3/26 |
? Growth – ROCE |
1 |
|
|
RMV |
Rightmove |
30/3/26 |
– Holdings |
1 |
|
|
IMI |
IMI |
31/3/26 |
? Holdings – Debt ? Growth |
1 |
|
|
FDM |
FDM Group |
10/4/26 |
– Growth |
1 |
|
|
HILS |
Hill & Smith |
10/4/26 |
– Holdings ? Acquisitions |
1 |
|
|
NXT |
Next |
16/4/26 |
– Debt |
1 |
|
|
BAG |
Barr (AG) |
21/4/26 |
? Acquisitions ? Growth |
1 |
|
|
SAG |
Science |
21/4/26 |
? Growth |
1 |
|
|
ELCO |
Eleco |
9/5/26 |
– Holdings ? Growth |
1 |
|
|
LSC |
London Security |
15/5/26 |
– Holdings |
1 |
|
|
W7L |
Warpaint London |
22/5/26 |
– Shares ? Growth |
1 |
|
|
RWS |
RWS |
8/1/26 |
? Acquisitions – Growth – ROCE |
2 |
|
|
IHP |
IntegraFin |
9/1/26 |
– CROCI |
2 |
|
|
RFX |
Ramsdens |
15/1/26 |
– CROCI ? Growth ? ROCE |
2 |
|
|
REL |
RELX |
19/2/26 |
? Holdings – Debt ? Growth |
2 |
|
|
IHG |
InterContinental Hotels |
26/2/26 |
? Holdings – Debt |
2 |
|
|
DATA |
GlobalData |
2/3/26 |
? Acquisitions – Debt ? ROCE |
2 |
|
|
GSK |
GSK |
6/3/26 |
? Holdings – Debt ? Growth |
2 |
|
|
MONY |
Mony |
9/3/26 |
– Holdings ? Growth |
2 |
|
|
STEM |
SThree |
9/3/26 |
– Holdings – Growth |
2 |
|
|
CTEC |
ConvaTec |
10/3/26 |
? holdings – Debt ? Growth ? ROCE |
2 |
|
|
BNZL |
Bunzl |
17/3/26 |
? Holdings – Debt – Growth |
2 |
|
|
HIK |
Hikma Pharmaceuticals |
18/3/26 |
? Acquisitions – Debt |
2 |
|
|
YU. |
Yu |
18/3/26 |
– CROCI ? ROCE |
2 |
|
|
JSG |
Johnson Service |
19/3/26 |
– Holdings – Debt |
2 |
|
|
ITRK |
Intertek |
20/3/26 |
? Holdings – Debt ? Growth |
2 |
|
|
BA. |
BAE Systems |
24/3/26 |
? Holdings ? Acquisitions – Debt ? Growth |
2 |
|
|
DOM |
Domino’s Pizza |
24/3/26 |
– Holdings – Debt ? Growth |
2 |
|
|
LUCE |
Luceco |
25/3/26 |
? Acquisitions – Debt ? Growth ? ROCE |
2 |
|
|
BBY |
Balfour Beatty |
2/4/26 |
– Holdings ? CROCI ? Growth – ROCE |
2 |
|
|
APTD |
Aptitude Software |
8/4/26 |
– Holdings ? Acquisitions – Growth |
2 |
|
|
IGG |
IG Group |
8/4/26 |
– Holdings – Growth |
2 |
|
|
SPX |
Spirax |
8/4/26 |
– Holdings – Debt ? Growth |
2 |
|
|
SVS |
Savills |
9/4/26 |
– Holdings – CROCI ? Growth ? ROCE |
2 |
|
|
MACF |
Macfarlane |
10/4/26 |
– Holdings – Debt ? Growth |
2 |
|
|
PAGE |
Page |
13/4/26 |
– Holdings? CROCI – Debt – Growth – ROCE |
2 |
|
|
CAML |
Central Asia Metals |
15/4/26 |
– Growth ? ROCE |
2 |
|
|
FEVR |
Fevertree Drinks |
20/4/26 |
– CROCI – Growth |
2 |
|
|
JDG |
Judges Scientific |
22/4/26 |
? Acquisitions – Debt – Growth |
2 |
|
|
WINK |
M Winkworth |
24/4/26 |
– Holdings – Growth |
2 |
|
|
EKF |
EKF Diagnostics |
27/4/26 |
? CROCI – Growth ? ROCE |
2 |
|
|
IOF |
Iofina |
1/5/26 |
? CROCI – ROCE ? Shares |
2 |
|
|
AEO |
Aeorema Communications |
18/5/26 |
– CROCI ? Growth ? ROCE |
2 |
|
|
ASY |
Andrews Sykes |
18/5/26 |
– Holdings – Growth |
2 |
|
|
CARD |
Card Factory |
21/5/26 |
– Holdings – Debt |
2 |
|
|
ANP |
Anpario |
1/6/26 |
? CROCI – Growth ? ROCE |
2 |
|
|
09/06/2026 |
|||||
With zero strikes, Keystone Law is next. It is one of the companies I write up regularly at Interactive Investor. My latest article will be published there, by the time you read this.
That means Me Group is in my crosshairs. Normally I’d drop “Group” from its name but referring to it as Me feels weird.
Me Group [- Growth ? ROCE]
Me Group has been around a long time. It made its name in photobooths, and I cannot remember the last time I used one of those.
This year I used a smartphone photo for my passport renewal. If I remember correctly I did the same ten years ago. It’s almost trivially easy. This observation has enabled me to presume that Me Group is a declining business. It has prejudiced me against investing.
Often our instincts and experiences lead us astray, so I’m slightly embarrassed that hitherto I haven’t challenged this one.
Source: Photo.ME annual report
It is not at all obvious that the photobooth business, Photo.ME, is declining. Putting aside 2020 and 2021, periods that will have been impacted by travel restrictions during the Covid pandemic, it looks more like a mature business.
Photo.Me Turnover was flat in 2024 and declined in 2025, but modestly higher than it was in 2019, before the pandemic.
Me Group has also diversified. It believes washing machines are driving growth. The front cover of the 2025 annual report gives the game away:
Our local garage has Wash.Me machines along with parcel collection points, but no photobooth. It is a potential touchpoint because we are proud owners of a rug that is too big for our washing machine.
Most of Me Group’s turnover comes from the money we put in its vending machines. These are located at places like supermarkets and garages (it pays site owners a commission or fee). The company also earns a relatively small proportion of its turnover leasing and selling food vending machines to site owners and providing them with maintenance services and spares (not included in the vending revenue in the tables below).
For more information on photobooths and washing machines, the big components of the vending segment, we can turn to the segmental report. It shows how in 2025 growth in laundry turnover made up for a contraction in photos, but also that Me Group is still dependent on photobooths for the majority of its turnover:
|
Vending revenue |
2024 (£m) |
2025 (£m) |
% Change in Revenue |
% of total vending revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Photo.ME (Photobooths) |
173 |
166 |
-4.0% |
57.7% |
|
Wash.ME (Laundry) |
92 |
101 |
10.2% |
35.0% |
|
Print.ME (Digital printing) |
11 |
11 |
-0.9% |
3.8% |
|
Other vending (Food etc.) |
10 |
10 |
2.0% |
3.5% |
|
Total vending revenue |
286 |
288 |
0.9% |
100.0% |
Source: Me Group annual report 2025, and author’s calculations
Me Group received a strike for Growth because turnover contracted in the year to April 2019 (- 0.7%), the year to April 2020 (5.6%), and the year to October 2021 (30.9%). However, the whiplash change in turnover between 2020 and 2021 is misleading because the company changed its financial year-end.
The numbers in ShareScope are:
|
Apr 2019 |
Apr 2020 |
Oct 2020 |
Oct 2021 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Turnover £m |
228.118 |
215.387 |
310.245 |
214.403 |
|
% change |
-0.7 |
-5.6 |
44 |
-30.9 |
There are two numbers for 2020, one for the old financial year end in April and one for the new financial year in October. The number for October 2020 is the turnover for the eighteen month period since Me Group published its previous annual report in April 2019 though. The company didn’t grow 44% in one year, it grew 44% in 18 months. Consequently the 30.9% decline in the twelve months to October 2021 is not a fair comparison.
Zooming out, we can see turnover declined about 6% from approximately £228m to approximately £214m between April 2019 and October 2021, a period of two and a half years. No doubt the pandemic was responsible. The strike is probably forgivable.
I also queried Me Group’s profitability. I prefer ROCE (Return on Capital Employed) to be above 10%, even in bad years. Me Group’s ROCE failed to meet this benchmark in 2020 and 2021, the pandemic years, which I can also forgive..
Me Group’s financials are pretty good, but its dependence on photobooth revenue still bugs me.
Photo.Me earns most of its turnover abroad, where it is much more dependent on photos. In the UK, where I found it trivially easy to use smartphone photos for ID, less than 31% of turnover came from Photo.Me in 2025. It generated twice as much revenue here from Wash.Me.
|
Vending revenue 2025 |
Continental Europe (£m) |
UK (£m) |
Asia Pacific (£m) |
Total £m) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Photo.ME (Photobooths) |
107.9 |
15.1 |
43.2 |
166.2 |
|
Wash.ME (Laundry) |
68.5 |
32.2 |
0.1 |
100.8 |
|
Print.ME (Digital printing) |
10.7 |
0.1 |
0.0 |
10.8 |
|
Other Vending (Food etc.) |
2.2 |
1.9 |
5.9 |
10.1 |
|
Total Vending Revenue |
189.4 |
49.4 |
49.2 |
288.0 |
|
Photo.ME as % of total |
57.0% |
30.6% |
87.7% |
57.7% |
Source: Me Group annual report 2025, and author’s calculations
In Europe, Me Group’s biggest market, the proportion of photo turnover is 57%, and in Asia it’s nearly 88%. I wonder if it’s less easy to use smartphone photos in Europe, and whether that might change.
In the Principal Risks and Uncertainties section of its annual report Photo.Me warns that European governments might implement centralised image capture or “widen the acceptance of self-made or home-made photographs”. Either could be bad news:
Source: Me Group annual report 2025
In a trading update for the half year to April 2026, Me Group warned revenue fell 17% compared to a decline of 6% in the same period in 2025. Wash.Me only grew 3% (compared to 17% in the previous year).
The company singled out France as the major detractor and the conflict in the Middle East and consequent economic uncertainty as the reason for it.
These events may not damage Me Group’s long-term prospects, but they also make it difficult to spot longer-term shifts in how people source ID photos.
Richard Beddard
Contact Richard Beddard by email: richard@beddard.net, web: beddard.net
This article is for educational purposes only. It is not a recommendation to buy or sell shares or other investments. Do your own research before buying or selling any investment or seek professional financial advice.
