The Financial Outlook for Personal Investors: XP Factory & PZ Cussons

Yana Mihaylova of Edison Group focusses on XP Factory, a £32m AIM stock which is the market leader in escape rooms with Escape Hunt and also operates Boom Battle Bar. They are making a strategic shift from the latter to the former. Escape rooms are significantly cheaper to set up and run than the bars and are more profitable, so the shift makes sense, particularly given rising employment costs. The company aims to expand from 24 to 100 venues and make them larger and is helped by smaller escape room operations closing. Neil Shah of Edison returns to PZ Cussons, which manages a brand portfolio including Carex and Imperial Leather. Its trading update showed the new management team's turnround is ahead of expectations. The company aims to spend twice as much on R&D in 2027 as in 2025 and, with a yield of 4% and a forward P/E of 12, Edison feels it has a long way to run. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices