Future Stocks: Our best UK ideas

Chloé Darling-Stewart: The UK market is often overlooked as a home for growth and innovation. But I’d argue that some of the world’s most innovative companies aren’t just in Silicon Valley and Shenzhen. There are world-leading companies and global champions right on our doorstep. You might have to just look a little closer to find them. 

Autotrader

So Autotrader needs little introduction. It is the UK’s leading online portal for selling both new and used cars. So Autotrader have about 18 million views to its site and app every month. And that makes it 10 times the size of its next biggest competitor. We’ve been invested in Autotrader since 2015. What really interested us was how it was becoming more entrenched in the infrastructure of car retail in the UK. There are more buyers, which attracts more dealers, which then in itself makes it much more attractive for the buyers. And this self-propelling flywheel is incredibly powerful, also really tough to compete with. What really excites us about Autotrader is how the business is evolving. They’re rolling out tools like Deal Builder, arranging part exchange, car financing, even delivery. You can now do that online. This is a really welcome shift.

Moonpig

So Moonpig is the UK’s leading online card and gift retailer. We invested in Moonpig in 2022, and that was really based on the real data advantage. They have something like 90 million special occasions on their platform, so they will nudge users at just the right moment to make it quite personal and relevant for everyone that uses the platform. The majority of cards are still bought in shops. So Moonpig’s in a pole position to really lead that charge to the move online. Moonpig have about 70 per cent of the UK online card market and 10 million active customers. More data gives it more opportunities to engage with its customers, to tailor to exactly what it is that they need and really improve that customer experience.

Genus

Genus is at the cutting edge of gene technology and it’s really changing the way that we think about farming and it does this by analysing DNA and using gene editing. It helps farmers to produce a healthier and more productive livestock. So farming and food production is an incredibly resource-intensive process. Demand for meat and dairy has tripled in the last 50 years. Genus is really helping to address that. Most recently it’s had a real breakthrough in pigs. PRRS is a porcine disease which costs the industry billions every year. Genus has used its gene editing technology to develop pigs which are naturally resistant to this disease. And it’s reached a major milestone this year with FDA approval in the US and this really paves the way for commercialisation in what is one of the world's largest pork markets. 

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