The group’s move to jazz up the clothes at its 400-strong chain has

The group’s move to jazz up the clothes at its 400-strong chain has paid off in spades – not least because more fashionable clothes means it can charge more for them. Buy.MAIDEN GROUPOutdoor advertising and radio were the only sectors of the media industry that saw growth in 2003. The shares trade on a forward multiple of 20, which is high enough.WIRELESS GROUPThe irrepressible Kelvin MacKenzie has even more to crow about. His Wireless Group radio company broke into the black for the first time – a £2.3m profit for 2003 at the operating level (£2.3m), although there was still a sizeable, if much reduced, loss for the pre-tax figure (£10.7m, down from £19.0m). The branded drinks sector is an extremely competitive market, and AG Barr, with its years of experience, appears to be doing well. It has a brand of mineral water and diet versions of its carbonated drinks. It is a solid business but there is not much fizz in its growth potential.

Hold.METAL BULLETINBusiness-to-business publishing has seen a strong recovery and Metal Bulletin became the latest player to confirm a rebound. An 8 per cent fall in revenues in the first half was followed by a 4 per cent increase in the second half of 2003. Now that the economy is returning, Regus is geared to the recovery, making this a speculative buy.AG BARRAG Barr, the soft drinks business, has relied on the appetite of its native Scots population for its Irn Bru, the fizzy beverage, for more than 100 years. In metals, booming demand conditions for the likes of steel and aluminium, driven partly by demand from China, has helped advertising revenues and brought new entrants to the metals industry – which then boosts subscriptions.

But the growing health trend in the UK is away from fizzy drinks. The pre-tax loss was £29.2m for 2003, an improvement on the £119m loss in 2002.Regus expanded too far, too fast, only to come unstuck when the stock market’s technology bubble burst in 2000, causing rents and occupancy rates to plummet. Revenues in February were up 5.4 per cent on January and further growth is expected in March. Inquiry levels rose 28 per cent in January and February this year, compared with the same months last year.Prices for new workstation sales and renewals were up 6.1 per cent on the average for the fourth quarter of 2003. He describes this as a well-managed company that runs four funds that invest in out-of-town retail sites and has demonstrated strong growth for the past eight years (with the exception of two years in the TMT rally).