In May's issue of The Thomas Report, the manager of the £4.9bn Axa Framlington UK Select Opportunities Fund said: "We live in an ever-changing world and as equity investment managers we must look forward to position portfolios for the future – tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow."
With industrial automation highlighted as a particularly fast-growing sector, Thomas cited Oxford research predicting 47% of US jobs were at risk from "robotic automation or computerisation."
"In the 100 years to 1910, the automation of farming reduced the proportion of US workers engaged in the sector from 90% to 2%," he added, naming IMI as one UK holding from this sector.
Much change in retail
While no mainstream supermarkets were held, the fund did own shares in Booker, which had "flourished" under the leadership of Charles Wilson in a sector characterised by three main growth drivers – convenience, discount and online.
Elsewhere he has been impressed with Poundland, participating in its IPO in March.
He said: "Run by Jim McCarthy – with whom we invested in T&S Stores, which was sold to Tesco in 2002 – 53% of their customers are now classified as ABC1. We are all promiscuous shoppers now. The invested cash payback on the stores is 12 months, so this is very much a rollout-inspired investment."
On technology, Thomas said many investors focused on the obvious and dramatic growth of the "digital connected world through ‘whizzy’ mobile devices" but he preferred to look beyond this space into other industries where the pace of change can be "just as fast".
3D printing, now called 'additive manufacturing' is one such sector, exemplified in the portfolio by top 10 holding GKN.
