How Quincy, Florida Became a Town of Secret Coca-Cola Millionaires

[mrvlad0]

How Quincy, Florida Became a Town of Secret Coca-Cola Millionaires

Feb. 4, 2013

 

http://bit.ly/11FUQXo

 

In the 1920′s and 1930′s, a banker named Pat Munroe in the small town of Quincy, Florida noticed that even during the depths of the Great Depression, otherwise impoverished people would spend their last nickel to buy a glass of Coca-Cola.  With good returns on capital and a once-in-a-century valuation where the business was trading for less than the cash in the bank, “Mr. Pat”, as he was called, encouraged everyone he knew to buy an ownership stake in the firm.  He would even underwrite bank loans, backed by Coca-Cola stock, for his responsible depositors to encourage people to acquire equity.

[bookie71]

Thanks for posting

[Guest hellsten]

Thanks for posting.

 

Which company is the next Coca-Cola? Maybe Jones Soda the company behind "WhoopAss Zero Energy Drink". Never mind. Let me know when you find the next Coca-Cola  ;)

[rkbabang]

Thanks for posting.

Which company is the next Coca-Cola? Maybe Jones Soda the company behind "WhoopAss Zero Energy Drink". Never mind. Let me know when you find the next Coca-Cola  ;)

 

What non-essential item do people continue to buy right up to their last nickel?  That isn't a rhetorical question, because I don't know.

[PLynchJr]

Coke, beer and cigarettes.

[rkbabang]

Coke, beer and cigarettes.

 

Maybe beer, but (at least with the people I know) Coke and cigarettes seem to be a necessity for an ever shrinking percentage of the population.  I suspect in 20 or 30 years saying Coca-Cola will be like saying "Tang" or "Ovaltine" today.  It may bring back a feeling of nostalgia, but it will not be on anyone's list of things people spend their last nickel on.  Coffee might be another one, but it is a highly fragmented market, and the big players do not have even close to the best coffee, in fact you can make much better coffee yourself at home.  That leaves beer I guess.  I shouldn't have sold my SAM stock.

[racemize]

Toilet paper?

[rkbabang]

Toilet paper?

 

I don't know many people who love a certain brand of toilet paper over all others.  I've never seen someone with a toilet paper branded t-shirt or hat,  or toilet paper memorabilia as decoration in their homes.  It would be hard to compare any toilet paper company to what Coke once was.

[racemize]

Toilet paper?

 

I don't know many people who love a certain brand of toilet paper over all others.  I've never seen someone with a toilet paper branded t-shirt or hat,  or toilet paper memorabilia as decoration in their homes.  It would be hard to compare any toilet paper company to what Coke once was.

 

Oh, I just meant it as an answer to what people continue to buy up to the last nickel--certainly not on par with coke or a brand.  I don't think it would be a good investment, and perhaps it would be considered "essential" anyway.

[onyx1]

Coke, beer and cigarettes.

 

Maybe beer, but (at least with the people I know) Coke and cigarettes seem to be a necessity for an ever shrinking percentage of the population.  I suspect in 20 or 30 years saying Coca-Cola will be like saying "Tang" or "Ovaltine" today.  It may bring back a feeling of nostalgia, but it will not be on anyone's list of things people spend their last nickel on.  Coffee might be another one, but it is a highly fragmented market, and the big players do not have even close to the best coffee, in fact you can make much better coffee yourself at home.  That leaves beer I guess.  I shouldn't have sold my SAM stock.

 

Beer is a "necessity" for sure, but it doesn't have anywhere near the brand loyalty as Coke.  At Mexican restaurant, I will order a Tecate, or if eating Chinese I won't hesitate to ask for a Tsingtao even though my "goto" beer is Budweiser.  Will I do the same for a Chinese or Mexican cola?  Not a chance!!  :o  I'm certain that this dynamic holds true for the general population.

[Kraven]

Thanks for posting.

Which company is the next Coca-Cola? Maybe Jones Soda the company behind "WhoopAss Zero Energy Drink". Never mind. Let me know when you find the next Coca-Cola  ;)

 

What non-essential item do people continue to buy right up to their last nickel?  That isn't a rhetorical question, because I don't know.

 

I don't believe there is anything anymore that people will spend their last nickel on.  At one time I would have said a mortgage, but that obviously isn't true any longer.

[hyten1]

internet access?

 

not sure how to capitalize on it

[Gamecock-YT]

Thanks for posting.

Which company is the next Coca-Cola? Maybe Jones Soda the company behind "WhoopAss Zero Energy Drink". Never mind. Let me know when you find the next Coca-Cola  ;)

 

What non-essential item do people continue to buy right up to their last nickel?  That isn't a rhetorical question, because I don't know.

 

Basically anything that causes additions?

[rkbabang]

Thanks for posting.

Which company is the next Coca-Cola? Maybe Jones Soda the company behind "WhoopAss Zero Energy Drink". Never mind. Let me know when you find the next Coca-Cola  ;)

 

What non-essential item do people continue to buy right up to their last nickel?  That isn't a rhetorical question, because I don't know.

 

Basically anything that causes additions?

 

Sex?

[ItsAValueTrap]

Life-saving medical treatments and drugs.

[redskin]

Bloomberg

[fareastwarriors]

Spam.

[prunes]

internet access?

 

not sure how to capitalize on it

I agree, and would add TV (maybe we should generalize this to entertainment) and cell phone service.

[dcollon]

Although I like the idea of sex, I will go with Alcohol, Tobacco, Chocolate and Insurance.

[Parsad]

Thanks for posting.

Which company is the next Coca-Cola? Maybe Jones Soda the company behind "WhoopAss Zero Energy Drink". Never mind. Let me know when you find the next Coca-Cola  ;)

 

What non-essential item do people continue to buy right up to their last nickel?  That isn't a rhetorical question, because I don't know.

 

 

I don't believe there is anything anymore that people will spend their last nickel on.  At one time I would have said a mortgage, but that obviously isn't true any longer.

 

Water.  Cheers!

[Guest hellsten]

Things like Viagra won't work because the patents expire. A big marketing budget, in other words a brand, combined with a "legal drug" such as sugar, alcohol, chocolate, protein, marijuana (in some states), or caffeine would work.

 

Caffeinated beer wouldn't work:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/us/29beer.html?_r=0

 

The problem is that the light beer, made by Ms. Kallman’s company, New Century Brewing, contains caffeine. Earlier this month, she and three other manufacturers were told by the federal Food and Drug Administration that they must remove the stimulant from their beverages or stop selling them.

 

Starbucks coffee, McDonald's, Red Bull, Hershey's, Absolut Vodka are all too big. HOTR, a combination of alcohol, sex, and protein wouldn't work either.

 

Maybe a health food company that sells beverages? Vitaminwater was bought by Coca-Cola:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Brands

 

What's left caffeinated water with bubbles and sugar?

[Guest hellsten]

I'm still thinking about the next Coca-Cola… Buffett knows humans are addicted to sugar:

http://punchcardblog.wordpress.com/2013/07/02/sees-candy-the-prototype-of-the-wide-moat-company/

 

See’s relies on the addictive power of sugar to drive sales.  This is a common characteristic of a number of Buffett’s investments (ie., Dairy Queen, Coke, Heinz, etc.). (For whatever reason, making money off this addiction avoids the moral taint that comes with investments in tobacco companies or casinos.)  Is it possible that Americans could reverse course on sugar as they did with cigarettes?  Anything is possible, but we would not bet against sugar.

 

What is alcohol? AFAIK, fermented sugar.

 

Heinz Ketchup is 23.6% sugar. Dairy Queen Large Dipped Cone is 20% sugar.

 

Sugar is not enough. You need to build a brand and that takes time and money.

 

You could probably find some interesting up-and-coming food and beverage brands by looking at who is sponsoring what or who.

 

Popchips:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2013/01/24/popchips-the-next-1-billion-snack-food-or-just-full-of-hot-air/

 

Pictures of celebrities are everywhere on Popchips' website:

http://www.popchips.com/

 

Belling–whose entrepreneurial résumé includes a coffee-bar chain, a restaurant group and allbusiness.com (sold to NBC for $225 million)–has long had a weakness for vitaminwater. But over the last four-plus years he’s also adopted virtually every aspect of its growth strategy, from its private equity backing to its celebrity pimping, in the hopes of reengineering a similar success.

 

But Belling and cofounder Pat Turpin, an ex-investment banker who managed private-label brands for Costco, needed to get the snack out there fast before they could persuade chains like Safeway and Whole Foods to clear shelf space. So they gave away samples–lots and lots of them–on Google‘s Mountain View campus and the Menlo Park offices of Facebook, as well as at road races and charity and community events. Street teams descended on hip neighborhoods, concerts and cultural events, as vitaminwater had, to give out free bags of popchips.

 

Oza played his star card: inviting celebrities to invest in, “create” a new flavor for and flog the brand, a model he exploited for vitaminwater in 2004, luring 50 Cent. (After the Coke deal that investment netted the rapper a FORBES-estimated $100 million.)

 

First recruit: Ashton Kutcher. Belling says when the actor approached the company, he thought he was being punk’d.

 

Two months later, though, pop singer Katy Perry signed on as spokeswoman and joined as a minority investor in August. Watch out for Katy’s Kettle Corn any day. Other popchips celeb investors: Jillian Michaels, Heidi Klum and Sean “Diddy” Combs.

 

Following what gurus like Rohan Oza do would also be a good strategy. Oza has done marketing for Mars, Coca-Cola, Vitaminwater, Popchips, etc:

http://www.crunchbase.com/person/rohan-oza