Post by
Possibleidiot01 on Aug 17, 2023 12:47pm
Capital equipment vs Gillete razor blade consumables
Why not a company with a business model that does both?
When I mentioned Osmonics, Trojan Technologies and Zenon , they were all dependent on the build out and improvement of water sytems. This dependency made for lumpy inconsistent business which the stock market doesn't like .
Both Trojan and Zenon had new technologies that faced some resistance in adoption by the water industry. Another company I once owned was Pure Technologies ( purchased by Xylem) who championed leak detection as a service by various methods ; my favourite was Smartball TM. Leak detection had good economics and consistent demand.
Normally , I would prefer a company that does one thing - capital equipment or another thing - running water systems but in the case of H2O there's the third path - selling consumable products. Membranes wear out , they get fouled ..... they can sell you cleaners to extend the life of those membranes........ or new membranes.
Not sure how well I'll make these points.
In the gold rush , few miners got rich ; the people who supplied with picks and shovels did well. If your pick handle breaks , you buy another handle.
For technology to be adopted widely , it has to provide something people value at the same or preferably better price ( H2O does). I'd rather be invested in something profitable than cutting edge ; I've done that.
Hope I'm making sense.
Comment by
calguest on Aug 19, 2023 2:41pm
Agree owned Pure technology as well based out of Calgary. Bought at 1.00, then again at 2.00, loved their Smart ball as well. Over the years slowly grew to 5.00 doing just over 300 mil in sales where Heo will be this year, even paid a dividend. They got taken out at exactly a double at 10.00. In todays water crisis with Heo's diversity looking for more than a double.