I gotta say I like Tim’s candid take on T-Mag’s financial aspects. It’s a tough pill to take, considering many look at money as being today’s evil.
The truth is unless good profit margins and positive cash flow are established, any company will find itself very vulnerable to the whims of the economy. Too many small companies with a successful product fail to survive when the economy turns south simply because they don’t have sufficient resources to withstand the winds.
Strong companies like Microsoft, Intel, United Health Services, Wal-Mart, etc, can withstand heavy competition, a bad economy, and injurious headlines simply because they have enough cash to get 'em through the bad times. They can use that cash to improve their products - Research and development. They can use that cash to kill competition by drastically lowering their own profit margins to the point competitors simply can’t keep up and wither down. They can use that cash to acquire those competitors that are more vulnerable to bad winds. They can use that cash to expand to new, broader markets, establish an international presence perhaps. They can use that cash to launch massive advertizing campaigns and become a prominent player in the industry.
I’ll tell you what Tim, it’s great to see you’re very business savvy. With the secular growth we’re seeing in everything-online, Biotest seems to be in a sweet spot. With great things in the pipeline like Spike - which as I pointed out in another post, is just a beautiful, strong supplement - and becoming much more widespread as seen at GNC and Wal-Mart, I can see Biotest doing very good.
Biotest is still in the works of widespreading its reputation which we in our small circle already know to be that of producing the best quality, reliable, trust-worthy supplements in the fitness & health industry. Seeing the company is being successful at increasing its product pipeline and retail outlets, as well as the strong growth seen in online sales as people become less reluctant to buy online, it’s looking very good for T-Mag.
That is, unless Biotest is burning cash at a faster rate than it is taking it in, potentially forcing it to increase its debt - or potentially putting it in a very vulnerable position years down the line if things turn south for a while.
If management is strong though, and Tim seems to be very wise in how to lead his business, than I’d like to think Biotest will emerge not only as a Top-Quality player but as one of the bigger, more profitable players to the point it can withstand any competition it gets…kinda like Microsoft can withstand any bad winds Google sends its way for a very long while, considering it has $50Billion in current assets + $16Billion in cash flow this year compared to Google’s $4Billion in Cur. Assets + $1.7Billion in cash flow. Microsoft is going nowhere for a VERY long while, even if sales are slashed yr after yr!