Growing OATS

I have finally visited my first Wild Oats Market in Louisville Kentucky and I was very impressed. I have driven past Harry’s (a Whole Foods Store) in Alpharetta Georgia, where Alton Brown chief/scientist from Food TV’s “Good Eats,” is continually shooting episodes. He totally advertises the store, which he uses to explain what Quality is.


What is driving the growth of Markets like Whole Foods (WFMI) and Wild Oats? Healthy and educated living styles are more common. Wal-Mart’s newness and wonderland of cheap everything is deterring crowd and conscious leery middle income buyers. There are quality food sections in Kroger and other chains…so why are these chains growing so popular? Is it their interior atmosphere? Assured quality, because the management seems to share similar beliefs? Probably.

Details:
OATS (around since the 70’s from Colorado) is up 36% for the year and made $.37 per share net income. Other Financial also look good, except a large amount of debt, which, although typical for a growing company and a good use of stock holder capital, can lead to growing pains. Over 26% of OATS shares are held by insiders which can reduce volatility.

Whole Foods appears to have better financials such as a positive Return on Assets (Oats is negative) earns $1.20 per share…Note: WFMI growth is much less now as they have entered many suburban markets. OATS also has a Negative Operating Margin! They are better at managing inventory (+) but spending lots of money. Also Depreciation is a large part of cash flows which will lower (lower operating cash flow in) as equipment ages….of course spending on equipment will also lower because refridgerators and trucks do last a while after fully depreciated.

OATS seems to have sustainable growth. OATS does not seem overly eager to start new stores and compete like drug stores CVC and Walgreens. They pop up stores that may loose money just to force the competitor out.

Check out finance.google.com for a hyperactive chart that can show trading trends.

Trends are trends, but it is Management and Business Strategy that make long term Buys. Whole Foods managers are serious and good. They are businessmen, not hippies in business. OATS managers seem to be less hardcore but more good spirited. They pay their lower employees more, less aggressive negotiators for rental space, (opinion from news articles), and contribute more to the environmental community.

This separates them from the Kroger chains that have a natural section. Wild Oats, may be up there with whole foods if new big eyed managers come in.

Piedmont Biofuel CoOp

The Carolinas have a growing number of Biodiesel Coops. More and More People are learning that fuel for diesel engines can come from straight vegatable oil, and better, plant oil reacted with methane and washed to operate clean.

I went to the Piedmont Biofuel Coop to check out all this group has learned. I joined in.
They are excellent people and try to educate and create more biodiesel fans. More later....but their large production facility is opening in a month and sell biodiesel 100 on a "trail"of five outlets where members can fill their Jettas and diesel trucks and join in the production.

Powering Down Or Up?

Late september the market takes a bounce like a trampoline into november.
In October the stock bounces up or off the side. Hopefully this October it'll bounce up. The economy is growing....BUT...It is dangerous for us to grow too fast! and unsustainable even...so it is really important to find solid earners...ie value stocks... with low growth...like.... an energy or power company!!..or find a brand new market like...alternative energy!!!

Everything else is trading sideways because high P?E's are evry where and most stocks are fully valued.

IDA Idaho Power and Duke Power are examples of power companies that are constant. They can't loose market share...they practically own the power lines. Idaho power (Div = $1.20 or 3.1% Div yeild) has a big interest in fuel cells and alternative energy ......and is partially owned by Bill Gates. Duke is big in the Nuclear sector, which I think I like ....even though it may take mutant bacteria to get rid of the toxic sludge.

NC Greenpower Is where Carolina residents can pay $4 extra on their bill to support alternative energy development. It is a program that buys alternative power to add to the grid through
Advanced Energy



http://www.advancedenergy.org/

Good People Finish

This is a reprise of a Sustainablog and Treehugger blog from

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, St. Louis, MO.....

It's good to hear this...Better then Katie Couric eh? Although Morgan Splaylock did have some poetic discourse about politicans being like wrestlemaniacs with media exposure... funny
Anyway...

Good people are recycling phones 22, 2006 07:35 AM - Jeff McIntire-Strasburg

Americans, on average, trade in their cell phones for a newer model every eighteen months, and that creates a huge waste stream of used phones still in usable condition. Fifteen years ago, while cell phones were still a luxury item, Michigan entrepreneur Charles Newman recognized a business opportunity in those old phones. His company, Recellular, now controls more than half of the US market for used cell phones, and in addition to keeping 75,000 phones a week out of landfills, the company provides affordable wireless communications to residents of developing countries around the world. As most used cell phones are collected either by charitable operations, or on behalf of them by wireless giants such as Sprint and Verizon, these used phones also create another stream of revenue for often strapped non-profits:

The March of Dimes, which does research and education on birth defect prevention, turned to ReCellular when it decided to launch a cellphone donation program several years ago. The drive brings in about $160,000 a year.

"They are an excellent company to deal with," said March of Dimes fundraising executive Bob Perry.

When the Canadian Association of Food Banks decided to set up a cellphone collection program, it shopped around for a company to handle the phones, said spokeswoman Tamara Eberle in Toronto.

The umbrella group for 2,000 food banks and other agencies across Canada has collected about 100,000 phones through its Phones for Food program that began in 2003, raising about $140,000.

Those phones often go to countries where residents often have cellular access (over 80% of the world has it), but new phones are prohibitively expensive. Recellular's phones retail for $40 or less, opening up communication possibilities to people far from land line infrastructure. Like Great Britain's envirophone, Recellular demonstrates that reusing and recycling create plentiful opportunities for people, planet and profit. As reduction doesn't seem to be on most Americans' mind in terms of cell phone purchases, it's great to see companies like these keeping older ones in circulation. ::USA Today via NextBillion

Good People Finish

This is a reprise of a Sustainablog and Treehugger blog from

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, St. Louis, MO.....

It's good to hear this...Better then Katie Couric eh? Although Morgan Splaylock did have some poetic discourse about politicans being like wrestlemaniacs with media exposure... funny
Anyway...

Good people are recycling phones 22, 2006 07:35 AM - Jeff McIntire-Strasburg

Americans, on average, trade in their cell phones for a newer model every eighteen months, and that creates a huge waste stream of used phones still in usable condition. Fifteen years ago, while cell phones were still a luxury item, Michigan entrepreneur Charles Newman recognized a business opportunity in those old phones. His company, Recellular, now controls more than half of the US market for used cell phones, and in addition to keeping 75,000 phones a week out of landfills, the company provides affordable wireless communications to residents of developing countries around the world. As most used cell phones are collected either by charitable operations, or on behalf of them by wireless giants such as Sprint and Verizon, these used phones also create another stream of revenue for often strapped non-profits:

The March of Dimes, which does research and education on birth defect prevention, turned to ReCellular when it decided to launch a cellphone donation program several years ago. The drive brings in about $160,000 a year.

"They are an excellent company to deal with," said March of Dimes fundraising executive Bob Perry.

When the Canadian Association of Food Banks decided to set up a cellphone collection program, it shopped around for a company to handle the phones, said spokeswoman Tamara Eberle in Toronto.

The umbrella group for 2,000 food banks and other agencies across Canada has collected about 100,000 phones through its Phones for Food program that began in 2003, raising about $140,000.

Those phones often go to countries where residents often have cellular access (over 80% of the world has it), but new phones are prohibitively expensive. Recellular's phones retail for $40 or less, opening up communication possibilities to people far from land line infrastructure. Like Great Britain's envirophone, Recellular demonstrates that reusing and recycling create plentiful opportunities for people, planet and profit. As reduction doesn't seem to be on most Americans' mind in terms of cell phone purchases, it's great to see companies like these keeping older ones in circulation. ::USA Today via NextBillion