The Whimsical Investor

Summary

Schwälbchen Molkerei Jakob Berz AG This little critter, a dairy factory in Hessia, Germany, comes in at a creamy $73M market cap. The name translates to "the small swallow bird", which is a pun on the name of the little town they operate from, Bad Schwalbach. Just compare the logo with the town's crest and tell me you're not in love. Look, they are talking to each other! The company was founded in 1938 and has since grown to 225M€ in annual revenue, of which 8M€ is profit. The puzzle of why this business is only 78% family-owned and not 100%, might be explained with the fact that a second factory was opened in the year they went public. Their product lineup of course includes milk, cream, curd and yogurt, which add to around 2/3 of sales volume, but they also have random stuff like an in-house ayran brand. That one ships with a Turkish-German pamphlet for retailers, which can be quoted as saying "an ayran is only ever as good as its yogurt". Well said folks, well said. That is how you know you are dealing with a pro. Another curiosity in the 2023 annual report is their newly introduced spread, from a kind of Hessian cheese that should definitely not be used in a spread. I used to eat that cheese growing up and therefore can confirm it deserves its place as one of the worst rated cheeses worldwide. They are going for the local market with this one. The operations of the encompassing company are not limited to dairy production, with another big arm being a wholesale logistics division, shipping all things culinary to hotels. Since dairy has famously complex logistics, it makes sense they have process power in food distribution. A total cutie of a company! Nippon Ichi Software Inc. Founded in 1991, this game publisher is making the bold claim of being number one in Japan in its very name, defying the $27M (ca. ¥4B) valuation descending gently upon the book value. With annual revenue of ¥5B you would think they as a software firm are doing better than that, but earnings...