Editing The Pen Addict 614/transcript (section)

== Lamy's finances discussion ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' Speaking of which, our final follow up falls into this category. This category is called on Lamy's finances. So we talked about this a while ago about the acquisition of Lamy by Uniball or Unimitsubishi, whatever the parent company is called. And this one is from Axel, who said, I just listened to an episode where you said Lamy wasn't making financial publications. That's wrong. I know they don't mean it that way, but I think that's great how that's how the Axel just dropping into this. That's wrong. As they're a GmbH, almost likely a limited. So this is a type of corporation founding, incorporated corp. I don't know the actual definition of the GmbH, but it's basically a classification of a business. And they have to publish them in a certain time frame, and you can find them on, and there's a link in here, a German site where you can find these financial releases for GmbH companies. And Axel did the work and said, anyway, here's the most current one, 85 million cash flow in 2021. So when we were thinking about this and the way we think about some of the biggest companies in our space, Pelican comes to mind with their recent acquisition or recent sale. How big we think these companies are versus the reality is like, okay, yeah, 85 million in cash flow. That's like net sales, like net income. That's not profit or gross.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I'm looking at these annual financial statements, and I don't see 85 million on here. I'm not sure where that's come from. I'm not sure if I'm looking at the right thing. Like I'm looking at this website, bundensanzigar.de, which has been sent in. But yeah, suffice it to say, they're a company that makes good money.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. So like, it's a very good piece of context, right? Like, that's what I see from this, like 85 million cash flow. Did they make any profit? You know, were they profitable? Were they like in the hole? But that gives you a good idea of the scope of the business worldwide is that they're bringing in that. And that seems like pretty dang strong for a company the size of Lamy, who I think, I mean, I certainly don't know. They got to be one of the bigger just stationery brands.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You know what it is? Like, I don't know this is what it is, but I'm like digging around now. There's like multiple Lamy kind of holding information.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So some parts of the business I can see an 85 million, and some parts seem smaller. So maybe one is an IP. Like this is C. Joseph Lamy GmbH. That's the one that has those kinds of, that's where like the big money is, is in there. They have other holding companies, so I apologize.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' They probably have a beekeeping company. Yeah. There's a lot of money in the business.

'''Myke Hurley:''' There's a lot of money in the business. Yeah.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I just, I unfairly made an assumption, which you should never do, that this was a private company. Like in the U.S., private companies don't have to release any financials. So this is obviously a different type of category.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You're not wrong if it's anything like the U.K., where it's like this is the information that they provide, which is different to if this was a public company where they have to be much more particular about everything. Like I'm sure there are ways to move their money around so they are being the most efficient that they can be and that maybe they would have to be a little bit more open. I don't know if they were like a public company, but at least what this shows is the company was successful. That's what it shows, I think.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. And this is also information that's three years old, right? So that's the best we can do is three-year-old financials for a company that was just sold to another big company. So interesting. Lots of things can change year over year. So that's our follow-up section, Myke. It's really great. I love the follow-up because like we don't profess to be experts and we have thoughts and sometimes we run our mouth. And I like that our listeners give us some additional information and context. It's very useful and very helpful. So keep that feedback coming.

'''Myke Hurley:''' This episode is brought to you by our friends at Pen Chalet. Pen Chalet have the products you need from the brands that you love. Whether you're looking for a new fountain pen, a rollerball, mechanical pencil, some ink, an accessory, it doesn't matter what you're looking for. Pen Chalet have got it. They do very fast and reliable customer service as part of their offering. They want to make sure that you're happy with the products that you're buying and that also comes down to price. Pen Chalet run discounts every couple of weeks. You'll be able to find new fantastic prices over on their website and they're adding new styles of pens from new brands every single month. Pen Chalet want you to have a fantastic experience with the items that you purchase from them, which is why they offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee on their products. Pen Chalet sell internationally with great shipping rates, but you will get free shipping in the U.S. if you spend $75 or more. So, go take yourself right now to PenChalet.com slash PenAddict and you will be able to find a 10% code to save on anything over at Pen Chalet, as well as a selection of special offers just because you listen to this show. Brad, what have you found for us?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31. Oh, my word. 32. I know what you're counting now. 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40. I got myself stuck here. I got to keep going. There are 40 different Robert Oster inks on sale right now. Yeah. This does not happen. This is very abnormal. That's why I went and counted because they do not stop, can't stop, won't stop over at Pen Chalet with these Robert Oster inks. This is a great opportunity to try one of my personal favorite inks. I'm obviously very biased in that I have a special edition ink for the Pen Addict that I love. But just in general, it's probably, Robert Oster is probably either number one or two in my most owned ink brands because the colors are so good. The quality is so good. I've never had an issue once with any of these inks in performance, and that includes some of the shimmer inks, which are very good. So if you're in the market for some inks and especially some very cool options that are in different limited edition releases, this is a good time to go in and get into this Robert Oster deal that Pen Chalet has going. But on top of that, I see a Y Studio Brassing Ballpoint pen, which is one of my pens that I really, really enjoy. And a couple of Heinz Fountain pens, actually more than a couple, three. So that would be a few Heinz Fountain pens. Really, really great prices. Like if you were missing out on the Chicago pen show this past weekend, you can get some really cool looking Heinz pens that you might see something similar at a pen show over at Pen Chalet. So go check it out. And I see it looks like they've maybe tweaked the bottom of the page and kind of did some kind of block additions into there. So there's like a whole grouping at the bottom of the page that you should check out as well. But yeah, go check it out. Great deals over at PenChalet.com.

'''Myke Hurley:''' It's at PenChalet.com slash PenAddict is where you go to get your hands on his office. Our thanks to Pen Chalet for the support of this show and Relay FM.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right. We got our shout out of the week, Myke.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Shout out of the week.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Fountain Pen Love. Number one, I love the name of this blog. I've been following them for quite a while. John does a great job over there. And recently, he kind of gets on kicks on posts where he'll kind of stick with a theme for X amount of posts. He was doing an ink of the week for a while. And I might have even given a shout out then. But right now, he's doing something that's near and dear to my heart. He's doing a doodling with fountain pens series. So I think we're on like the third one, maybe, to where he does like different patterns. Actually, it looks like maybe fourth one. Nice. Of that. So yeah, you know I love a good doodle. I have my own little line doodle that I like to do on different pages and things like that. So these take it up a notch. There's lots of different patterns. And what John does with each of these is kind of goes through from like the initial line. How do these patterns start? How do they complete? How does he think about doing them? So like there's a circular pattern. There's some pipes, which is one I want to look at. Like I've bookmarked that one to go look at for myself to see how he builds these little these little doodles. And then there's starburst pattern, which is something that I that I do. And yeah, it's just it's really cool. I like this idea to where we have posts about using our stuff and how we just do simple things like, hey, maybe I just need to sit and chill and doodle for a while. And maybe I want to use this pen and try out this ink. And, you know, maybe I'm not a letter writer. You know, like myself, I'm not out there writing a bunch of letters and using my pens that way. But I do use them in this more like artistic kind of meditative way. And John puts out some really, really fun, great ideas to to do that with your fountain pens and ink. So love this series. So keep it up, John.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Definitely.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Do you think Wes Anderson doodles with his fountain pens in a whimsical way?

'''Myke Hurley:''' I'm sure.