ALDILA INC. golf shaft manufacturer; Nasdaq:"ALDA" Message Board

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Non-Tech : ALDILA INC. golf shaft manufacturer; Nasdaq:"ALDA"

ALDA 0.0500

0.0%

Nov 3 10:55 AM EST

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To: av ram who wrote (168)	5/15/1997 9:31:00 AM
From: TLWatson59	of 274

Thanks for your response. I must have done something wrong because that URL gives no data on ALDA. Is there something I missed? As to my experience with ALDA, I have found the IR person Mary Lou Coburn very cooperative and forthcoming. Even during the trying times of early 1995, the company did not try to hide the difficult road they had to travel. The golf club components market is a fractured and very difficult one to analyize since there is no dominant company sales wise to compare against. Year to year swings from one club manufacturer to another are the rule and long time brand loyalty is a rare thing. For the public club selection is usually driven by the hottest money winner on the Pro Tour. The biggest leader in terms of publicly traded companies is Callaway who eats component suppliers alive. They were singlehandedly responsible for the rise and fall of Aldila. While ELY still accounts for a substantial portion of Aldila's sales, the percentage drops significantly each year. What are some of the things that make Aldila attractive as a long term investment. IMO these are some of them: A commanding presence in the graphite shaft market. A trusted name among independent club manufactureres. A proven technical capability to adjust to changing trends and demands in the market place. A stubborn and enterprising management team which refused to allowed itself to be cowed by customers many times its size. A company that when abandoned by its original financiers did not fold its tent and fade away. A company that developed a long term business strategy of in-house technical innovation, smart acquisitions, lower cost production methods and facilities and an ever improving management team. What is there about Golf that one should be looking for investment vehicles that cater to the sport? In the past, it was Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer who fired up the general publics interest. Today it's Tiger Woods. Should he be able to perform over the next two or three years as he has over the past four IMO the dynamics of dollar flow into products and services allied with this industry will boggle the mind. As an aside I suggest you read a Yahoo Business release dated May 14, 1997 from American Golf Corp. to get some perspective on what has happened to golf over the last decade and what may lay ahead in the next. I do not wish to get into arguments about competition new technology for the past 18 months have shown me that the people at the helm of this company do not have their heads buried in the sand. With reference to being taken over, I would like to see how many examples of such moves were made by customers of component supplies except in industries where the end user was "the" dominant factor in an industry and did not rely on the need to continue selling the components to the general market place. While Callaway is the "leader" today that could literally change tomorrow. It already has many times in this market. Names such as Spalding, Wilson, Titlest just to mention a few have risen , fallen and in some cases risen to the top again. Many unfortunately have disappeared from the scene. That is not to say that there is no potential for Aldila to be acquired. The most likely prospect for that would be either a steel shaft manufacturer or a specialty high end manufacturer of clubs who would not pose a threat to the general club market and thus be able to retain the goodwill the Aldila has built up over the years. What does seem reasonable to speculate on is that at its present level the stock is certainly not outrageously priced. The market for its products should grow at significantly higher rates than many others. The management's references to utilizing its entrance into the Carbon Fiber market to not only assure it of adequate supplies but possibly added income from the sale of excess in-house needs and the potential for entering new markets which use Aldila's expertise. Fishing tackle for example which has been mentioned on this thread or tennis equipment and other sports equipment which have not been. Sorry for such a long dissertation but sometimes when you read well meaning but sometimes far out speculations FWIW I have found it very useful and profitable to keeps your dreams and fantasies in your head but remeber to keep your feet on the ground. I am still long this stock and hope to see it at much higher levels in the not too distant future. Good luck to us all. TLW59

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