Worthy Opponents(13)

“What have we got today?” Mike asked them with a smile, as they helped themselves to coffee and sat down. As always, they had a variety of new investments to suggest to him, for Mike to consider before they did further research on them. They all agreed in private that they loved working for him. He was a good guy, he expected excellence from them, but he was kind and easy to work for, as long as they produced.

“I had a crazy thought,” Renee started. “I went shopping last weekend, at Brooke’s. I forget about it at times, because of the location, and when I go down there, it knocks my socks off every time. It’s amazing, a treasure trove of high-end brands, and one-of-a-kind merchandise, which is so rare today with globalization. It’s family-owned, in a lousy neighborhood. But if you ever want a small jewel of an investment, if you got it out of that neighborhood, moved it to a big new location uptown, and helped it grow into something bigger, you could wind up with something like Chanel or Hermès, even open stores in other cities. It’s a goldmine waiting to be discovered. Right now, it’s kind of a secret for the elite. Multiply that, and it could be a huge moneymaker.” Her eyes were bright as she said it.

“Chanel and Hermès are family-owned too,” Joe Weiss reminded her.

“I’d like to be part of those families,” Renee commented, and they all laughed, as Mike listened. All three members of his prime research team were in their thirties and full of bright ideas. All of them had gone to top colleges and had had high-level jobs before they came to him, with excellent references and credentials. Renee had gone to Yale undergrad and Harvard Business School.

“It sounds a little precious to me,” Mike commented, unenthused so far. “I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never been there. Where is it?”

“Sort of south and west of Chelsea. It’s been there forever. Two or three generations.”

“What’s it doing there?” He looked puzzled more than intrigued.

“No idea,” she answered. “The building is beautiful inside, looks like nothing outside, and the street is awful, and full of homeless camps now. Inside it’s very elegant and distinguished. Kind of old-school, with up-to-date merchandise. It’s sort of a hidden secret. People come from all over, but they don’t talk about it. I think people who are addicted to it want to keep it a secret. I go there a few times a year. I spend a fortune every time, and love everything I get. The comparison to Chanel and Hermès is a good one.”

“Is it profitable?” Mike asked, slightly more interested. That was always the bottom line for him.

“It must be. Most of the merchandise is very high-end, luxury brands. There’s a section of less expensive, very chic merchandise, but most of what they sell are very high-flying brands, a lot of them from Europe. You should take a look sometime,” she said to Mike. “If you can afford it,” she added, and they all laughed.

“It wouldn’t be a high-volume investment, like a shopping mall or our low-cost, high-volume brand, but it might be an interesting acquisition, and it might intrigue some of our investors. I have no idea if the owners are looking for investors or want to sell. They may not be interested and be doing just fine without us, but I thought of it when I was there, and I loved the idea. You’d have to get them to expand and move uptown if they’d be willing. Their location now is awful, although it seems to be working for them.”

“If they’re not in trouble, family businesses are a beast to buy into. They’re usually pretty rigid about how they run things if it’s working for them. They may not want to grow and move uptown,” Mike said.

“And make more money?” Renee looked startled. “Who wouldn’t want to do that?” she commented, as Mike jotted down the name of the store. He wanted to ask his mother and daughter about it. Jennifer loved to shop and knew every store in New York, and his mother knew the fashion business from the inside, although she didn’t carry high-end luxury brands at her online store. The low prices had been the secret of her success.

“You’d be surprised. Family businesses aren’t always about money,” Mike answered her, and they moved on to three suggestions offered by Joe Weiss. They were mineral deals in the Pacific Northwest, and an interesting oil deal in Norway. Will only had one biotech suggestion. It was a short meeting, and they left Mike’s office an hour later to start their day. Mike had given Joe the green light to research the oil deal, and one of the mineral opportunities, and had discouraged Will from pursuing the biotech deal. They had others that were more lucrative at the moment. Renee had half a dozen other options she was working on, but they weren’t far enough along to present to him yet. They were a busy group of bright young minds, always on the hunt for new investments for him and the people who invested with him.

Mike had lunch with one of their major investors, a land developer in Oklahoma who had made a fortune in oil, thanks to Mike. He had meetings after that for a company they had bought and which was about to go public after four years of grooming, and at the end of the day, before he left the office, he called his mother. She was still at her office at seven o’clock and was pleased to hear from him. He didn’t call her often but tried to have dinner with his parents every few weeks. Neither of his parents had slowed down despite their ages. And he had the same constitution they did. Mike had been full of energy since he was a boy, and his sister Stephanie claimed they all wore her out. Older than Mike, she worked for their mother, had two sons in college, was divorced, and had a boyfriend Mike liked who owned a construction firm. The whole family admired industrious people and were hard workers.