@shivrak I appreciate your position on Lark after the CFO’s resignation.
It does seem quite sudden and odd that they wouldn’t have had a replacement lined up. The one counterpoint worth mentioning is that Alex Aleksic (now former CFO) also had/has his own startup consulting agency called Rightsize Advisory which appears to be a 2019 project. One could excuse taking the certainty of a paycheque over the tumultuous C19 era and building a reputation as an ASX listed CFO while trying to get the business off the ground. Perhaps the financial incentive is within his own venture presents a higher risk/rewards at present? Especially given the muddy waters at Lark and questionable leadership structure post-scandal.
I have left jobs in the past on short notice based on unsettling disagreements on directional changes. That being said, I was never on a $400k salary.
Hey @ValueDownunder,
thanks for your great work on Lark here and elsewhere. I’m interested in your take on the current and future management of the company. I’ve been stung before by a new CEO with fantastic credentials looking like they’re making things happen, only to bail at a critical time. I guess the uncertainty around leadership is pretty much the main thing from stopping buying in. How do you see it as it stands?
Premium products are an interesting area. Please read this with the caveat that none of this is an area I have any expertise in!
There are various components that constitute why consumers are prepared to pay a ridiculous amount of money for a premium product, all IMHO (much as I despise that acronym)
1) scarcity or rarity
2) perception/branding
3) influencers/advertising/market perception
4) quality
The interplay between these is complex, opaque and shifts over time. Sometimes rapidly.
We all know that cosmetics are sold on the promise of a combination of these. As a male (cis-, heterosexual, just a bloke really) I have very little understanding of why some cream in a fancy pot, with component parts costing $2 and with no Scientific basis behind it, can retail for $200 because of some vague promotional suggestions of keeping you younger looking, plus an endorsement from a Hollywood actress.
Premium Whisky might not be so different.
It is aspirational, exclusive and quite possibly not much better than the usual stuff. Studies looking at blind wine tasting routinely and repeatedly show that "experts" will choose $20 wine over $200 on a blind tasting but not when they know how much it costs - expectations and pre-conceived ideas win every time!
A friend of mine has created a brand of whisky and done a lovely job of branding and promotion. He decided to enter it into the San Francisco world whisky and won a Silver in the World's and a Gold at the NZ Drammy's.
So, in summary, the usual values to measure a company's advantage are quite different - and the metrics are not something that we can easily assess.
C
In the news last week for all the wrong reasons - so earlier this week Lark welcomed some better news. It was named as the Australian Distillery of the Year, and won the Whisky of the Year at the Australian Whisky Awards (sounds like an awards night I'd like to attend).
Full write up that I saw this can be found here (about a 2-minute read).
Currently not held IRL (remains on my watchlist), but have taken a swig on Strawman.