We’ve been busy at Spaceship in the last few weeks.
We’ve launched some new app features, welcomed some new employees, and bought and sold some stocks within the Spaceship Universe Portfolio.
We talked about two of the stocks we sold last week — namely, Blackmores and Netflix — and now we can talk about a third: Syrah.
I’m also excited to introduce three new stocks: Freedom Foods, Slack, and Temple & Webster.
Here we go!
Bought: Freedom Foods
Freedom Foods is an Australian company that makes healthy “free from” food.
This means its foods are variously free from nuts, gluten, artificial colours and flavours, and genetically modified ingredients.
Its brands include Arnold’s Farm and Australia’s Own (which is the largest imported kids milk brand in China).
Launched in 1990, Freedom Foods was probably ahead of its time. It helped create health sections in supermarkets and adopted stringent allergen testing practices.
For us, we like the brand’s forward-thinking approach. It has made a foray into Asia and the United States, and it strongly focuses on plant-based milk and foods.
We believe it has brand power and great growth potential.
Bought: Slack
Slack makes collaboration and communication software.
We actually use Slack at Spaceship as an email replacement tool. We can chat about projects, send birthday messages, and talk about our favourite bagel toppings.
(Cream cheese good, Vegemite bad. Apparently.)
It seems we’re in good company, as businesses such as Panasonic, the BBC, Starbucks, and The New York Times all use Slack too.
We bought Slack because we believe it’s still reaching its potential. It already has more than 10 million daily active users (across more than 150 countries) in just six years since launch.
And Slack believes it has a US$28 billion addressable market (aka revenue opportunity) as it continues to attempt to replace email across the world.
While Microsoft Teams is a risk, we believe Slack’s focus and integration with other services will help it compete.
Bought: Temple & Webster
Temple & Webster is an Australian furniture and homewares retailer.
Fun fact: The company is named after William Temple and John Webster, two convict artisans who were commissioned to make furniture for Governor Macquarie in colonial Australia.
But that’s not why we like them!
We believe Temple & Webster has the ability to follow global growth trends and gain market share in the largely under-penetrated (in Australia) online homewares market.
Currently offering more than 150,000 products online, they’re off to a good start.
Sold: Syrah
Syrah Resources is an explorational company. One thing they were known for is discovering the world’s largest graphite reserve, Balama, in Mozambique.
Unfortunately, we lost confidence in Syrah.
Earlier this year, Syrah raised capital for the fifth time in four years. We felt this was a symptom of management being unable to execute on strategy.
There have been management problems too. The CFO quit in early September.
This news, coupled with the fact that graphite prices are sliding and Syrah reduced production at its Balama mine, made us wary, so we exited Syrah.
Important! We’re sharing with you our thoughts on the companies in which Spaceship Voyager invests for your informational purposes only. We think it’s important (and interesting!) to let you know what’s happening with Spaceship Voyager’s investments. However, we are not making recommendations to buy or sell holdings in a specific company. Past performance isn’t a reliable indicator or guarantee of future performance.
The Spaceship Universe Portfolio invests in Freedom Foods, Slack, and Temple & Webster at the time of writing.
