I looked through the reports from 2002. I see what you mean....

I looked through the reports from 2002. I see what you mean. However I some important differences between the European expansion and the current one in America.

The European expansion was funded by large amounts of debt that ultimately required a capital raising to repay. It was a new market without a proven track record. The general strategy of buying a gardening supplies company to gain access to the market was a large mistake.

Compared to the current expansion the company is now negative net debt. It is not raising capital but in fact giving it back to shareholders. They have experience and (I think) there is a place for their product there. It's being executed relatively successfully as measured by profitability (so far). And they are not struggling to set up production facilities in Ningbo at the same time.

The current management, unlike the previous two, does not seem too interested in buying new businesses as a part of their 'expansion' plans. Judging by the current track record and statements, the new management appears superior to the previous two decades'.

I also learnt something new from reading all the reports. Changes in weather (droughts) that affect agricultural production often inflict significant but temporary harm to our company's profitability. This is a reoccurring feature that never affects the longer term profitability of the company. In the future this may be an opportunity worth exploiting (again).

Just to be clear, I don't see any impressive profits to be made by investing in this company. I feel it is merely a satisfactory investment given the difficulty of the current time, with large amounts of defensive characteristics.

The largest risk I see at the moment is a more generalised macroeconomic downturn and subsequent decrease in consumer spending. But that's a risk I can neither forecast nor avoid insofar as it will probably affect most other potential investments I would be interested in making.