Great Canada based companies

[shalab]

Starting this thread to discuss great Canada based companies. In this board, we have primarily discussed FRFHF. I am also familiar with BB. I am sure there are many others.

[augustabound]

Brookfield Asset Management.

 

Constellation Software.

 

I'm reading Daring to Succeed now, the bio of Alain Bouchard, one of the founders of Alimentation Couche Tard. They recently (within a few years), bought Circle K.

So my recency bias is saying Couche Tard also.

[Cevian]

Power Corporation (POW) - Desmarais Family Conglomerate

[rb]

CN Rail, TD

[CorpRaider]

WEED.

[EliG]

Power Corporation (POW) - Desmarais Family Conglomerate

 

Can you call it a great company if the stock doesn't perform?

 

10 year CAGR is 2%. 2.7% worse than TSX Composite.

 

15 year CAGR is 6.5%. 2.5% worse than TSX Composite.

 

 

[MarioP]

Small cap that compound since many years

 

Stella Jones (SJ)

Richelieu Hardware (RCH)

 

I own them since many years

 

[Viking]

Saputo

[Uccmal]

Enbridge; Algonquin Energy; Emera; Bam and subs; BCE; Russel Metals; First National;

 

The big banks:  Ry is probably the best.  TD second best.  Despite peoples misgivings about the housing situation in Canada they continue to perform.  They may be in for a a short one or two year hit if housing levels readjust, which would be a good time to buy (same with FN).  An oligopoly protected by the government has its advantages. 

 

Each of the ones I mentioned operates in an Oligopoly or regional monopoly except Russel which is just well run. 

 

There are others I dont hold such as Magna, Linamar, Loblaws, Canadian Tire, Tim Hortons, Premium Brands.  They just never get cheap enough.  A recession would be a good time to buy the banks, and these other ones. 

 

Agree on Power Corp.  Pwf: They lost their mojo when Senior Demarais turned it over to his sons.  Its become their private gravy train. 

 

[augustabound]

 

 

There are others I dont hold such as Magna, Linamar, Loblaws, Canadian Tire, Tim Hortons, Premium Brands.  They just never get cheap enough. 

I've been saying that about BAM for 5+ years.  :-\

 

Agree on Power Corp.  Pwf: They lost their mojo when Senior Demarais turned it over to his sons.  Its become their private gravy train.

I stopped following them a few years ago. It's sad when businesses suffer under the kids lead.

[petec]

Ritchie Brothers.

[longlake95]

WPK, CCL.b, TFII, GIL

[mranski]

MTY Group. Franchisor, serial acquirer of 2nd tier food brands.

[bbarberayr]

Clarke Inc - CKI.TO has been a really good one, but seem to be winding down the company.

 

Some excellent energy companies like CNQ and SU, especially if you think energy does well the next 10 years.  Some of the European ones may be cheaper now (eg. BP, RDS), but both made good acquisitions through the downturn.  Similar with mining companies like TCK and LUN and the gold miners if we get into a strong commodity cycle.  You can also just but the stock market (X.TO) - it is pretty cheap and will do well if more companies start raising money.

 

Re POW, all of the North American Life Insurers has had a rough decade and POW was overvalued in 2007, so that had to be worked off.  If you look at the ROE for major holding GWO-T, it has had the best ROE's of pretty much all the life insurers the last decade, so if interest rates continue to rise and people get a little less negative on the life insurers, I think you may be surprised at how well POW does. 

 

I would avoid the Canadian banks at this time until we see how tje real estate slowdown shakes out and what sort of losses the banks take - right now they have low loan losses on the books and this may be a big problem.

 

[Sharad]

CCL Industries

 

Premium Brands Holdings

 

Savaria Corporation

[KCLarkin]

Savaria Corporation

 

Surprised I haven't heard of this one before. Thanks for adding a new company to the conversation.

[KCLarkin]

Surprised I haven't heard of this one before. Thanks for adding a new company to the conversation.

 

Where did you learn about this company?

[Sharad]

Surprised I haven't heard of this one before. Thanks for adding a new company to the conversation.

 

Where did you learn about this company?

 

I honestly can't remember where I learned about the company, but I like companies in obscure businesses, running roll-up businesses where they don't load the business up with debt. I think I kept seeing stupid ads for Acorn stairlifts, and I read a few books about the moat that escalator/elevator businesses (once you install the elevator/escalator the municipal government mandates maintenance every year (and that usually goes back to the original supplier)), that I looked up elevator/escalator businesses. This company popped up, and it looked good from a balance sheet perspective, though I wish it was a little cheaper. I also like companies that have a good amount of cash flow being distributed back to shareholders every year, without degrading the balance sheet.

 

This one feels like CCL.B and PBH did 5-7 years ago for me, though both CCL.B and PBH had lower P/E ratios when I started buying them.

[netnet]

So which of the mentioned above the 42⁰ parallel companies are midcap or smaller and have outsider type owner operators?

[finetrader]

MTY Food (mty-to) is definitely up there and current share price is reasonable

[KJP]

So which of the mentioned above the 42⁰ parallel companies are midcap or smaller and have outsider type owner operators?

 

It wasn't listed above, but Dream Unlimited is a Canadian small cap in which the CEO owns about 30%.  The company's capital allocation is discussed on the company-specific thread.