The Ledger
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Bragg refuses to grant company equity to non-family employees
“Family companies are great to work for, and we're going to pay you well, and you're going to feel very comfortable here, but there's no equity available, and too complicated with the finance structures if you start giving it away, and then if they want out, an…”
Bragg generated the majority of his net worth after age 60
“Most of my real equity, the way you would measure it, Has come after 60.”
Bragg: Investment portfolio accumulated $2 billion in equity late in life
“Well, we've just plugged away at it, and we've got a couple billion of equity or more now in, in the portfolio. All that came late in life.”
Bragg: Businesses historically operated almost fully levered to fund growth
“We haven't shied away from using debt, although today our balance sheets are in great shape, but through the years we've always been, what I would say, almost fully levered,”
Bragg: Eastlink won cable acquisitions by paying top price without overnegotiating
“There's six buyers, but you always get them, and it was basically, we became easy to deal with, and we always lived by our word, and we always paid top price, and so we just kept picking them off one at a time, And made it easy and didn't over, over negotiate.”
Bragg: Eastlink is doing business with Starlink for fiber backhaul
“In fact, we're doing business with Starlink because when they get down, they want to have fiber that they can feed to people.”
Bragg: Family investment portfolio exceeds three billion dollars
“I read where so-and-so's running two billion dollars and three billion, and we're doing more than that, and so we've got a big portfolio that's done very well for us, so we try to streamline it and keep it simple and let the operators run the business, and the…”
Bragg: Borrowed heavily at 1-2% interest rates to buy stocks
“We've always had a modest portfolio, but when interest rates were down to where we could borrow money for one or two percent, We said, look, this is an opportunity. We should get at this, and so we did. Borrowed lots of money to buy good stocks, and it's been …”
Bragg: Bragg Group operated historically almost fully levered with debt
“We haven't shied away from using debt. Although today, our balance sheets are in great shape, but through the years, we've always been, what I would say, almost fully levered.”
Bragg: Oxford Frozen Foods aims to source 50% of blueberries internally
“Our ideal position would be to grow half them on our own farms and buy half from farmers.”
Bragg: Oxford Frozen Foods is the largest beekeeper in Nova Scotia
“We're the largest beekeeper in Nova Scotia by far, and one of the largest in Canada, because we couldn't get the bees, so we had to start our own apiary.”
Oxford produced McCain onion rings under a one-page agreement for 50 years
“We had a one-page agreement, which I still have, which gave us the exclusive right to make onion rings under the McCain label in Canada, and we've been doing that for over 50 years”
Bragg: Oxford Frozen Foods' Advantage Is Operating Across Three Microclimates
“Our advantage is that we are in three, three different microclimates.”
Bragg: Oxford paid up to 2x market price for 3,000 carrot acres
“We bought About 3000 acres of carrot land in the Annapolis Valley at premium prices. Why would you pay premium? We need to secure the base. That's where we grow our carrots, and we were, you know, doubling the production of carrots, so we need the land base, i…”
Bragg prefers buying Berkshire stock over overpaying for acquisitions
“We'd rather buy more Buffett stock than pay too much for an operating company.”
John Bragg: Kept family name off businesses to shield his grandchildren
“I was determined that from a family point of view, and if my grand, grandson or granddaughter want to have a Just a normal job in the business or outside of the business. They don't need the burdens of the name being everywhere. So I was quite determined to ke…”