Lines of Business

I wanted to communicate a bit on our recent decision to maintain some of our historical lines of business, despite declining sales and increasing raw material costs. ShortBus is committed to maintaining diversified lines of business that fit with our core philosophies.

As many of you know, SBV was founded over 150 years ago to produce straight razors for the denizens of Arkansas. As the western bearded look went away, the demand for our product grew for decades. We were able to expand quickly to regional distribution, and use the profits to invest in other needed businesses. We have a proud tradition of finding value in businesses the critics malign. Our buggy whip plant has had a resurgence, particularly from clubs that order several at a time. I believe that they are called Buggy Driving Society Men, often abbreviated BDSM. We successfully migrated our Beta VCR plant to VHS 10 years ago, and it continues to operate at at least 10% capacity. Vertical integration into tapes has proven to be a robust model for us, as we have been able to increase the size of our VHS value packages with out any additional cost to the consumer. It seems clear to us that the eventually the declining demand in these and other segments will flatten and we will be uniquely positioned to take advantage in these markets. The same goes for the ZipDisk technology we recently purchased, our CRT production line, newspaper properties, and corded telephone handsets. Some one has to make these otherwise orphaned products, and as your CEO, I am here to tell you that ShortBus Ventures will be there to lead.

Gillette recognized the threat from us, leaving them with only an option to sell to Proctor and Gamble. Norelco also sold to Phillips. Straight razors are here to stay people, and it is clear that our competitors see the trends. Electricity and/or 5 blades just can't do better than a half an hour with a trained barber, a hot towel and one of our elite razors. And most certainly, no one actually needs to shave everywhere.