I was fortunate to speak to Ron Blackburn today. Most times I try to catch him, he is in meetings, on the phone, or out of the office. The notice for eviction was a filing that the landlord made against PBLS. It is about the fifth attempt from my understanding. The company has hired very good legal counsel and is confident that their position will hold up in court. He also mentioned that the sand and gravel business is an extremely small part of their business in sales or profit.
They are not going to give up the business, but it is a very small part of their business. The law from my understanding is very much in favor of PBLS. Their attorneys are extremely confident in their position. But when I mentioned to Ron that there is wild speculation about the company going bankrupt if they lose the pit. He laughed at such a ridiculous notion, and added the fact that they have millions of dollars of cash in the bank at their disposal. I asked him the question, does the share price affect the company going forward. He said not at all. The company is fundamentally very strong.
He is looking forward to even a better year in 2007. The management plans on growing this company to a billion in sales. It might take a few years he added, but that is their intention. I probably spent 45 minutes talking to him, and covered a lot of ground. I asked him all the tough questions and very satisfied with all the answers I got. Yes they are doing everything in their power on getting their financials up-to-date to become a fully reporting company. It's a very big task with all their divisions, and it just takes time. But it will happen for sure. He said that the number one concern management has is focusing on the day to day operations of the business, and growing the business. Even though they don't like the share price being shorted the way it has been, they do feel the company will dig themselves out of this mess by performing. I could not agree more. I personally think the shorts are going to lose big on this one. That's why they're nailing it so hard. Once the company becomes fully reporting a whole new audiences is going to come into buying the stock. With a few quarters of earnings back to back increasing as well as net profits increasing will break the shorts back. At that point, this stock could run like mad. Good luck to all longs. Try not to worry about your short-term losses. Try to be confident about the future and not to worry. Good luck. I hope to meet some of you in a future shareholders meeting when we are all a lot wealthier.
