Offaly Oil, I had the pleasure of having lunch with Barry, Tbird, and CT yesterday. I knew going in that I would not learn any great revelations on the company except in one area and that was the opportunity to meet the person that possibly had the opportunity of making BDGR a legitimate company. Few of us ever have the ability to meet with any of the people of the companies that we might invest in and all the more important here was the fact that the person here at this company has much more potential influence than Immelt at GE. So, I was looking more at personality than content. Barry is a very sharp, connected guy that knew going in there were issues. It was part of the reason he was brought in. I also get the feeling that once he got there, he discovered that more effort would be needed than believed, but this is not unexpected in this type of business situation. Putting the pieces back together, in the proper way, has taken more time than the timelines put out over the last few months. This has caused much understandable frustration on the message board, but this is business. I get the impression that Barry's intention is not a quick fix, but a basis for improvement that can be carried forward by the company. I've worked in manufacturing (chemical business) for years and I would have put Barry above 90% of the people that were in charge of those companies. He is aware of the people issues and aware of the company issues. You can not fix a company without dealing with all the issues and I believe he is trying to do that. My wife accuses me of making decisions based on my first impressions of people but she will also agree that I am very rarely deceived. Barry is straightforward, honest, and what I believe is needed for this company. BDGR and its shareholders are very fortunate to have him there. Just my thoughts.
