GHC
Graham Holdings Co
Is There A Qualitative Moat?
Is There A Qualitative Moat?One of their acquisitions over the years includes that of Framebridge, Inc. as recently as May 2020! Framebridge is a premium, online and retail framing business with some unique offerings such as a text printing directly on the mats, and etched-brass labels attached directly to the frames. I found this truly amusing, because I remembered how Warren Buffett recollected his acquisition of another major framing business, Albecca Inc. of Norcross GA, for Berkshire Hathaway back in 2002 as told in "The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life!" and first revealed on December 17, 2001. Funny coincidence, or some glimmer of Buffett's forever influence on Katharine Graham's successors (GHC owns the Washington Post), who's to say?
This research is somewhat anecdotal in that I considered using Framebridge's services, while coincidentally discovering Graham Holdings in the last month on a separate random ticker search. I resolved to print and frame this picture myself through Shutterfly as my printer, and Michael's as my frame and mat supplier (I was gifting it to someone in a few days). I struggled to consider every metric in the framing process by the end of it all however, and ended up gifting an amusing (but unprofessional) framed picture. This fact alone made me realize that these services still remain a valuable craft, with a real market demand; and while, since I failed the first time and may try again, most will give up and resort to paying the 2-3x premium for a professional, white-glove service such as Framebridge to take over the process for them, and have a quality frame delivered right to their door.
Test Framebridge's online service yourself: https://www.framebridge.com/apps/designer/framing-flow
Framebridge physical locations: https://www.framebridge.com/apps/designer/null
They've even got a 4.8 star mobile app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/framebridge-custom-frames/id890652433
