How Quincy, Florida Became a Town of Secret Coca-Cola Millionaires

"Cash combined with courage in a time of crisis is priceless." -Warren Buffett

In the 1920′s and 1930′s, a banker named Pat Munroe in the small town of Quincy, Florida noticed that even during the depths of the Great Depression, otherwise impoverished people would spend their last nickel to buy a glass of Coca-Cola.  With good returns on capital and a once-in-a-century valuation where the business was trading for less than the cash in the bank, “Mr. Pat”, as he was called, encouraged everyone he knew to buy an ownership stake in the firm.  He would even underwrite bank loans, backed by Coca-Cola stock, for his responsible depositors to encourage people to acquire equity.

Coca-Cola had gone public at $40 per share but a conflict with the sugar industry resulted in a 50% crash shortly thereafter, when it reached $19 per share.  Focusing on the bottom-line profits, and the power of the brand, Pat Munroe kept buying.  And he kept telling everyone else to buy, too.

That one observation, and Mr. Pat’s business skills in convincing others to buy assets that produced cash irrespective of short-term market fluctuations, not only changed lives, it saved the farm town during the Great Depression as the local economy was supported by Coca-Cola dividends.  It has also supported the town in “every recession since”, according to the man who now runs the trust department in the bank that was once headed by Munroe.