Posted on: Thursday, August 2, 2001

Editorial
'Doc's' buy-out a sign of confidence

While there are many who take a dim view of Hawai'i's economic potential, you certainly cannot count longtime C. Brewer Chairman W. A. "Doc" Buyers among them.

The ever-enthusiastic Buyers believes in Hawai'i's future and has more than once put his money where his mouth is. In 1986 he led a leveraged buyout of the venerable Brewer company, thus ensuring it would continue to be a Hawai'i-focused firm.

But the owners have been attempting to sell the company, despite Buyer's insistence that it has a sound future. When no satisfactory buyer could be found for the company lock, stock and barrel, the owners began selling it piece-by-piece. Several portions, including Hawaii Coffee Co. Inc., and Ka'u Agribusiness Co. Inc. were sold last year.

Concerned that the company would end up dismantled, Buyers cut a stock and cash deal to take over almost all of the operating businesses, most of them centered on the Big Island.

Buyers says he intends to keep his new company in active agriculture and would expand into assisted living centers for the elderly. This adds up to a strong sign of confidence in the long-term economic vitality of Hawai'i in general and the Big Island in particular.