2 Men Revolutionized The Apple Industry, Here's The Investing Lessons I Learned

Here’s the story of David Bedford & Dennis Courtier, the 2 men who changed the apple industry forever.

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Today we’ll be taking a deep dive into David Bedford, the man who changed the apple industry into the one we know today.

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2 Men Revolutionized The Apple Industry, Here's The Investing Lessons I Learned

The Apple Industry In The 1970s

The apple industry in the 1970s was vastly different than the one we know today. Life was hard for apple consumers, one of the only available apples was a mealy, unappealing Red Delicious apple. It wasn’t much better to be an apple farmer either as many farmers were forced to sell their crops below cost. Any farmer trying to raise costs would get undercut by other farmers who were also selling Red Delicious apples. That all changed when one man found the ‘magic’ apple.

Enter: David Bedford

David Bedford was attending college in the 1970s when a friend gives him a Michigan-grown yellow apple for the first time. Bedford had never seen a yellow apple before but was immediately enamored with the taste. It was at this point that he decided to make crafting the ‘perfect’ apple his life’s work.

Bedford returned home to Minnesota and began planting apple trees on his orchard in search of the perfect apple. Finding that perfect apple was no easy task and it requires immense patience. Bedford had to find an apple he believed had potential, cross breed it, plant the seeds, and wait 5 or more years for the tree to grow and begin bearing fruit. The majority of apples didn’t turn out well but that didn’t deter Bedford.

Fast forward a few years and Bedford’s orchard has grown to around 6,000 trees. Much better odds of finding that perfect apple, but how do you go about finding it? Bedford has no complicated chemical testing strategy, he bases his criteria for judging apples on his taste buds. Bedford walks up and down the orchard daily, tasting over 600 apples per day and spitting them out on the ground after he’s tasted them.

Finally in the early 1980s, Bedford finds the magic apple on tree number 1171. It’s juicy, crisp and has the perfect texture. After years of patience and taste testing, we now have what is now known as the Honey Crisp apple.

Unfortunately, Honey Crisps Weren’t An Instant Hit

Imagine being David Bedford and developing a revolutionary product that improves on a fruit we’ve had for thousands of years. Unfortunately, apple growers had no desire to grow Bedford’s new apples. Grocery stores didn’t want new apples, they were fine with having one red variety, one yellow variety, and one green variety. Product alone wasn’t going to take Honey Crisp apples mainstream, they needed something more.

Enter: Dennis Courtier

Dennis Courtier visits Bedford’s orchard and Bedford explains how he found the ‘perfect’ apple. Courtier was not immediately convinced but after some pleading by Bedford he decides to try it.

It’s an immediate hit for Courtier and he decides he’s going to plant some Honey Crisp apple trees as well. Even though grocery stores weren’t interested in Honey Crisp apples at the time, Courtier hade the foresight to bet that consumers would love the apple.

Remember though, it’s not like Courtier could go home that night and start pumping out Honey Crisp apples. He had to take the seeds, plant them, and wait for them to grow, hoping the apples come out just as good.

It takes some guts to bet on these apples and try to disrupt the apple industry, but Bedford and Courtier did just that. Grocers now wanted Honey Crisp apples and by 1997, Honey Crisps became the best selling product in Minnesota grocery stores.

Turning Honey Crisps Into A Brand Name

Honey Crisp apples have exploded in popularity, and Courtier knew that people would try to copy the Honey Crisp. He & Bedford decided to assemble a small group of farmers to control most of the Honey Crisp supply. Bedford went as far as patenting the Honey Crisp apple and anyone who grew it had to pay Bedford a royalty. The problem with patents however is that they are only valid for 20 years, and to grow an apple tree that bares fruit can be a very time consuming process. Bedford and Courtier needed another strategy.

The New Apple Venture

It’s now the year 2005 and Courtier and Bedford are looking to replicate their Honey Crisp success. They create a new apple known as the SweeTango and build a network of top growers and packers across the United States to take SweeTango to market. Instead of patenting the name, they take a much smarter approach.

Courtier notices that an Australian company has created a new apple dubbed “The Pink Lady” and instead of patenting the name, they trademark it. The key difference between the two is that trademarks do not expire.

Courtier and Bedford decide to trademark the SweeTango name and make it extremely exclusive to grow. There are less than 1,000,000 SweeTango trees and only 45 growers. They’ve been immensely successful with both the Honey Crisp and SweeTango apples, and are the 3rd and 10th highest sold apples in the U.S. respectively.

My Two Cents

Both Bedford and Courtier took on huge risks that they knew wouldn’t be overnight successes. They stuck with their plan and through years of persistence, tastings, and trial/error tests, they revolutionized the apple industry and created not one, but two brand name apples. There was no market for different apples but they created one.

I’ll remember this story when I think about my investing strategy. I’m a long term buy and hold investor but I can get impatient, it’s human nature. These men waited decades to see the fruits of their labor pan out (get it?), but they never lost sight of their goal. My goal is to reach financial freedom and ultimately have my passive income pay all of my bills. Much like Bedford and Courtier, I will keep my eyes on my goals and think in terms of decades, not days.

Memes Of The Week

Meta recently released earnings and turns out investors aren’t down with the Zuck burning shit tons of cash. The stock fell 20% after hours!! True shitcoin status. Pray for Mark Zuckerberg as he’s down to his last $77 billion🙏

After Elon took over Twitter on Friday October 28th, 2 guys dressed up as fake Twitter employees and pretended they were getting fired. In an all-time meme moment, one guy pretended his name was Rahul Ligma and memers everywhere rejoiced in the hilarity.

In other news, I found the perfect desk for any new Twitter employees:

Also, happy Halloween! Don’t forget your costume!

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Helpful Resources Are Here!

Don’t forget to check out my website full of awesome free resources to jumpstart your investing! 👇

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Here’s my list of the best resources for financial freedom, enjoy!

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