Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

See's Candies is Warren Buffett’s ‘dream’ investment

thehustle.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 211 posts

Re: See's Candies is Warren Buffett’s ‘dream’ investment

#101

Post by slavboj »

diego_moita wrote: post #71

> Buffett cautioned Huggins to never sacrifice quality for profit. Funny how that's the complete opposite of another celebrated investor: Jorge Paulo Leman from Brazil's 3G Capital Partners (Heinz, Popeye's, Anheuser-Busch, Tim Horton's, Bugger King, etc). Their game is to buy brands with very strong customer loyalty and slash costs (and quality). In the long run they'll destroy the brand but until then will make eno…

The difference is that Buffett uses subsidiaries to reduce Berkshire's long term cost of capital for other projects, rather than trying to squeeze returns from them directly.

Re: See's Candies is Warren Buffett’s ‘dream’ investment

#102

Post by annoyingnoob »

spchampion2 wrote: post #15

My late grandmother loved Sees candies, and I frequently gave her a box for Christmas every year. Personally I always thought they were expensive and not as good as some of the artisanal chocolate you can find these days; like a product for older generations with older tastes. And then I discovered their lollipops and little pops - both chocolate and butterscotch. They're uniquely good as hard candies, and I've never…

> like a product for older generations with older tastes

Their product is very consistent, as well as the branding. There are very few brands that have been so consistent for so long, See's has always kept things relatively simple, clean, and consistent. It is easy to believe their commitment to quality.

The days of going to the butcher shop, the bread shop, having the dairy deliver, are basically over. See's somehow survived supermarkets and mass production. Seems that the See's family had the perfect candy shop model from the start.

Re: See's Candies is Warren Buffett’s ‘dream’ investment

#103

Post by bombcar »

noduerme wrote: post #77
diego_moita wrote: post #71

> Buffett cautioned Huggins to never sacrifice quality for profit. Funny how that's the complete opposite of another celebrated investor: Jorge Paulo Leman from Brazil's 3G Capital Partners (Heinz, Popeye's, Anheuser-Busch, Tim Horton's, Bugger King, etc). Their game is to buy brands with very strong customer loyalty and slash costs (and quality). In the long run they'll destroy the brand but until then will make eno…

When were Popeye's or BK "quality" brands? I don't remember them getting any worse since RBI bought them.

Before the fast food brands revitalized Burger King (and somewhat Carl’s Jr.) were famously a bit of a cut above in quality (and price) but now everyone works on an on-demand model and the difference is harder to notice.

Re: See's Candies is Warren Buffett’s ‘dream’ investment

#104

Post by technothrasher »

ldoughty wrote: post #63
taffer wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like the perfect start-up plan: just open a 50 bucks vitamin C store, and the dominant player will buy you out for $$$. Rinse and repeat for infinite money.

There's usually a x-year non-compete agreement when this happens... I know a guy that does exactly what you describe, starting a new garbage pickup service every 3 years, when the agreement elapses. He then works for ~3-4 years to build it back up. Sold twice already, and on his third.

Laundromat -> liquor store -> hotel -> retire rich is a common path here. Rinse and repeat a couple times at each point, and because you sell each time to the guy trying to do the same thing behind you instead of to a big competitor, there's never non-compete agreements. Bonus in that the first two are recession proof and cash heavy businesses (if you wish to avail yourself of the possibilities that suggests).

Re: See's Candies is Warren Buffett’s ‘dream’ investment

#105

Post by moralestapia »

noduerme wrote: post #77
diego_moita wrote: post #71

> Buffett cautioned Huggins to never sacrifice quality for profit. Funny how that's the complete opposite of another celebrated investor: Jorge Paulo Leman from Brazil's 3G Capital Partners (Heinz, Popeye's, Anheuser-Busch, Tim Horton's, Bugger King, etc). Their game is to buy brands with very strong customer loyalty and slash costs (and quality). In the long run they'll destroy the brand but until then will make eno…

When were Popeye's or BK "quality" brands? I don't remember them getting any worse since RBI bought them.

I remember Popeye's to be quite good, a long while ago though.

Re: See's Candies is Warren Buffett’s ‘dream’ investment

#106

Post by lotsofpulp »

diego_moita wrote: post #71

> Buffett cautioned Huggins to never sacrifice quality for profit. Funny how that's the complete opposite of another celebrated investor: Jorge Paulo Leman from Brazil's 3G Capital Partners (Heinz, Popeye's, Anheuser-Busch, Tim Horton's, Bugger King, etc). Their game is to buy brands with very strong customer loyalty and slash costs (and quality). In the long run they'll destroy the brand but until then will make eno…

And yet Buffett decided to become business partners with them:

https://finance.yahoo.com/video/warren-buffett-kraft-heinz-p...

Re: See's Candies is Warren Buffett’s ‘dream’ investment

#107

Post by kaycebasques »

Here's a little history family history related to See's. My great grandpa was a chocolatier. Had his own store in San Francisco in the 30s. WWII hits and chocolate gets rationed. He has to close down his store. See's stays open because they have contracts with the military to provide chocolate for soldiers. See's hires my great grandpa as chocolatier.

Re: See's Candies is Warren Buffett’s ‘dream’ investment

#108

Post by s1artibartfast »

Vladimof wrote: post #74
jokethrowaway wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not you personally, but there can be third parties companies reviewing products

while that may be true (and better then nothing), you still have to rely on companies like I said originally

You always have to rely on somebody if you don't do it yourself.

Re: See's Candies is Warren Buffett’s ‘dream’ investment

#109

Post by mcculley »

briandear wrote: post #81
Vladimof wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is very bad at ensuring our food supply is what it claims to be.... you have to trust companies, basically.

Sounds like a pretty clever startup idea. Consumer Reports, but for everything. Then a seal that manufacturers can put on their product that certifies the assay of ingredients. Does a Coke actually have 120 calories? Is a Vitamin actually what it says? Is the bottle actually recycled? Consumer Reports is often opinion based with some quantitative data and they don’t review everything. Is you olive oil actually from I…

We need a UL/Consumer Reports for Internet-connected devices that documents and certifies their use of personal data and bandwidth. The regulators are not going to be able to keep up with the changes.

Re: See's Candies is Warren Buffett’s ‘dream’ investment

#110

Post by johannes1234321 »

taffer wrote: post #46
Animats wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't create any monopoly for generic drugs, by definition. Sure you can. If you're the dominant player, you can pay or buy out new entrants. Happens all the time in generic drugs.[1] [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/business/a-huge-overnight...

Sounds like the perfect start-up plan: just open a 50 bucks vitamin C store, and the dominant player will buy you out for $$$. Rinse and repeat for infinite money.

For that to work you first have to scale up production and distribution significantly enough to be on their radar. That requires some investment and then the question is whether is an investment, with higher probability of returns.
Post reply on HN