Retail Industry Economics

It is well known that Warren Buffet only invest in businesses that he can understand and he has a superior understanding of business than most. But the lesser known fact is that he freely share his insights in his Berkshire Shareholder’s Letters. We combed through decades of shareholder’s letters to distill Warren Buffett’s business insights into a series of 7 articles.

·       To begin with, WB thinks that retailing is a tough business. Retailing is a tough business… In part, this is because a retailer must stay smart, day after day. Your competitor is always copying and then topping whatever you do. Shoppers are meanwhile beckoned in every conceivable way to try a stream of new merchants. In retailing, to coast is to fail. In contrast to this have-to-be-smart-every-day business, there is what I call the have-to-be-smart-once business. For example, if you were smart enough to buy a network TV station very early in the game, you could put in a shiftless and backward nephew to run things, and the business would still do well for decades. (1995)

·       But WB saw something important in See’s candy. In our See’s purchase, Charlie and I had one important insight: We saw that the business had untapped pricing power. (1991)

·       Cash business with low inventory. Let’s look at the prototype of a dream business, our own See’s Candy. (2007). We bought See’s for $25 million when its sales were $30 million and pre-tax earnings were less than $5 million. The capital then required to conduct the business was $8 million. (Modest seasonal debt was also needed for a few months each year.) Consequently, the company was earning 60% pre-tax on invested capital. Two factors helped to minimize the funds required for operations. First, the product was sold for cash, and that eliminated accounts receivable. Second, the production and distribution cycle was short, which minimized inventories. (2007)

·      Product personality = Taste + Control on distribution + Service at store + modest price. See’s has a one-of-a-kind product “personality” produced by a combination of its candy’s delicious taste and moderate price, the company’s total control of the distribution process, and the exceptional service provided by store employees. (1986)

·       Associated with pleasant experience. “There was something special. Every person in California has something in mind about See’s Candies and overwhelmingly it was favorable. They had taken a box on Valentine’s Day to some girl and she had kissed him… See’s Candies means getting kissed. If we can get that in the minds of people, we can raise prices.” (Q&A University of Florida)

·       The motivation to buy the product is everlasting despite changing times. Today, See's is different in many ways from what it was in 1972 when we bought it: It offers a different assortment of candy, employs different machinery and sells through different distribution channels. But the reasons why people today buy boxed chocolates, and why they buy them from us rather than from someone else, are virtually unchanged from what they were in the 1920s when the See family was building the business. Moreover, these motivations are not likely to change over the next 20 years, or even 50. (1996)

·       Pricing power = Mind share + Greater value to customer.  Such a reputation creates a consumer franchise that allows the value of the product to the purchaser, rather than its production cost, to be the major determinant of selling price. Consumer franchises are a prime source of economic Goodwill. (1983)

·       In this case, Value of intangible > value of tangible assets. It was not the fair market value of the inventories, receivables or fixed assets that produced the premium rates of return. Rather it was a combination of intangible assets, particularly a pervasive favorable reputation with consumers based upon countless pleasant experiences they have had with both product and personnel. (1983)