Berkshire Hathaway shut down its last textile operations in 1985.
The company began as a New England textile manufacturer, formed through the 1955 merger of Berkshire Fine Spinning Associates and Hathaway Manufacturing. Warren Buffett began buying Berkshire shares in 1962, initially viewing the company as a declining textile business whose assets might be worth more than its stock price.
Buffett eventually took control, but the textile mills continued to struggle. Berkshire invested in modernization and equipment, yet competition from lower-cost producers and the industry's deteriorating economics overwhelmed those efforts. Buffett later described the textile operation as a major business mistake.
The 1985 closure ended Berkshire's original manufacturing identity. The company retained the Berkshire Hathaway name while redirecting capital into insurance, investments, and operating businesses. A common mix-up is 1965, the year Buffett took control, which was not the year the final textile operations ended.