Which candy company did Berkshire Hathaway acquire in 1972?

Which candy company did Berkshire Hathaway acquire in 1972? It acquired See’s Candies.

See’s Candies was sold to Berkshire Hathaway in 1972 for $25 million. The California confectioner had been founded in Los Angeles in 1921 by Charles See, his wife Florence, and his mother Mary, whose family recipes helped shape the company’s chocolates and other sweets.

The purchase became a landmark in Berkshire’s history because Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger saw that a trusted brand could generate strong profits without requiring enormous physical assets. See’s earned about $4 million in pretax profit in the year of the acquisition, an attractive return relative to the purchase price.

See’s was initially acquired through Blue Chip Stamps, a company connected with Berkshire and Munger. Berkshire later absorbed that structure. Buffett often cited See’s as a model investment: customers were willing to pay for a familiar name and consistent quality, giving the business pricing power.

The company is not Nestlé, Mars, or Hershey. Those are major candy makers, but See’s Candies is the Berkshire-owned brand associated with the 1972 acquisition.