General Foods

You may remember the wildly upbeat message of last year’s report: nothing much was in the works but our experience had been that something big popped up occasionally. This carefully-crafted corporate strategy paid off in 1985. Later sections of this report discuss (a) our purchase of a major position in Capital Cities/ABC, (b) our acquisition of Scott & Fetzer, (c) our entry into a large, extended term participation in the insurance business of Fireman’s Fund, and (d) our sale of our stock in General Foods. | Pre-Tax Earnings | Berkshire’s Shareof Net Earnings(after taxes andminority interests) | | | | | :--- | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | | | 1985 | 1984 | 1985 | 1984 | | | Operating Earnings: | | | | | Insurance Group: | Underwriting | $(44,230) | $(48,060) | $(23,569) | | | $(25,955) | Net Investment Income | 95,217 | 68,903 | | | 79,716 | 62,059 | | | | Associated Retail Stores | 270 | (1,072) | 134 | (579) | | Blue Chip Stamps | 5,763 | (1,843) | 2,813 | (899) | | Buffalo News | 29,921 | 27,328 | 14,580 | 13,317 | | Mutual Savings and Loan | 2,622 | 1,456 | 4,016 | 3,151 | | Nebraska Furniture Mart | 12,686 | 14,511 | 5,181 | 5,917 | | Precision Steel | 3,896 | 4,092 | 1,477 | 1,696 | | See’s Candies | 28,989 | 26,644 | 14,558 | 13,380 | | Textiles | (2,395) | 418 | (1,324) | 226 | | Wesco Financial | 9,500 | 9,777 | 4,191 | 4,828 | | Amortization of Goodwill | (1,475) | (1,434) | (1,475) | (1,434) | | Interest on Debt | (14,415) | (14,734) | (7,288) | (7,452) | | Shareholder-Designated Contributions | (4,006) | (3,179) | (2,164) | (1,716) | | Other | 3,106 | 4,932 | 2,102 | 3,475 | | | Operating Earnings | 125,449 | 87,739 | 92,948 | | | 70,014 | | | | | Special General Foods Distribution | 4,127 | 8,111 | 3,779 | 7,294 | | Special Washington Post Distribution | 14,877 | | | | | --- | 13,851 | | | | | --- | | | | | | Sales of Securities | 468,903 | 104,699 | 325,237 | 71,587 | | Total Earnings — all entities | $613,356 | $200,549 | $435,815 | $148,895 |