General Foods Corporation

General Foods Corporation (General Foods) was a major American food processing company that became a significant common stock holding for Berkshire Hathaway in the late 1970s.

📝 The Investment

• Portfolio Concentration: Identified in the 1979 shareholder letter as Berkshire's second-largest common stock holding (by market value), surpassed only by The Washington Post Company.
• Position (1979): Berkshire held 4,000,000 shares with a cost of $133.4 million and a market value of $143.0 million (including interest in Blue Chip).
• Economic Characteristics: Buffett was attracted to General Foods' "extraordinary" brand strength and high returns on capital, which he felt were undervalued by a stock market focused on short-term factors.

🔗 Connections

• Company: SAFECO Corporation (Portfolio peer)
• Source: 1979 Letter, 1980 Letter