Wow, they are playing the game at a higher order than I have even considered.
It is a lot easier to invest a few millions in a few very good small business, but once you need to invest hundreds of billions, all of a sudden you have very little choices.
Source: BRK Annual Meeting 2008 Boodell Notes URL: Time: 2008
He was very wrong on this. Kraft just wrote-down $15 billion. Their brands have lost their "cachet." Nobody wants them nor needs them -- you're either buying a gourmet, healthy version (i.e. real cheese instead of the plastic block Velveeta) or a store's private label.
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/retail-and-services/warr...
1. Buffett said that Kraft may not be the same, in the quote you cited.
2. Kraft today is not the same company as Kraft in 2008. The company split, and strong brands went to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondelez_International which has done quite well.
You will find that Kraft actually owns many of the "high end" brands out there and that they also provide product for many generic store brands.
How many billions do you have :)
On a serious note, lot of people over the years keep saying Buffett is wrong yet in the end when banks need money they go to Buffett.
They are wealthy and have unprecedented massive distribution. They can buy up any new upstarts before they even think about becoming a real competitor. And physical drink distribution is much, much more expensive to scale than something like an software competitor. It took Coca Cola 100 years to build their current network.
