See’s Candy Shops and its life as part of Berkshire Hathaway is a fascinating case study of how a good business can be nurtured as part of a larger organization.
The History of See’s
Its original owners sold the candy business to Blue Chip Stamps in 1972. Blue Chip, a trading stamps business, was controlled by Warren Buffett and his partners, Rick Guerin and Charlie Munger. The trio was looking for opportunities to deploy Blue Chip’s excess cash at a high rate of return, and while they initially bulked at the price See’s sellers were demanding for the business, they...