By Andrew Frye
Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) — Warren Buffett, the billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., told employees of the firm’s hog-products business he expects the operation to grow.
“CTB has been moving ahead every year since we bought it,” Buffett said in a video posted on the Web site of CTB Inc., Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire’s agriculture equipment making unit. “We’ll hit a bump in the road every now and then but we’re looking at a superhighway out there in front of us.”
Buffett became the second-richest American by investing in businesses he expects to grow for decades. He’s said his $26 billion takeover of railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., announced in November, will benefit Berkshire “over the next century.” CTB, which Berkshire bought in 2002, may produce profits beyond the year 2200, Buffett, 79, said in the video.
“Most years are going to be good, a few years will be standouts, and there will be a few that are bummers,” Buffett said. “But that’s the way we look at everything here at Berkshire Hathaway. We’re going to be in these businesses for 100 years or 200 years.”
CTB, which sells feeders and stalls under the PigTek and Chore-Time Hog brands, has expanded abroad since the Berkshire takeover by buying businesses in Israel, Germany and the Netherlands. Chief Executive Officer Victor Mancinelli, who is making “excellent returns,” according to the Berkshire annual letter last year, persuaded Buffett to buy his firm after an endorsement from Howard Buffett, the billionaire’s son, who is a farmer.
“I checked with Howie; he told me CTB was an absolute first-class company and he’d heard good things about Vic,” Buffett said. “Howie would rather spend an evening on a tractor in the field than a date with Angelina Jolie, which is not true of all members of the family, but that’s true of Howie.”
–With assistance from Whitney McFerron in Chicago and Joel Schectman in New York. Editors: Dan Kraut, Erik Holm
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