2025 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter (Greg Abel)
“A large portion of our portfolio is concentrated in a small number of American companies such as Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, and Moody's”
719 mentions across the corpus · positive 315 · negative 22 · neutral 367 · historical 14
2025 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter (Greg Abel)
“A large portion of our portfolio is concentrated in a small number of American companies such as Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola, and Moody's”
“huge stakes in companies like Apple and American Express and Coca-Cola”
“with huge stakes in companies like Apple and American Express and Coca-Cola, not to mention insurance operations”
“huge stakes in companies like Apple and American Express and Coca-Cola”
2025 Annual Meeting Highlight Reel
“I would drink or Coke and calm down. I would say that I would add this.”
Morning Session - 2025 Meeting
“Coca-Cola that we do business. But then another big investment of ours, they do extraordinarily well in Japan.”
Morning Session - 2025 Meeting
“They drink the number one Coca-Cola product. They drink over there something called Georgia coffee. So, I haven't converted them to Cherry Coke”
Afternoon Session - 2025 Meeting
“it doesn't take a lot of capital. So one is a fabulous business... Coca-Cola is popular every place.”
Afternoon Session - 2025 Meeting
“I would, okay, drink a Coke and calm down.”
RARE Charlie Munger 2017 Daily Journal AFTER Interview
“When we bought that Coca-Cola, it was a million shares. It took us eight months to buy a million shares.”
RARE Charlie Munger 2017 Daily Journal AFTER Interview
“You mentioned earlier about Coca-Cola becoming a little bit less efficient than they used to be? For the first hundred years, all that caffeinated, carbonated sugar water”
2024 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“household names such as Apple, American Express, Coca-Cola and Moody's.”
Morning Session - 2024 Meeting
“last year you mentioned Coca-Cola and American Express being Berkshire's two long-duration partial ownership positions, and you spent some time talking about the virtues of both these wonderful busine”
Morning Session - 2024 Meeting
“when we own Coca-Cola or American Express or Apple, we look at that as a business.”
Morning Session - 2024 Meeting
“We will own an Apple on American Express and Coca-Cola when Greg takes over this place.”
Morning Session - 2024 Meeting
“they are the preferred soft drink, you know, and something maybe like 170 or 180 out of 200 companies, 200 countries.”
Afternoon Session - 2024 Meeting
“your favorite holding period is forever holding American Express or Coca-Cola for decades”
Morning Session - 2024 Meeting
“look at the return on tangible equity at Coca-Cola or American Express or and to really top it off, Apple.”
Morning Session - 2024 Meeting
“at 93, he's still able to eat those and enjoy the Coca-Cola.”
RWH037: Celebrating Charlie Munger w/ Mohnish Pabrai, Tom Gayner, Joel Greenblatt, & Chris Davis
“He had these very thick bottled glasses, like Coca Cola glasses and was wearing this kind of baggy suit”
RWH037: Celebrating Charlie Munger w/ Mohnish Pabrai, Tom Gayner, Joel Greenblatt, & Chris Davis
“This intellectual breakthrough led to them buying stocks like Coca Cola and more recently, Apple.”
RWH037: Celebrating Charlie Munger w/ Mohnish Pabrai, Tom Gayner, Joel Greenblatt, & Chris Davis
“He had these very thick bottled glasses, like Coca Cola glasses and was wearing this kind of baggy suit”
RWH037: Celebrating Charlie Munger w/ Mohnish Pabrai, Tom Gayner, Joel Greenblatt, & Chris Davis
“led to them buying stocks like Coca Cola and more recently, Apple. And these purchases really couldn't have happened”
RWH037: Celebrating Charlie Munger w/ Mohnish Pabrai, Tom Gayner, Joel Greenblatt, & Chris Davis
“He had these very thick bottled glasses, like Coca Cola glasses and was wearing this kind of baggy suit”
RWH037: Celebrating Charlie Munger w/ Mohnish Pabrai, Tom Gayner, Joel Greenblatt, & Chris Davis
“led to them buying stocks like Coca Cola and more recently, Apple. And these purchases really couldn't have happened”
Charlie Munger's final CNBC interview | November 14, 2023
“I drink that coke. Yeah. I'm sure that I go shortens my life a little. But I don't give a damn”
Learning from Warren Buffett & Charlie Munger w/ Chris Davis
“I was speaking today with the leader of Coca Cola, James Quincy. I mean, he is an incredible leader with incredible commitment, great values.”
Learning from Warren Buffett & Charlie Munger w/ Chris Davis
“I was speaking today with the leader of Coca Cola, James Quincy. I mean, he is an incredible leader with incredible commitment, great values.”
Learning from Warren Buffett & Charlie Munger w/ Chris Davis
“I was speaking today with the leader of Coca Cola, James Quincy. I mean, he is an incredible leader with incredible commitment”
RWH033: Lessons From Buffett & Berkshire w/ Chris Bloomstran
“he acknowledged later in the game that Coca Cola probably should have been sold when it traded at, say, 50 times starting”
RWH033: Lessons From Buffett & Berkshire w/ Chris Bloomstran
“the stocks are a much smaller percentage of the portfolio than Coke was when Berkshire was much more of a pure insurance operation.”
RWH033: Lessons From Buffett & Berkshire w/ Chris Bloomstran
“he acknowledged later in the game that Coca Cola probably should have been sold when it traded at, say, 50 times”
RWH033: Lessons From Buffett & Berkshire w/ Chris Bloomstran
“stocks are a much smaller percentage of the portfolio than Coke was when Berkshire was much more of a pure insurance operation.”
RWH033: Lessons From Buffett & Berkshire w/ Chris Bloomstran
“Coca Cola probably should have been sold when it traded at, say, 50 times starting.”
RWH033: Lessons From Buffett & Berkshire w/ Chris Bloomstran
“stocks are a much smaller percentage of the portfolio than Coke was when Berkshire was much more of a pure insurance operation”
Warren Buffett I HBO Documentary
“They started selling Coca-Cola door-to-door. I sold Gumb Door to Door or sold Saturday Ink Post”
Warren Buffett I HBO Documentary
“good old-fashioned American brands like Coca-Cola, Fruit of the Loom, and Dairy Queen... the Coca-Cola company will sell almost 2 billion eight-ounce servings”
Warren Buffett I HBO Documentary
“you own Coca-Cola, you own a little piece of the minds of billions and billions of people. That is really good.”
2023 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Last year I mentioned two of Berkshire's long-duration partial-ownership positions – Coca-Cola and American Express. These are not huge commitments”
2023 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“During 2023, we did not buy or sell a share of either AMEX or Coke – extending our own Rip Van Winkle slumber that has now lasted well over two decades. Both companies again rewarded our inaction”
Daily Journal Annual Meeting 2023 — Munger Q&A
“Coca-Cola was run for years by a man with a very severe mental impairment...That's my idea of a wonderful business...That was Coca-Cola in its heyday.”
Afternoon Session - 2023 Meeting
“Coca-Cola, the bottle, meant something. In the 1920s...blindfolded. A very high percentage of the population could recognize it was Coca-Cola”
Afternoon Session - 2023 Meeting
“Coca-Cola travels. There's 200 countries and roughly in probably 180 of them. It's the nominal product.”
Buffett: More banks may fail but U.S. depositors will be OK | April 12, 2023
“We own a lot of Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola has a lot of business here.”
Buffett: More banks may fail but U.S. depositors will be OK | April 12, 2023
“the price of the Coca-Cola is maybe twice or something like that. Main cost is the container.”
Buffett: More banks may fail but U.S. depositors will be OK | April 12, 2023
“You like Coke? You like Seas Candy... I have a Coke here and I mean, I had some Hershey Kisses”
2022 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“In August 1994 – yes, 1994 – Berkshire completed its seven-year purchase of the 400 million shares of Coca-Cola we now own. The total cost was $1.3 billion”
2022 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“At yearend, our Coke investment was valued at $25 billion while Amex was recorded at $22 billion. Each holding now accounts for roughly 5% of Berkshire's net worth”
2022 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Bank of America, Chevron, Coca-Cola, HP Inc., Moody's, Occidental Petroleum and Paramount Global”
Daily Journal Annual Meeting 2022 — Munger Q&A
“have the same long-term durability that Coca-Cola had 30 to 40 years ago”
Afternoon Session - 2022 Meeting
“I don't whether I was on the audit committee then of coke or where. But anyway, I mean, just clear to me what was, what was happening.”
Afternoon Session - 2022 Meeting
“in 2006, we own 9% of the Coca-Cola company. I mean, maybe they gave me a free Coke. I mean, but we own 9% at Berkshire Hathaway.”
Afternoon Session - 2022 Meeting
“Dairy Queen bought some Coca-Cola, or actually the people that had our franchises, bought some Coca-Cola.”
Afternoon Session - 2022 Meeting
“Coca-Cola CEO, James Quincy, a British citizen, sought to kill Georgia's new voter integrity law by making inaccurate and inflammatory statements”
TIP438: Berkshire Hathaway — All You Need to Know w/ Chris Bloomstran
“how these 12 principles applied to Buffett's purchase of Coca-Cola in 1988”
TIP438: Berkshire Hathaway — All You Need to Know w/ Chris Bloomstran
“walks through a case study of how these 12 principles applied to Buffett's purchase of Coca-Cola in 1988.”
2021 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“400,000,000 The Coca-Cola Company ...................... 9 . 2 1,299 23,684”
Daily Journal Annual Meeting 2021 — Munger Q&A
“For example, Coca-Cola in the past.”
2021 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“partly-owned (such as Coca-Cola and Moody's). I want to underscore that for Berkshire repurchases”
2021 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“I mentioned Coca-Cola and its famous secret formula. Instantly, every hand went up”
Daily Journal Annual Meeting 2021 — Munger Q&A
“For example, Coca-Cola in the past.”
“it'd be crazy to be paying a regular dividend like Coca-Cola has done for many years and then all of a sudden changed the policy”
2020 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“The Coca-Cola Company ..................... 9 . 3 1,299 21,936”
2020 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“See's peanut brittle and fudge, along with Coca-Cola, provided us with nourishment.”
Buffett: Coronavirus threat shouldn't change how you invest | February 24, 2020
“Coca-Cola, we've owned it for 40 years. Those are businesses.”
Buffett: Coronavirus threat shouldn't change how you invest | February 24, 2020
“managers we have for the businesses that we own pieces of like American Express or Coca-Cola”
Buffett: Coronavirus threat shouldn't change how you invest | February 24, 2020
“try and give me a $10 billion budget and ask me to bring out another Coca-Cola that makes a dent in Coca-Cola, and I can't do it”
Buffett: Stocks are 'ridiculously cheap' if rates don't move | May 6, 2019
“if I thought there was going to be a 25% tax on Coca-Cola next week, I would have my house filled with Coca-Cola.”
2019 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Coca-Cola 9.3% $ 640 $ 194”
2019 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“400,000,000 The Coca-Cola Company .................... 9 . 3 1,299 22,140”
2019 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Berkshire, Blue Chip Stamps, Cap Cities-ABC, Coca-Cola, Data Documents, Dempster, General Growth, Gillette”
Buffett: Stocks are 'ridiculously cheap' if rates don't move | May 6, 2019
“Coca-Cola kept repurchasing their shares at a time when it didn't make sense if you look at it”
Afternoon Session - 2019 Meeting
“investing in businesses with a wide moat where the castle behind the moat is run by a king or queen who can be trusted to make good decisions. In the past, you have applied this advice by investing in”
Morning Session - 2019 Meeting
“Coca-Cola moves it from Coke to Cherry Coke and Coke Zero and so on... Kirkland does more business than Coca-Cola does. And Kirkland operates through 775 or so stores”
Morning Session - 2019 Meeting
“Costco tried to drop Coca-Cola back in, I think, 2008. And you can't drop Coca-Cola. You know, and not disappoint”
Afternoon Session - 2019 Meeting
“Dr. Pepper having been around since the time Coke was founded in 1886”
Buffett: "I was wrong" on Kraft Heinz | February 25, 2019
“If you look at Kellogg and General Mills and go up and down like Coca-Cola, I mean, how many new products really become big?”
Buffett: "I was wrong" on Kraft Heinz | February 25, 2019
“Costco dropped Coca-Cola some years ago. They brought them back.”
“they went out of their way to focus on the Coke holdings. It's your fifth-largest holding”
Buffett recalls his early days as an investor | February 26, 2018
“when I would go to directors' meetings at Coca-Cola in Atlanta or Gillette in Boston, I would schedule a talk.”
Buffett recalls his early days as an investor | February 26, 2018
“I had this one neighbor, Don Keough, went on to be president of Coca-Cola company.”
2018 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Coca-Cola 9.4% 624 (21)”
2018 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“400,000,000 The Coca-Cola Company .................... 9 . 4 1,299 18,940”
“Warren Buffett has cherry coke. You know, like, why can't we?”
“I've had breakfast before when he has Coca-Cola's and nuts. Not what they had expected.”
Criticizing the cryptocurrency craze | May 7, 2018
“Companies like Coca-Cola, which hit a 52-week low last month, even though the company came in with better than expected earnings”
Criticizing the cryptocurrency craze | May 7, 2018
“they're still very good business. I mean, if you've got a brand, if you look at the return on tangible assets, you know, at Coca-Cola”
Criticizing the cryptocurrency craze | May 7, 2018
“We withheld our vote at Coca-Cola a few years ago because of a compensation”
Criticizing the cryptocurrency craze | May 7, 2018
“I think Costco dropped Coca-Cola. And that's a real test if you want to. And of course, Sam's Club at that time started pouring it on with more coke”
Criticizing the cryptocurrency craze | May 7, 2018
“James Quincy is doing a sensational job on that, and first quarter even showed it.”
Criticizing the cryptocurrency craze | May 7, 2018
“Coca-Cola has a great one. And Coca-Cola, incidentally, they're selling 5% more liquids. They are selling 100 ounces of liquids per capita”
Criticizing the cryptocurrency craze | May 7, 2018
“this product is selling, you know, to hundreds of millions of people who want Coca-Cola. If you say, I'll sell you something for two cents less”
Afternoon Session - 2018 Meeting
“capital efficient businesses, such as Coke, Seas Candy, American Express, and Geico”
Afternoon Session - 2018 Meeting
“if you want us to have all our money in Coke and, say, 5% of what it's now selling for”
Morning Session - 2018 Meeting
“your breakdown of Coca-Cola was really, really solid, and I used that as reference when looking to how to understand the mechanics”
Afternoon Session - 2018 Meeting
“you invest in American Express. and Coca-Cola rather than Diner's Club or R.C. Cola, for example.”
Afternoon Session - 2018 Meeting
“Coke really is the real thing... this is a product that's six and a half ounces sold for a nickel in 1900”
Afternoon Session - 2018 Meeting
“we've been right on American Express and Coca-Cola...if we'd been offered a chance to go into Coca-Cola right after it was invented”
Afternoon Session - 2018 Meeting
“we withheld a vote at Coca-Cola a few years ago to express our opinion.”
Morning Session - 2018 Meeting
“our share of the earnings, which can be used by them, whether it's Apple or American Express or Coca-Cola or Wells Fargo”
Buffett's health care partnership is "determined" to contain costs | February 26, 2018
“touted the stocks that you've bought into by drinking, drinking Coca-Cola, or eating at Dairy Queen, or doing all of these different things”
Buffett's health care partnership is "determined" to contain costs | February 26, 2018
“I'm for whichever one serves Coca-Cola. That might not be taco about, because it used to be Pepsi”
Buffett's health care partnership is "determined" to contain costs | February 26, 2018
“we get ourselves in enough trouble with this, just with the coffee and the Coke. Coca-Cola, I should say.”
"I was wrong" on IBM | August 30, 2017
“if you decide to buy a Coca-Cola or a Sprite, both from Coca-Cola, And the one doesn't influence the other”
2017 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“400,000,000 The Coca-Cola Company ..................... 9 . 4 1,299 18,352”
Daily Journal Annual Meeting 2017 — Munger Q&A
“I threw a Coca-Cola all over her and in due time the fire was out”
Daily Journal Annual Meeting 2017 — Munger Q&A
“you gave as an example the Woodruff Foundation in Coca-Cola”
Buying Apple, selling IBM, missing Google | May 8, 2017
“James Quincy, the new CEO of Coca-Cola, designated new CEO, has already said that there'll be 1,200 jobs reduced at headquarters at Coca-Cola.”
Buying Apple, selling IBM, missing Google | May 8, 2017
“Coca-Cola is doing exactly the right thing if they look at their operation and say, how many people do we need to do the job right?”
Buying Apple, selling IBM, missing Google | May 8, 2017
“Coca-Cola has been a very, very, very profitable company over the years and could afford to have lots of people around”
Buying Apple, selling IBM, missing Google | May 8, 2017
“Coca-Cola, James Quincy has announced 1,200 people in headquarters. I will guarantee you they won't sell less Coca-Cola”
Morning Session - 2017 Meeting
“Coca-Cola and slowing soda consumption... Coca-Cola with the idea that they would never have problems... they had very, very strong hands”
Morning Session - 2017 Meeting
“if you look at the, I think Coca-Cola was 1886, American Express was 18, I don't know, 51 or 52”
Morning Session - 2017 Meeting
“I'm not sure we would have bought the Coca-Cola if we hadn't bought the Seas.”
Morning Session - 2017 Meeting
“If the destruction of the environment, the monopolization of the right to healthy drinking water, and the shameless exploitation of the workers continue.”
Morning Session - 2017 Meeting
“Let's take Coca-Cola! Etiquan Foundation Ethics and Economy from Germany has awarded the Black Planet Award to the members of the Board of Directors...because you are co-responsible for all of what ma”
Morning Session - 2017 Meeting
“Among other things, Coca-Cola deprives people of their drinking water in drought-prone areas of the world.”
Morning Session - 2017 Meeting
“I really don't want anybody telling me I can't drink it... sugar and Coca-Cola is not is not different than eating sugar”
Morning Session - 2017 Meeting
“Diet Coke and I swell the stuff like other people swell out on a lot and I've been doing it for just as long as you've been taking all those coca-colas”
Morning Session - 2017 Meeting
“Coca-Cola, this Coca-Cola is 12-ounce. I drink about five a day... I think Coca-Cola has been a very very positive a factor in America”
Morning Session - 2017 Meeting
“I don't worry too much if we sell Coca-Cola we um I would say Geico is an extraordinarily”
Morning Session - 2017 Meeting
“changes in the value of Coca-Cola or American Express or anything are going to run through the income account”
Buffett buys airlines and Apple | February 27, 2017
“Very close to Coca-Cola. Very close, neck and neck with Coca-Cola”
Buffett buys airlines and Apple | February 27, 2017
“if I think of Wells Fargo or Coca-Cola or American Express, stocks that have seemed like you've known on Farmer. We've got no intention of selling those.”
Peter Buffett Interview: His Parents' Love of Music
“he would occasionally ask her in particular about this or that or maybe any of us and then later we realized he was doing some focus group work and seeing if we liked Coke over Pepsi”
Charles Munger Interview: The Power of Partnership with Warren Buffett
“made all the money that berkshire made in coca-cola if he hadn't bought c's it just he learned”
Charles Munger Interview: The Power of Partnership with Warren Buffett
“he learned from seas that he should buy coca-cola you really can understand the power of a brand”
Howard Buffett Interview: Lessons from My Father
“whether it's you know hamburgers or cherry cokes or cherry cokes or cherry cokes or whatever”
Becoming Warren Buffett Interview | Rule #1: Never Lose Money
“with hamburgers and hot dogs and and uh coke and uh chocolate sundaes”
Peter Buffett Interview: His Parents' Love of Music
“when he finds a business like Coke that has a big competitive advantage, he gets it on a certain kind of visceral level”
Becoming Warren Buffett Interview | Rule #1: Never Lose Money
“when you can eat your favorite food and uh i've really found i've had 500 meals or maybe even thousand dollar meals and i found they're not as good as you know what i can have when i get a good hambur”
Sandy Gottesman Interview: A Friendship in Finance with Warren Buffett
“he's made a lot of money buying Coca-Cola even though it's now subject to criticism.”
Howard Buffett Interview: Lessons from My Father
“i called don keo who was president of coca-cola at the time”
Warren Buffett's Investment Strategy: How to Live and Invest like a Legend (Full Interview)
“i went into business very early and and i wasn't going to make more than a nickel a week unless i unless i started selling coca-cola door-to-door”
Carol Loomis Interview: Warren Buffett's Principles and Ethics
“of his investments as a comfort zone he understands them like coca-cola he understands them like coca-cola”
Carol Loomis Interview: Warren Buffett's Principles and Ethics
“businesses like without coca-cola you”
Carol Loomis Interview: Warren Buffett's Principles and Ethics
“businesses like without coca-cola you can argue with change because everybody's worrying about their weight but he likes um uh businesses that are going to uh continue”
Warren Buffett's Investment Strategy: How to Live and Invest like a Legend (Full Interview)
“at halftime i went down to get a hot dog and a coke”
Daily Journal Annual Meeting 2016 — Munger Q&A
“Do you use the same discount rate for different businesses. For example, an IBM or a Coca-Cola?”
Daily Journal Annual Meeting 2016 — Munger Q&A
“It ended up with one of the Valeant shareholders saying that Warren Buffett was a sinner because he owned Coca-Cola.”
2016 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“400,000,000 The Coca-Cola Company ......................... 9.3 1,299 16,584”
Daily Journal Annual Meeting 2016 — Munger Q&A
“Question about Coke. Sweetened beverages are on the decline. Does Berkshire's ownership give Coke some leeway about addressing the declining nature of their business?”
Daily Journal Annual Meeting 2016 — Munger Q&A
“So I think Coke is still a pretty strong company and it will be a respectable investment.”
Daily Journal Annual Meeting 2016 — Munger Q&A
“coke is declining. Now fortunately the Coca-Cola company has amassed distribution infrastructure business in a lot of other products.”
Buffett on Trump vs. Clinton, Brexit, and Amazon's Bezos | May 2, 2016
“we own stock in companies like IBM or Coke that do a lot of business abroad”
Buffett on Trump vs. Clinton, Brexit, and Amazon's Bezos | May 2, 2016
“Maybe we talk about some of his top holdings that he mentioned over the weekend. shares like American Express, IBM, Coca-Cola.”
Buffett on Trump vs. Clinton, Brexit, and Amazon's Bezos | May 2, 2016
“if we were to sell our Coca-Cola, for example, It's almost all profit. So we would have roughly $0.65 to buy anything else.”
Buffett on Trump vs. Clinton, Brexit, and Amazon's Bezos | May 2, 2016
“Would it pain you to sell American Express? Would it pain you to sell Coca-Cola? No, I don't think so.”
Buffett on Trump vs. Clinton, Brexit, and Amazon's Bezos | May 2, 2016
“Joe, I think you wanted to talk about Coca-Cola. Maybe we need a longer conversation about Coke.”
Buffett on Trump vs. Clinton, Brexit, and Amazon's Bezos | May 2, 2016
“more from Warren. Warren Buffett after this break, concluding his thoughts on Coca-Cola.”
Buffett on Trump vs. Clinton, Brexit, and Amazon's Bezos | May 2, 2016
“It's hurting Coca-Cola right now. And as a shareholder, you know, I mean, there's also microaggression and safe zones.”
Buffett on Trump vs. Clinton, Brexit, and Amazon's Bezos | May 2, 2016
“They've been selling Coke since 1886. You know, they sold one point. $1.9 billion, 8-ounce servings a day”
Buffett on Trump vs. Clinton, Brexit, and Amazon's Bezos | May 2, 2016
“if you've got political bodies that are going to tax any product that you make very heavily, it's going to affect demand. And that's a negative for soft drink company. generally and Coca-Cola being th”
Buffett on Trump vs. Clinton, Brexit, and Amazon's Bezos | May 2, 2016
“we had talked about Coke in the early part. And when I went to lunch, I bought three candy bars... a 12-ounce can of Coke has a little under 150”
Afternoon Session - 2016 Meeting
“A 2015 analysis by Calvert investments found that Coca-Cola was one of the best companies for workplace diversity”
Morning Session - 2016 Meeting
“you've been asked about the negative health effects of Coca-Cola products, and you've done a masterful job dodging the question”
Morning Session - 2016 Meeting
“According to a peer-reviewed study by Tufts University, soda and sugary drinks may lead to 184,000 deaths among adults every year”
Morning Session - 2016 Meeting
“I happen to elect to consume about 700 calories a day from Coca-Cola. So I'm about one-quarter Coca-Cola”
Morning Session - 2016 Meeting
“Another shareholder wrote in about Coke, noted that you declined to invest in the cigarette business on ethical grounds”
Morning Session - 2016 Meeting
“they have an enormous range of products, you know. I mean, they have a few that are called Coke Diet Coke Zero”
Morning Session - 2016 Meeting
“I think Coca-Cola is a marvelous product, you know. If you balance out the calories so that you don't become obese.”
"America's never been greater" | February 29, 2016
“or Coca-Cola goes down as good news in terms of anything I buy.”
"America's never been greater" | February 29, 2016
“Coca-Cola continues to sell more drinks, wider portfolio than they used to have many years ago... a very good business”
"America's never been greater" | February 29, 2016
“I love to own it... I always drink Coca-Cola with them. That was Warren Buffett back on March 1st of 2010”
"America's never been greater" | February 29, 2016
“What was the purchase of CCE, Coca-Cola Enterprises? Was that the right move back in 2010?”
"America's never been greater" | February 29, 2016
“Coca-Cola is not for sale. And I would say this, we owe 9% of it, so we might have a little bit to do with it.”
"America's never been greater" | February 29, 2016
“Of the big four investments, we have talked about already American Express, Coca-Cola, IBM.”
2015 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Coca-Cola, stock repurchases raised our percentage ownership. Our equity in Coca-Cola grew from 9.2% to 9.3%”
2015 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“400,000,000 The Coca-Cola Company .................... 9 . 3 1,299 17,184”
2015 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“During the meeting, Charlie and I will each consume enough Coke, See's fudge and See's peanut brittle to satisfy the weekly caloric needs of an NFL lineman.”
Defending Clayton Homes and Berkshire's IBM stake | May 4, 2015
“we're going to talk about Berkshire's Big Four Investments. We will be catching up with the CEOs of IBM, Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, and American Express.”
Defending Clayton Homes and Berkshire's IBM stake | May 4, 2015
“Ken Chinald, Coca-Cola's Muttarkent, and Wells Fargo's John Stubb. Together, they represent over 60% of Berkshire's $117.5 billion dollar portfolio.”
Defending Clayton Homes and Berkshire's IBM stake | May 4, 2015
“$1.9 billion, 8,000 servings of your product being consumed around the world in 200 countries...Coca-Cola. It started in 1886”
Defending Clayton Homes and Berkshire's IBM stake | May 4, 2015
“I have far less technical knowledge about how IBM works than I do about how Wells Fargo or Coca-Cola works.”
Defending Clayton Homes and Berkshire's IBM stake | May 4, 2015
“He was drinking water. I was drinking Coca-Cola. Yeah. We had a lot of fun together, actually.”
Defending Clayton Homes and Berkshire's IBM stake | May 4, 2015
“when she heard that Buffett was buying into the company... he couldn't have been more complimentary... he's true to that... the quality of the company”
Defending Clayton Homes and Berkshire's IBM stake | May 4, 2015
“when we have 9% of Coke or almost 10% of Wells Fargo, I think it'd be very silly for an activist to come in”
Defending Clayton Homes and Berkshire's IBM stake | May 4, 2015
“the one company that has been approached very recently was Coca-Cola with David Winters and the efforts that he's undertaken”
Defending Clayton Homes and Berkshire's IBM stake | May 4, 2015
“I commend the Coca-Cola company terrifically. The woman that headed the committee, Mel... She worked very, very hard.”
Defending Clayton Homes and Berkshire's IBM stake | May 4, 2015
“long before Coca-Cola. Is that a good price?”
Defending Clayton Homes and Berkshire's IBM stake | May 4, 2015
“companies like Coca-Cola, people concerned about whether this food is good for them... people have been drinking Coca-Cola since 1886... literally one-quarter of all the calories I've consumed in the ”
Defending Clayton Homes and Berkshire's IBM stake | May 4, 2015
“the kind of Coca-Cola I drink will still be a huge, huge item at that time”
Defending Clayton Homes and Berkshire's IBM stake | May 4, 2015
“whether you recognize and think that companies like Coca-Cola, or whether it's Hines or Kraft, are going to have to transform themselves”
2015 Annual Meeting Highlight Reel
“one quarter of all the calories I've consumed come from Coca-Cola. And that is not an exaggeration. I am one-quarter Coca-Cola.”
Morning Session - 2015 Meeting
“in publicly traded investments such as Coca-Cola today... I think it's an enormously wide moat”
Morning Session - 2015 Meeting
“when we bought our Coca-Cola stock in 1988, you know, people were not that enthused about gross possibilities for the product.”
Morning Session - 2015 Meeting
“drinking Coca-Cola, you know, to something that somebody would sell me at Whole Foods. I don't know, I don't see smiles on the faces of people at Whole Foods. So I like the brands we're buying.”
Afternoon Session - 2015 Meeting
“distribute at some time in the future any or some of the long-term equity investments for example coca-cola or america express”
Afternoon Session - 2015 Meeting
“Please don't say because of Coca-Cola.”
Morning Session - 2015 Meeting
“Coca-Cola sold more cases of beverages last year than any year in their history and they'll sell more this year. I mean, it's a strong brand”
Morning Session - 2015 Meeting
“Walmart has plenty of power, but so does Coca-Cola. And the brand, you've got to nourish them.”
Fifty years of Buffett's Berkshire | March 2, 2015
“the four biggest holdings are Wells Fargo, Coca-Cola, American Express, and IBM.”
Fifty years of Buffett's Berkshire | March 2, 2015
“Coca-Cola Comp Committee has done a sensational job of absolutely re-engineering that plan...they've gone from the top quartile to the bottom quartile”
Fifty years of Buffett's Berkshire | March 2, 2015
“the Coca-Cola Compensation Committee when they looked at it again and looked at it hard. So there was, you can say there was a service performed”
2014 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Berkshire increased its ownership interest last year in each of its "Big Four" investments – American Express, Coca-Cola, IBM and Wells Fargo.”
2014 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“400,000,000 The Coca-Cola Company .................... 9 . 2 1,299 16,888”
We'll never want to "go to war" with Coca-Cola | May 5, 2014
“it's a wonderful company, it's treated us wonderfully. The management's always been totally candid with us. I think we've got the right leader.”
We'll never want to "go to war" with Coca-Cola | May 5, 2014
“There isn't a problem with Coca-Cola. There's a, there was a plan that was proposed that was excessive.”
We'll never want to "go to war" with Coca-Cola | May 5, 2014
“I don't really want to embarrass the Coca-Cola company. I mean, I like the people and everything, but I think perhaps if you ask some of the people, they would, I don't know whether they use the word ”
We'll never want to "go to war" with Coca-Cola | May 5, 2014
“giving away 11% or so of the Coca-Cola company to obtain Gator Aid primarily...didn't think that was a, mathematically made sense, to give away 11% of Coca-Cola”
We'll never want to "go to war" with Coca-Cola | May 5, 2014
“you spoke with Charlie about the Coca-Cola decision before you came to any conclusions...I thought he did it just right...with compliments which were deserved to the management of Coca-Cola. I thought”
Afternoon Session - 2014 Meeting
“changes in consumer behavior and regulation could affect Coca-Cola”
Buffett's views on Coke's executive stock option program
“we admired enormously the Coca-Cola company. We admired the management. And we thought the compensation plan, although it was very similar to great many plans, was excessive.”
2014 Annual Meeting Highlight Reel
“we in no way, went to war with Coca-Cola. We have no desire to go to war with Coca-Cola.”
Morning Session - 2014 Meeting
“Berkshire's Holdings in Coca-Cola. This spring, Koch asked shareholders to approve a magnanimous stock option program for its executives... you said the program was excessive.”
Afternoon Session - 2014 Meeting
“such as Coca-Cola. So when there is a chance to buy more of your favorite names... buying more of companies like Coca-Cola”
Morning Session - 2014 Meeting
“we admired enormously the Coca-Cola company. We admired the management. And we thought the compensation plan, although it was very similar to great many plans, was excessive.”
Morning Session - 2014 Meeting
“he took figures from the Coca-Cola proxy statement. So it's hard to fault him for that. But for those of you who would really would like to know how to think about calculating dilution. Coca-Cola has ”
Morning Session - 2014 Meeting
“I don't like dilution and I don't like 2.5% dilution. But it's a far cry from the number that we're getting tossed around.”
Morning Session - 2014 Meeting
“Some companies talk about Coca-Cola does. They talk about buying in shares to cover options.”
Morning Session - 2014 Meeting
“Your son Howard serves on the board of Coke and voted to support its CEO package proposal, which you have said was excessive”
Morning Session - 2014 Meeting
“I voted for comp plans at various places, including way back, you know, of Coke that were far from what I would have designed”
Afternoon Session - 2014 Meeting
“I mean, Coca-Cola. Coca-cola has their Pepsi. [discussing competitive dynamics]”
Morning Session - 2014 Meeting
“we saw it with the reporter. and Don Keough at Coke, we saw it with Tom Murphy and Dan Burke at Cap Cities. I mean, these were magnificent companies.”
Morning Session - 2014 Meeting
“I called Charlie on the Coca-Cola vote, you know, and I said what the proxy statement said and everything.”
Afternoon Session - 2014 Meeting
“Bill Ackman compared his amassing his stake in Allergan and stealth ahead of Valiant's bid to your purchase of Coca-Cola in the 1980s”
Morning Session - 2014 Meeting
“we made a lot of money in Coca-Cola, partly because we bought C's. or at least in my case, bought C's because I'd understood brands”
Morning Session - 2014 Meeting
“In a 1988, we bought Coca-Cola. And I wouldn't be at all surprised if we had not owned C's whether we would have owned Coca-Cola later on.”
Morning Session - 2014 Meeting
“investments in Wells Farmer? cargo, Coke, American Express, and IBM”
Morning Session - 2014 Meeting
“big legacy positions in Wells Fargo, Coca-Cola, American Express, IBM, and Procter & Gamble overshadowing the rest”
"People react too much to short-term things" | March 3, 2014
“you've held Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, and American Express for 20 plus years”
"People react too much to short-term things" | March 3, 2014
“Wells Fargo or Coca-Cola or the businesses we own. I think I do know enough”
"People react too much to short-term things" | March 3, 2014
“are you worried about Coca-Cola's moat declining in the near future? Just the business of Coca-Cola.”
"People react too much to short-term things" | March 3, 2014
“Coca-Cola products. And I think maybe that 3% will go up a little over time. And I think they've got wonderful brands. got wonderful acceptance around the world.”
2013 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Our equity in Coca-Cola grew from 8.9% to 9.1% and our interest in American Express from 13.7% to 14.2%.”
2013 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“400,000,000 The Coca-Cola Company ............... 9 . 1 1,299 16,524”
Daily Journal Annual Meeting 2013 — Munger Q&A
“we wouldn't have bought Coca Cola as early as we did if we hadn't had the experience with See's Candy”
Buffett sees "gradual improvement" in economy | May 6, 2013
“if Coca-Cola were based in Amsterdam instead of Atlanta, we'd love to buy it. And if they get cheap enough, that's what we like good companies at cheap prices.”
Buffett sees "gradual improvement" in economy | May 6, 2013
“ketchup will be doing well or Coca-Cola will be doing well in 10 years”
Buffett sees "gradual improvement" in economy | May 6, 2013
“I feel more certainty of conviction in terms of where Coca-Cola will be in 10 years, or Heinz for that matter, than I do about IBM”
Morning Session - 2013 Meeting
“We have so many different kinds of businesses, and then we own other earnings through Coca-Cola that operate around the world”
Afternoon Session - 2013 Meeting
“At Coca-Cola, at Wells Fargo, to a lesser degree, at IBM, at most of our companies, our interest in the company goes up every year”
Afternoon Session - 2013 Meeting
“Some brands travel very well, Coca-Cola being a terrific example, and some brands don't travel”
Afternoon Session - 2013 Meeting
“It's not Coca-Cola, but it's not an unbranded product either.”
Afternoon Session - 2013 Meeting
“you can take Coke and Pepsi in the United States. I mean, they're the only two colos people can name”
Morning Session - 2013 Meeting
“your initial purchase of Coca-Cola, and arguably your company has shifted to becoming a buyer of pricier”
Afternoon Session - 2013 Meeting
“buying 20 of the best stocks in America, Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Johnson-Johnson”
Afternoon Session - 2013 Meeting
“the mode around the Coca-Cola. I think I have some understanding of it, but I feel I would have more conviction about the mode around a Coca-Cola”
Buffett on Heinz deal: "We've got a great business" | March 4, 2013
“when I buy a piece of a wonderful business, say Coca-Cola or American Express, it is not a matter of consideration.”
Buffett on Heinz deal: "We've got a great business" | March 4, 2013
“including Coca-Cola and General Electric because they strayed too far off of their core business”
Buffett on Heinz deal: "We've got a great business" | March 4, 2013
“Well, we've owned Coca-Cola, but we've only owned 9% of it now for, I don't know, what, 25 years or so.”
Buffett on Heinz deal: "We've got a great business" | March 4, 2013
“I'm having a cherry Coke here. And there are about 200 calories in this”
Buffett on Heinz deal: "We've got a great business" | March 4, 2013
“why do you not increase the Coke steak. The name is near eternity, and this company seems to be a never-ending cash cow. You own 9% of the shares outstanding?”
Buffett on Heinz deal: "We've got a great business" | March 4, 2013
“we've been in Coca-Cola and seized candy and things like that. So I like the business.”
“You still have a lot of Coca-Cola, a lot. Yeah. You saw the value of that early on.”
“Coca-Cola isn't for sale. Wells Fargo isn't for sale. 99% of the companies are not for sale.”
“this company has nothing of a kind of eternal nature to offer, like Coca-Cola has something eternal to offer”
"No question" the global economy is slowing | October 24, 2012
“What do you know about the consumer, not only from the consumer, companies you have at Berkshire that you own outright, but from a company like Coca-Cola and from being able to look around the globe”
"No question" the global economy is slowing | October 24, 2012
“Coca-Cola's been around since 1886, that's pretty amazing, isn't it? And it's the basic product. Now, it's got a whole bunch of extensions, too, but Coca-Cola's physical volume, not dollar sales, but ”
"No question" the global economy is slowing | October 24, 2012
“this caught on and that it was a nationwide ban on any Coca-Cola sold in a container, which that had sugar, any Coca-Cola sold over 16 ounces”
"No question" the global economy is slowing | October 24, 2012
“I drink about 60 ounces, about 5 12-ounce cans of cherry Coke a day”
"No question" the global economy is slowing | October 24, 2012
“I'm going to get up 2,700 calories or so a day, and 750 of them are going to be cherry Coke.”
"No question" the global economy is slowing | October 24, 2012
“if it's Wells Fargo or IBM or Coca-Cola. I mean, I've got four stocks that are... aggregate over 50 billion”
2012 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Berkshire's "Big Four" investments – American Express, Coca-Cola, IBM and Wells Fargo – all had good years.”
2012 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“400,000,000 The Coca-Cola Company ................. 8 . 9 1,299 14,500”
Are Google and Apple "inevitable?"
“in the same way that Coke and Gillette were? For example, is Google inevitable?”
Morning Session - 2012 Meeting
“maybe buying Coca-Cola stock, which was done in the market over a period of six or eight months”
Morning Session - 2012 Meeting
“we were on the board which it wasn't at Coca-Cola, but the number of times we've talked to the CEO”
Afternoon Session - 2012 Meeting
“how long do you think will take China to appear a great company like Coca-Cola, and in which industry you think?”
Afternoon Session - 2012 Meeting
“China got some huge companies and they may eclipse in market value some of the ones such as Coca-Cola”
Afternoon Session - 2012 Meeting
“We have a little free Coke machine in our office.”
Afternoon Session - 2012 Meeting
“If we're looking at Coca-Cola, we think we know a lot about how the world will look for the Coca-Cola company over the next 5 or 10 or 20 years.”
Morning Session - 2012 Meeting
“that will be true for Coca-Cola and Wells Fargo and IBM and all of the other securities. I just don't know in which order”
Afternoon Session - 2012 Meeting
“If you gave me $10, 20, $30 billion and told me to go in and try and knock off the Coca-Cola company with some new cola drink, I wouldn't have the faintest idea how to do it.”
Afternoon Session - 2012 Meeting
“in their mind about Coca-Cola, and you're not going to change that with $10 or $20 billion”
Wesco 2011 Annual Meeting — Notes of Charlie Munger's Remarks (The Inoculated Investor)
“When economists went to the movie theater, they noticed that Coke and popcorn were priced way too high relative to the prices of these goods elsewhere.”
2011 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“13.0% of American Express, 8.8% of Coca-Cola, 5.5% of IBM and 7.6% of Wells Fargo”
Wesco 2011 Annual Meeting — Notes of Charlie Munger's Remarks (The Inoculated Investor)
“If he were investing for pension funds, there wouldn't be an account that didn't have KO in it.”
2011 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“"Buy commodities, sell brands" has long been a formula for business success. It has produced enormous and sustained profits for Coca-Cola since 1886”
2011 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“200,000,000 The Coca-Cola Company ................ 8 . 8 1,299 13,994”
2011 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“many businesses such as Coca-Cola, IBM and our own See's Candy meet that double-barreled test”
Morning Session - 2011 Meeting
“the same sort of goodwill value that a Coca-Cola has or a Mars has or any company like that”
Afternoon Session - 2011 Meeting
“for an indestructible brand like seas or Coca-Cola it can see why the intangibles should not be amortized because it's worth more every year”
Afternoon Session - 2011 Meeting
“Coca-Cola goes back to 1886 and John Pemberton at Jacobs Pharmacy in Atlanta and there was not a whole lot of goodwill put on the books”
Morning Session - 2011 Meeting
“can I start a soft drink company and take on Coca-Cola if I have $100 billion, you know?”
Morning Session - 2011 Meeting
“like C's or Coke, is the best asset to hold in an inflationary environment?”
Afternoon Session - 2011 Meeting
“If you have an indestructible company like Coca-Cola or Burlington Northern... Coca-Cola, which is in 200 countries, they have pursued that policy successfully now for 125 years.”
Morning Session - 2011 Meeting
“We do own some businesses. Let me take Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola, I don't have the exact figures, but my guess is that 80 percent or thereabouts of the earnings will be non-dollar.”
Morning Session - 2011 Meeting
“I was on the audit committee, for example, of Coca-Cola. And Coca-Cola has about one-fifth as many employees as Berkshire.”
Wesco 2010 Annual Meeting — Notes of Charlie Munger's Remarks
“I think the new CEO of Coke is the best we've had in a long time”
2010 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“200,000,000 The Coca-Cola Company .......................... 8 . 6 1,299 13,154”
2010 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Coca-Cola paid us $88 million in 1995, the year after we finished purchasing the stock. Every year since, Coke has increased its dividend. In 2011, we will almost certainly receive $376 million”
Afternoon Session - 2010 Meeting
“most of the franchisees serve Coke, the enlightened ones”
Afternoon Session - 2010 Meeting
“we have less control over what franchisees do...we'll keep asking for Coke and maybe you can cause them to see the light”
Afternoon Session - 2010 Meeting
“we were carrying our Coca-Cola at a certain price five years earlier or whatever it was that entered into our asset value”
Afternoon Session - 2010 Meeting
“they like Sprite better than Coke. Spryde out sells Coke in China by two to one, but they're both growing dramatically”
Afternoon Session - 2010 Meeting
“people that understand that Coca-Cola and American Express aren't paying out all their earnings”
Morning Session - 2010 Meeting
“If we could put up our Coca-Cola stock, you know, we're going to hold our Coca-Cola stock anyway.”
Afternoon Session - 2010 Meeting
“Couldn't this turn out like trying to satisfy a drug addict with a Coca-Cola?”
Morning Session - 2010 Meeting
“the Coca-Cola isn't going to go away, Procter & Gamble's not going to away, American Express.”
Morning Session - 2010 Meeting
“it can't be a Coca-Cola in terms of a basic business where you really don't need very much capital”
Afternoon Session - 2010 Meeting
“you could run the Coca-Cola company, assuming you had the bottling system separate. You could run it with no capital”
Wesco 2009 Annual Meeting — Notes of Charlie Munger's Remarks (Peter Boodell)
“Coca-Cola and WFC I would buy today. I wouldn't expect miracles – no doublings.”
Wesco 2009 Annual Meeting — Notes of Charlie Munger's Remarks (Peter Boodell)
“Coca-Cola company. Neville Isdell and Mukthar Kent appear successful right now. Coke has a strong position in the world, and when run by a strong CEO the results will be good.”
2009 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“200,000,000 The Coca-Cola Company .......................... 8 . 6 1,299 11,400”
"The best protection against inflation is your own earning power"
“If you own the Coca-Cola trademark company, you will get a given portion of people's labor 20 years from now and 50 years from now for your product”
“you have to learn the difference between a hula hoop company, you know, and Coca-Cola.”
Morning Session - 2009 Meeting
“And if you care to augment the answer with your numerical analysis of Coke, I'd appreciate that.”
Morning Session - 2009 Meeting
“you have to learn the difference between a hula hoop company, you know, and Coca-Cola.”
Morning Session - 2009 Meeting
“we send him all the cherry coke or fudge that he wants”
Afternoon Session - 2009 Meeting
“we own over 8 percent, for example, a Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola, you know, makes 80 percent or more of its money outside the United States.”
Morning Session - 2009 Meeting
“if you own the Coca-Cola trademark company, you will get a given portion of people's labor 20 years from now and 50 years from now”
Morning Session - 2009 Meeting
“Coca-Cola is in everybody's mind around the world. You know, he started in 1886, and they just kept associating Coca-Cola with moments of pleasure”
Morning Session - 2009 Meeting
“You say Coca-Cola, and it means something. And a brand is a promise.”
Morning Session - 2009 Meeting
“it's much easier to come to a conclusion on something like Coca-Cola or Procter & Gamble than it is for a person”
Wesco 2008 Annual Meeting — Notes of Charlie Munger's Remarks (Peter Boodell)
“For a great many investors, the best way to do it may be to own Coca-cola. We've thought about these things.”
2008 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“200,000,000 The Coca-Cola Company ....................... 8 . 6 1,299 9,054”
Wesco 2008 Annual Meeting — Notes of Charlie Munger's Remarks (Peter Boodell)
“reinvest it in Coca-cola and other things. We have huge surplus of cash now.”
Warren Buffett | Testimony | 2008 Financial Crisis | June 2, 2010
“Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch, thousands of companies negotiated under that basis. We say if we're required to substitute an uncollateralized contract”
"We're forced to do virtually nothing we don't want to"
“Well, you start with a balanced diet. Some Wrigley, some Mars, some C's, some Coke.”
Morning Session - 2008 Meeting
“we sold a put on Coca-Cola with the idea that if it got exercised, we were very happy to own more Coca-Cola”
Afternoon Session - 2008 Meeting
“Coca-Cola will sell a billion and a half eight-ounce servings of its product around the world today... impossible to take on a product like that”
Afternoon Session - 2008 Meeting
“I'd rather have Coca-Cola, but it's a tough product. And to get implanted, just think of, to get implanted in people's mind”
Afternoon Session - 2008 Meeting
“would you or have you considered asking Coca-Cola to withdraw sponsorship from the Beijing Olympics in light of the immense human rights violations”
Morning Session - 2008 Meeting
“Some Wrigley, some Mars, some Cs, some Coke, some Coke”
Morning Session - 2008 Meeting
“If you take Coca-Cola, we own 200 million shares of Coca-Cola, and if their earnings are roughly $3 a share, that means our share of the earnings of Coca-Cola are $600 million a year.”
Morning Session - 2008 Meeting
“your secret must be the Cherry Coke and the Seas Candy by evidence of what you're doing on the screen”
Morning Session - 2008 Meeting
“You could have put 100% of your net worth in Coca-Cola earlier than when we bought it, but certainly around the time we bought it. And that would not have been a dangerous position.”
2007 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“possessing a powerful world-wide brand (Coca-Cola, Gillette, American Express) is essential for sustained success.”
2007 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“American Express, Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble, three of our four largest holdings, increased per-share earnings by 12%, 14% and 14%”
How to protect yourself from inflation
“if you own Coca-Cola, if you own Snickers bars, if you own Hershey bars, if you own anything that people are going to want to give a portion of their current income to keep getting”
What's the right margin of safety?
“if we buy something like Seas Candy as a business or Coca-Cola as a stock, we don't think we need a huge margin of safety”
Morning Session - 2007 Meeting
“Coca-Cola went truly global many years ago, whereas Hershey missed the opportunity to go global”
Morning Session - 2007 Meeting
“you name the company. named the company, Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, American Express.”
Afternoon Session - 2007 Meeting
“discount rates used for Coca-Cola, J&J, or some of your past investments”
Afternoon Session - 2007 Meeting
“When we were buying Coca-Cola, we were buying every share we could with, what, 30 or 40 percent of the daily trading?”
Morning Session - 2007 Meeting
“if we buy something like seize candy as a business or Coca-Cola as a stock, We don't think we need a huge margin of safety”
Afternoon Session - 2007 Meeting
“charging the equivalent amount to my American Express card on Seas Candy and Coca-Cola”
Afternoon Session - 2007 Meeting
“if you own Coca-Cola, if you own Snickers bars, if you own Hershey buyers, if you own anything that people are going to want to give a portion”
2006 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble and Wells Fargo, our largest holdings, increased per-share earnings by 18%, 9%”
2006 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“It's amazing what Cherry Coke and hamburgers will do for a fellow.”
Morning Session - 2006 Meeting
“They'll make the mold to make the bottles for the Coca-Cola.”
Afternoon Session - 2006 Meeting
“We sell Coke. We get the profit on one out of every 12 coax.”
Afternoon Session - 2006 Meeting
“if all you do is drink Coca-Cola all day, you know, Coca-Cola hasn't been gone up in price much”
Morning Session - 2006 Meeting
“it's far easier for us to figure out whether people are going to be drinking Coca-Cola or even eating seeds candy”
Morning Session - 2006 Meeting
“Coca-Cola is a fabulous company. Coca-Cola will sell over 21 billion cases of various products, more coke than anything else, around the world this year”
Morning Session - 2006 Meeting
“wonderful business that sold at a very silly price some years back... at 50 times earnings, it was a silly price on the stock. So we like it. We'll own it 10 years from now”
“proposes "Glotz's sugared, caffeinated water" as a marketing-bereft label for Coca-Cola”
“they have purchased meaningful stakes in public companies such as The Washington Post, Coca-Cola, Gillette, and American Express”
2005 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“200,000,000 The Coca-Cola Company ........................ 8.4 1,299 8,062”
2005 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“our Coca-Cola holdings went from $1 billion in value early on to $13.4 billion at year-end 1998 and have since declined to $8.1 billion”
“focusing on great business such as the Washington Post Coca-Cola gellert and others”
“saying that having Warren on the board of Coke is contrary to the interests of Coke”
“one advantage of Coca-Cola is that it's available almost everywhere in the world”
“bottlers of Pepsi and Coke both make a lot of money and many others where they destroy most of the profitability”
“you'd be holding a block of Wal-Mart and a block of Coca-Cola and a block of something else”
“What's the next Coca Cola investment for us? Well, the answer to that is I don't know.”
“And, of course, we invested in Coca-Cola-which had some untapped pricing power. And it also had brilliant management.”
“Of course, Gillette and Coke make fairly low-priced items and have a tremendous marketing advantage all over the world.”
“Charlie begins the Coca-Cola business case retailed in Talk Four, "Practical Thought About Practical Thought"”
“Charlie discusses the importance of trademarks to Coca-Cola's success and carries it o'er to a discussion of food products”
“[Charlie applies various mental models to Coca-Cola.]”
“psychological effects in play in marketing of consumer items, such as Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble products, Tupperware”
“products that will appeal to everybody like coke”
“just as Coke could prosper when refrigeration came, when the video cassette was invented, Disney didn't have to invent anything”
“You discussed cokes mistake. Do you have any thoughts where apple went wrong?”
“doesn't have enough remunerative law business to keep you in Coca-Cola”
“using as his example Coca-Cola. Naturally, he has his own solution, apt to strike you as both brilliant”
“Glotz wants to use a name that has somehow charmed him: Coca-Cola... we must make your name, "Coca-Cola," into a strong legally protected trademark.”
“The "Coca-Cola" trade name and trade dress will act as the stimuli, and the purchase and ingestion of our beverage”
“I want a can of Coke within arms reach of every American servicemen something to remind him of home.”
“we will have wisely chosen the exotic and expensive-sounding name "Coca-Cola," instead of a pedestrian name like "Glotz's Sugared, Caffeinated Water."”
“have run the Coca-Cola Company with glorious success in recent years also did not understand elementary psychology well enough”
“the real Coca-Cola Company followed so much of the plan given to Glotz that it is now worth about $125 billion”
“the real Coca-Cola Company did lose half its trademark and did grant perpetual bottling franchises”
“the real Coca-Cola Company had a net worth under $150,000 and earnings of about zero”
“an interdisciplinary approach will correctly deal with reality-in academia as with the Coca-Cola Company.”
“the "New Coke" fiasco occurred. Therein, Coke's executives came to the brink of destroying the most valuable trademark in the world.”
“Of course, those of you with fifty percent of net worth in Coca-Cola stock, occurring because you tried to so invest ten percent after thinking like I did”
“If, in many high places, a universal product as successful as Coca-Cola is not properly understood and explained, it can't bode well for our competency”
“neither academia nor business had a respectable grasp of the simple realities causing the success of Coca-Cola”
“most denizens would be able to explain the success of the Coca-Cola Company through parsimonious use of basic concepts”
“by age thirty-three he had taken over the Coca-Cola Company. He turned a fairly small soft-drink manufacturer and bottler into a corporate giant”
“Woodruff foundations have, so far, proven extremely wise to retain an approximately ninety percent concentration in the founder's Coca-Cola stock.”
“Berkshire's practice of participating in foreign economies through the likes of Coca-Cola and Gillette.”
What sparked Buffett's interest in investing?
“I've read the reports of Coca-Cola and Gillette and all kinds of companies long before we invested in them”
Managers should learn more about investing
“should you buy Coca-Cola or Gillette or something like that, they'll say that's much too tough.”
Buffett on overseeing a diverse collection of businesses
“back in the 60s, Coke bought all kinds of businesses, and certainly the cigarette companies”
Morning Session - 2005 Meeting
“if we own some Coca-Cola, a stock and it goes up or down, that does not run through our income statement”
Afternoon Session - 2005 Meeting
“my wife did a portrait of you drinking a can of Coke. Next year, I'll bring one drinking a can of Bud. I think you better stick with Coke.”
Morning Session - 2005 Meeting
“Is Budweiser inevitable like Coca-Cola? I'm still drinking Coca-Cola.”
Afternoon Session - 2005 Meeting
“back in the 60s, Coke bought all kinds of businesses, and certainly the cigarette companies did all kinds of people.”
Morning Session - 2005 Meeting
“Coca-Cola products will be 40-odd percent. That's the primary beverage consumption in this country.”
Morning Session - 2005 Meeting
“you can figure something like 11 ounces of that man, woman, and child will be a Coca-Cola product”
Morning Session - 2005 Meeting
“I've read the reports of Coca-Cola and Gillette and all kinds of companies long before we invested in them”
Morning Session - 2005 Meeting
“should you buy, I guess, Coca-Cola or a Gillette or something like that”
Afternoon Session - 2005 Meeting
“We are not unhappy with Coca-Cola. We are not unhappy with American Express. We're not unhappy with, we're not unhappy with Wells Fargo or Moody's.”
Morning Session - 2005 Meeting
“so is a piece of Coca-Cola, so sees candy. If the dollar goes down 50 percent, we will be selling Seas Candy for double”
2004 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Customers by the millions say "I need some Gillette blades" or "I'll have a Coke" but we wait in vain”
Wesco 2004 Annual Meeting — Notes of Charlie Munger's Remarks (Whitney Tilson)
“Coke's Future... 10 years from now, I think they'll be selling more volume. It's a mature product, but its decline phase is way out there.”
2004 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“200,000,000 The Coca-Cola Company ........................ 8.3 1,299 8,328”
2004 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Let's look at how the businesses of our "Big Four" – American Express, Coca-Cola, Gillette and Wells Fargo”
2004 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Several institutional shareholders and their advisors decided I lacked "independence" in my role as a director of Coca-Cola.”
2004 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“McLane and Dairy Queen buy lots of Coke products... the well-being of $8 billion of Coke stock held by Berkshire.”
2004 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“I'll be there, eating barbeque and drinking Coke.”
Where Berkshire draws the line on ethical decisions
“classic Coke should never be part of anyone's diet... would that change the way that you viewed Coca-Cola company as part of your portfolio?”
Where Berkshire draws the line on ethical decisions
“I do not have a problem buying stock in companies... that engage in activities that I wouldn't probably endorse myself... drink Coca-Cola, eat candy”
Where Berkshire draws the line on ethical decisions
“I've been drinking five of them a day... I just feel terrific”
Buffett: I'm staying on Coke's board
“having Warren Buffett on the board, The Coca-Cola company is contrary to the interests of the Coca-Cola company”
2004 Annual Meeting Highlight Reel
“having Warren Buffett on the the board of the Coca-Cola company is contrary to the interests of the Coca-Cola company”
2004 Annual Meeting Highlight Reel
“classic Coke should never be part of anyone's diet. I think it's a little crazy myself to say that it's terrible if people eat hamburgers or drink Coca-Cola”
Afternoon Session - 2004 Meeting
“classic Coke should never be part of anyone's diet...would that change the way that you viewed Coca-Cola company as part of your portfolio?”
Afternoon Session - 2004 Meeting
“it's terrible if people eat hamburg. or eat or drink Coca-Cola or eat candy or anything like that”
Morning Session - 2004 Meeting
“If Berkshire Hathaway owns 200 million shares of Coca-Cola, $10 billion worth... I think the directors of Coca-Cola, I haven't even looked, but I think we probably receive something like $100,000 a ye”
Morning Session - 2004 Meeting
“having Warren Buffett on the board of the Coca-Cola company is contrary to the interests of the Coca-Cola company”
Morning Session - 2004 Meeting
“the Coca-Cola company faced foreign exchange risk, or some bank faced, you know, interest rate risk”
UCSB Speech: Academic Economics — Strengths and Faults (2003)
“he's a fan of Coke, both of the stock and the drink”
Businesses with ideal financial traits are hard to come by
“the good businesses, you know, take a Coca-Cola or seize candy, they don't require much capital.”
Coke and Gillette are "inevitable" in their industries
“Coca-Cola and soft drinks... Coca-Cola's worldwide market share is a little higher now than it was when I wrote that five years ago.”
How to know when you're in your "circle of competence"
“you can understand a Coke bottler, you can understand the Coca-Cola company, you can understand McDonald's”
How Buffett decides it's a time to sell a stock
“we've held Coke stock since 1988”
Coke and Gillette are "inevitable" in their industries
“certainly Coke and Gillette, in those areas where I said they were inevitable, have done very well.”
Afternoon Session - 2002 Meeting
“if you view various regulatory control issues as a potential problem for Coca-Cola?”
Afternoon Session - 2002 Meeting
“Coca-Cola Enterprise certainly became very leveraged over, it started out fairly leveraged and it became more leveraged”
Afternoon Session - 2002 Meeting
“the Coca-Cola company itself, its bottles are going to do perfectly okay over time. And they've got to earn enough money to be able to sustain that kind of capital expenditure”
Afternoon Session - 2002 Meeting
“But nobody's going to run out of money at Coca-Cola, nor are their bottlers basically going to run out of money.”
Morning Session - 2002 Meeting
“we've held Coke stock since 1988”
Afternoon Session - 2002 Meeting
“could also discuss that issue in relation to Coke. Some people have said that their decision to lay off much of the capital”
Afternoon Session - 2002 Meeting
“The question of accounting and the economic profits to be gathered in the bottling system versus the production of the syrup at Coke.”
Afternoon Session - 2002 Meeting
“if the Coca-Cola company did not own a share in any of its bottlers, and for many years it either owned 100% of a bottler”
Wesco 2001 Annual Meeting — Notes of Charlie Munger's Remarks (Whitney Tilson)
“It took us months of buying all the Coke stock we could to accumulate $1 billion worth -- equal to 7% of the company”
Wesco 2001 Annual Meeting — Notes of Charlie Munger's Remarks (Whitney Tilson)
“it's not as much fun as it was buying Coke and Gillette at much lower prices relative to their valuations.”
Wesco 2001 Annual Meeting — Notes of Charlie Munger's Remarks (Whitney Tilson)
“My speech about mental models using Coke as an example was a failure. People had to read it two or three times before it sunk in”
Morning Session - 2001 Meeting
“does the potential for similar damage liabilities reduce the intrinsic value of Coca-Cola, seize candies, dairy ques, or any other business”
Morning Session - 2001 Meeting
“Don't worry about eating the Seas Candy or the Dairy Queen or the Coke. If you read the papers long”
Morning Session - 2001 Meeting
“you've been very specific about some of the numbers related to Coca-Cola, Wells Far, Wells Fargo, Rockwood, specifically like with Coca-Cola cost of aluminum and sugar”
Afternoon Session - 2001 Meeting
“As a Coke addict myself, I'm excited to report to you our worldwide promoter in chief that the coax in Beijing taste just as wonderful as in Omaha.”
Afternoon Session - 2001 Meeting
“What gives you confidence that the same things won't happen to Coke or Gillette?”
Morning Session - 2001 Meeting
“Coke has a relatively low presence in advertising, although they are the largest player... I think Coke is being too cheap on advertising, thus hurting the long-term position.”
Morning Session - 2001 Meeting
“Coke has been the most successful company in the world in extending geography... Coke has a terrific presence in Japan.”
Afternoon Session - 2001 Meeting
“one-eighthenth of all the liquid, man, woman, and child of the United States take in, comes from Coca-Cola products”
Afternoon Session - 2001 Meeting
“that trend is almost impossible to reverse on a worldwide basis. I mean, there's so much potential in countries where per-capital consumption”
Afternoon Session - 2001 Meeting
“Interesting thing about Coca-Cola is when I was born in 1930, a six and a half ounce coke, cost a nickel”
Afternoon Session - 2001 Meeting
“it's had a little more inflation than Coca-Cola. Front page of New York Times, right next to the story about it”
Afternoon Session - 2001 Meeting
“Would you then sell Coke, for example, to buy Pepsi? And if not, why not?”
Wesco 2000 Annual Meeting — Notes of Charlie Munger's Remarks (Whitney Tilson)
“Over the next 20-30 years, Coke will be selling more soda and other drinks. They will also be able to raise prices moderately and increase margins.”
Wesco 2000 Annual Meeting — Notes of Charlie Munger's Remarks (Whitney Tilson)
“Coke has done this all over the world and look how it's paid off.”
Morning Session - 2000 Meeting
“And we serve Coca-Cola products.”
Afternoon Session - 2000 Meeting
“bottling and distribution business of Coke, cut this article from Baudler's World magazine concerning the severance package”
Afternoon Session - 2000 Meeting
“I think the Coca-Cola shareholders are going to be many billions of dollars ahead over time by what was done then.”
Morning Session - 2000 Meeting
“All of our businesses virtually, Coca-Cola will not be affected in any significant way by the Internet.”
Morning Session - 2000 Meeting
“Coca-Cola and Gillette had bad years last year. They'll have good years over time... Coca-Cola's position in the soft drink business... I would characterize them as inevitable”
Morning Session - 2000 Meeting
“Coke has 50 percent of the soft drink business in the world. That's well over a billion, eight-ounces servings per day”
Morning Session - 2000 Meeting
“we didn't do so well with Coke in Gillette ourselves, so that the ratio of mistakes was probably fairly equal”
Afternoon Session - 2000 Meeting
“in your role as directors of companies like Coke and Gillette, are you seeking to change these practices?”
Morning Session - 2000 Meeting
“companies such as Coca-Cola and Gillette might well be labeled the inevitable's. And you just reaffirmed your view of Coca-Cola”
Morning Session - 2000 Meeting
“Virtually, probably 75% of the people in the world have something in their mind about Coca-Cola. And overwhelmingly, it's favorable.”
Morning Session - 2000 Meeting
“Coca-Cola had some problems...in Europe, but it comes back stronger than ever. They certainly had problems with new Coke, and they came back stronger than ever.”
Morning Session - 2000 Meeting
“it would be easier to screw up American Express than it would Coke or Gillette, but it's an immensely strong. strong business.”
Afternoon Session - 2000 Meeting
“people like to buy and have liked to buy for a long time...their future efforts, the money...for, seize candy or Coca-Cola or whatever”
Morning Session - 2000 Meeting
“companies that you invest in, like Coca-Cola and Gillette, seem to do better when the dollar is weak”
Morning Session - 2000 Meeting
“Coca-Cola has built this tremendous, for example, vending machine presence...we've got this tremendously dominant position.”
Morning Session - 2000 Meeting
“if Coca-Cola satisfies people's needs, liquid needs, for more and more people, we will probably get a reasonable percentage of their purchasing power”
Morning Session - 2000 Meeting
“we have this terrific product, Georgia Coffee, which is huge over there. And that's the sort of thing we focus on”
Morning Session - 2000 Meeting
“what's really made Coca-Cola strong in Japan is the fact that the Japanese people have accepted their products in a big way.”
Morning Session - 2000 Meeting
“whether more people in Japan are going to drink Coca-Cola. And over time, we're better at predicting that than we are at predicting what the yen will do.”
Morning Session - 2000 Meeting
“what's knowable and important about Coca-Cola is the fact that more and more people are going to consume soft drinks around the world and have been doing so year after year after year, and that Coca-C”
Morning Session - 2000 Meeting
“our partly owned businesses like Coke and Gillette are valued at their market value.”
Afternoon Session - 2000 Meeting
“It's not a Coca-Cola-type business or a Gillette-type business or even an American Express business”
Morning Session - 2000 Meeting
“the Washington Post or Coca-Cola or Gillette. It's a factor we ignore. We do look at”
Afternoon Session - 2000 Meeting
“companies like Gillette, Coke, who have significant international presence... Coke is growing faster... it's grown faster around the world than here”
Warren Buffett | Nightline Interview | 1999
“Warren Buffett holds what is whimsically referred to as a major position in a lot of companies. Coca-Cola, Gillette, Geico”
Warren Buffett | Nightline Interview | 1999
“we have pieces of things like Gillette, Coca-Cola, the Washington Post”
Wesco 1999 Annual Meeting — Notes of Charlie Munger's Remarks (simpleinvestor)
“Mr. Munger said they should have bought more Coke. Once you know it's a good idea you don't need to talk about it.”
Warren Buffett | Nightline Interview | 1999
“I can understand Gillette. I can understand Coca-Cola. I can understand Wigley's chewing gum. I mean, those are things that I can understand.”
Warren Buffett | Nightline Interview | 1999
“You wait to see something like Coca-Cola or something and anybody can understand, and you look for easy pitches.”
"I don't have to bet" on technology companies
“if he went away, he'd rather buy Coca-Cola. Because he would have felt sure about that happening.”
1999 Annual Meeting Highlight Reel
“10 years from now, Coke will be selling sugared water... I see the soft drink world.”
Buffett on evaluating businesses' "moats"
“There's a moat even in this, you know, in the container...Coca-Cola in that respect. So here you've got a case where that product has a share of mind”
"We look at change as a threat"
“Coca-Cola is still selling a product that is very, very similar to one that was sold 110 plus years ago”
"I don't have to bet" on technology companies
“just like 10 years from now, Coke will be selling sugared water. And what I'm wondering is why you feel that way”
Afternoon Session - 1999 Meeting
“Coca-Cola is still selling a product that is very, very similar to one that was sold 110 plus years ago.”
Afternoon Session - 1999 Meeting
“Your analysis of Coca-Cola 50 years ago can pretty well serve as an analysis now, we're more comfortable in those kind of businesses.”
Afternoon Session - 1999 Meeting
“it's much easier to predict the relative strength that Coke will enjoy in the soft drink world”
Afternoon Session - 1999 Meeting
“just like 10 years from now, Coke will be selling sugared water”
Afternoon Session - 1999 Meeting
“he'd rather buy Coca-Cola, because he would have felt sure about that happening”
Afternoon Session - 1999 Meeting
“if you name consumer goods, you can say Procter and Gamble and Coca-Cola and Gillette, and you can name a whole bunch”
Afternoon Session - 1999 Meeting
“we're quite happy, very happy owning those businesses, and we'll be happy owning them for a very long time to come”
Afternoon Session - 1999 Meeting
“Cope fortunately has virtually its entire business in soft crinks, and so it comprises almost 100% of the hole there... I see nothing that would change my thinking about... coax position in the soft d”
Morning Session - 1999 Meeting
“what the price of Coca-Cola stock does could swamp their efforts in either direction”
Afternoon Session - 1999 Meeting
“this one has a terrific moat around it. There's a moat even in this, you know, in the container... So here you've got a case where that product has a share of mind.”
Afternoon Session - 1999 Meeting
“For the consumer franchise companies that Berkshire owns, Coca-Cola and Gillette in particular, in which emerging markets do you see the greatest 10-year potential”
Afternoon Session - 1999 Meeting
“in the soft drink business for Coke, they're going to share it'll be uneven in the years”
Morning Session - 1999 Meeting
“I have a question regarding Coca-Cola. The first part is, are you worried that the earnings of Coca-Cola might continue to be affected by the weakness in the emerging markets”
Morning Session - 1999 Meeting
“I have nothing in my mind in regard to any decision on buying or selling Coke that would relate to any prediction in my mind about the course of the dollar.”
Morning Session - 1999 Meeting
“the P-E ratio of Coca-Cola at 35 times earnings? Are you worried about the potential rise in interest rates?”
Morning Session - 1999 Meeting
“The PE ratio of Coke, like virtually every other leading company in the world, strikes us as... quite full.”
Morning Session - 1999 Meeting
“It's in Coke's interest to have countries around the world prosperous... Coca-Cola has a marvelous share of mind around the world.”
Morning Session - 1999 Meeting
“we own 8.1 or 2 percent of Coca-Cola, and we'll probably own a larger percentage 10 years from now because they'll probably repurchase some stock.”
Morning Session - 1999 Meeting
“in the next 10 years we buy more shares of either Coke or Gillette or American Express or some of those other wonderful companies we own”
Morning Session - 1999 Meeting
“if you look at the big picture, we think Coke is fine. It's hard to think of a better business in the world among big businesses”
Investment Practices of Leading Charitable Foundations (1998)
“the Woodruff foundations have, so far, proven extremely wise to retain an approximately 90% concentration in the founder's Coca-Cola stock”
Investment Practices of Leading Charitable Foundations (1998)
“Berkshire's practice of participating in foreign economies through the likes of Coca-Cola and Gillette”
Investment Practices of Leading Charitable Foundations (1998)
“Robert Woodruff Foundations have, so far, proven extremely wise to retain an approximately 90 percent concentration in the founder's Coca-Cola stock”
Investment Practices of Leading Charitable Foundations (1998)
“Berkshire's practice of participating in foreign economies through the likes of Coca-Cola and Gillette.”
Afternoon Session - 1998 Meeting
“I invested in those three companies, Coca-Cola, Gillette, and Disney”
Afternoon Session - 1998 Meeting
“all three of our largest holdings, American Express, Gillette and Coke, and we're talking about $25 billion of market value”
Afternoon Session - 1998 Meeting
“maybe some of that money went into Coca-Cola or something else”
Afternoon Session - 1998 Meeting
“I would argue that the Cokes and Gillettes and so on are likely to be helped by a great increase in prosperity”
Morning Session - 1998 Meeting
“We do think we know something about what Coca-Cola is going to look like in 10 years... We care a lot about that.”
Morning Session - 1998 Meeting
“Coca-Cola went public in I think it was 1919. And the first year, one share costs $40. The first year, it went down a little over 50 percent.”
Afternoon Session - 1998 Meeting
“after you bought Dairy Queen, I heard they put Coca-Cola in to all the stores”
Morning Session - 1998 Meeting
“the important thing was to see that they were going to be selling a billion, eight-ounce serving of beverages a day this year, or some large number. And that the person who could make people happy a b”
Morning Session - 1998 Meeting
“Coca-Cola is, in my view, among businesses that I can understand, it's the best large business in the world. I mean, it is a fantastic business.”
Morning Session - 1998 Meeting
“I approve of Coke repurchasing shares. I'd a lot rather have them repurchasing shares at 15 times earnings, but when I look at other ways to use capital, I still think it's a very good use of capital”
Morning Session - 1998 Meeting
“the Post or Coke or any number of companies don't get the bargain in repurchasing now that they used to”
Afternoon Session - 1998 Meeting
“you'd find a lot of correlation. Well, you might not find so much even. You'd find it in intrinsic value between that and Coke and a few stocks like that.”
Afternoon Session - 1998 Meeting
“If you look at a company such as Gillette or Coke, you won't find great differences between their depreciation.”
Afternoon Session - 1998 Meeting
“At Coca-Cola, particularly when new markets come along, you know, the China, of the world or East Germany or something of the sort. The Coca-Cola company itself would frequently make the investments”
Morning Session - 1998 Meeting
“the Coca-Cola annual report over the last good many years been an enormously informative document...We bought that stock based on an annual report.”
Afternoon Session - 1998 Meeting
“I've been on the board of Coke now for 10 years, and we've had project after project come up... almost any decision you make that solidifies and extends the dominance of Coke around the world”
Morning Session - 1998 Meeting
“at Coca-Cola, where the bottling transactions are incidental to a long-term strategy, which, in my view, has been enormously successful”
Morning Session - 1998 Meeting
“Long-term, I would expect Coke to continue to gain versus Pepsi.”
Morning Session - 1998 Meeting
“Coca-Cola's earnings are very easy to figure it out. Just figure out what they're earning per case from operations, and you'll see over the years, the earnings per case go up”
Morning Session - 1998 Meeting
“if you'd put all your money in Coca-Cola some years back, you might have done better than if you put in Berkshire”
Afternoon Session - 1998 Meeting
“I've been watching you and Mr. Buffett eating the Seas Candies and candies and drinking of Coca-Cola the whole day”
Afternoon Session - 1998 Meeting
“For example, in valuing Coke and GEICO, how do you account for the difference in the risk of their cash flows?”
Morning Session - 1998 Meeting
“you mentioned that you liked when wonderful companies like Coke purchased their shares back”
Morning Session - 1998 Meeting
“I mean, maybe when we were buying Coke, we could have been buying our own shares back.”
Afternoon Session - 1998 Meeting
“We added to Coke one time about, I don't know, five years ago or thereabouts, and it's conceivable we would add again.”
Afternoon Session - 1998 Meeting
“I've heard great things about Coke every year. But as far as I'm aware, you have not bought any additional shares of Coke over the last three years.”
Morning Session - 1998 Meeting
“It's $15 billion in Coke. You know, it's a non-event.”
Morning Session - 1998 Meeting
“I wish we owned all of Disney or Coca-Cola or Gillette, but we aren't going to.”
Morning Session - 1998 Meeting
“when we look at a Coca-Cola where we think it's much easier to evaluate the stream of cash that comes in the future”
Afternoon Session - 1998 Meeting
“If we own Coca-Cola with the cost of a billion two or a billion three in a market value of $15 billion, we're not going to sell it”
1997 Annual Meeting Highlight Reel
“everybody has something in their mind about Coca-Cola. And overwhelmingly, it's favorable. It's associated with pleasant experiences.”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“Charlie has promised to stop tapping the Coke can during this session.”
"Mistake" not to buy drug companies
“it's easier for me to figure out that Coca-Cola is the soft drink company to be in”
Why Buffett doesn't invest in Intel and Microsoft
“being sure that Gillette and Coca-Cola businesses are fantastic. You may understand those businesses better”
America's economy "encourages" adaptation
“I don't see Roberto Boyceweather at Coca-Cola or Microsoft. Michael Eisner, Disney, or any of those people, they don't work 40-hour weeks.”
"It's share of mind that counts"
“virtually every person in the globe, maybe, well, let's get it down to 75% of the people in the globe, have some notion in their mind about Coca-Cola. They have, the word Coca-Cola means something to ”
Is McDonald's an "inevitable" company?
“Coca-Cola and Gillette in terms of their base business being what I call the inevitables... the soft drink business with a Coca-Cola... the infrastructure is incredible”
“I don't think that the Coca-Cola company is in a dangerous position. you know, in a dangerous era”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“in companies like Coca-Cola or Gillette or Disney or those kind of businesses, you will see the information”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“would we rather own this business than more Coca-Cola? Would we rather own it than more Gillette? You know, we, it's crazy not to compare it”
Morning Session - 1997 Meeting
“three companies that I chose were Coca-Cola, Gillette, and Disney... I would say that in the food business, you would never get the total certainty of that dominance that you would get in products lik”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“Coca-Cola is a simple company if it's stripped down and analyzed in terms of some elemental forces.”
Morning Session - 1997 Meeting
“I had talked about Coke and Gillette as being the inevitable and what wonderful businesses they were.”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“We wouldn't have sold our Coke... Coca-Cola earns 80% or more from international operations.”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“if Coca-Cola were domiciled in Amsterdam...We would be attracted to them to virtually the same degree we are.”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“it would have been a shame if Mr. Candler decided that Coca-Cola only appealed to people in Atlanta or something of the sort”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“advantage that we have in something like a Coke or a Gillette. So those are not natural places for us to be common shareholders.”
Morning Session - 1997 Meeting
“when Coca-Cola is spending a ton of money each year in marketing and advertising that they're expensing, that really a portion of that's creating an asset”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“maybe Coca-Cola's return and equity is a comparison. I mean, doing that would dramatically change the value”
Morning Session - 1997 Meeting
“I am about being sure that Gillette and Coca-Cola's businesses are fantastic.”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“Some place like Coca-Cola, you know, if Coca-Cola had paid no dividends and simply repurchase shares...shareholders probably would have been even better off”
Morning Session - 1997 Meeting
“conviction about that business versus a Coca-Cola or something. They have different economic characteristics.”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“virtually every person in the globe, maybe, well, let's get it down to 75% of the people in the globe, have some notion in their mind about Coca-Cola... overwhelmingly, it's favorable.”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“I had a case of cherry cocoa waiting me at the top of the great wall when I got there in China... General Eisenhower... wanted a Coca-Cola with an arms rink of every American serviceman”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“selling 47 or 48% of the world's soft drinks...Coca-Cola or a Disney or companies like that...spend this $10 million, wouldn't they still sell as much Coca-Cola”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“if you gave me $100 billion...to displace the Coca-Cola company as the leader in the world in soft drinks”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“we wouldn't have bought Coca-Cola in 1988...that made us aware of other things...we've got in Coca-Cola at the present time”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“it definitely led to a... to a Coca-Cola. And we've had that, we've had the good luck to be, to buy some businesses themselves in their entirety”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“we care how much Coca-Cola sold five years from now and what percentage of the world market they have and what they're charging for it”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“Roberto Goisweta 15 years ago saw how to make the future of Coke, same product, dramatic, and basically the same system, although required some changes, but saw how to make that dramatically more valu”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“it's easier for me to figure out that Coca-Cola is the soft drink company to be in”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“would you encourage investors to, if they were trying to get a lot of their investment, to use leaps on investments such as Coca-Cola instead of buying the stock?”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“if you think Coca-Cola is attractive, you can say, well, I'd rather buy a five-year option on Coke than buy the stock directly”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“Could they ultimately become as dominant as a Gillette or a Coke in their businesses”
Morning Session - 1997 Meeting
“Roberto Guizuela, Coca-Cola, or Michael Eisner, Disney, or any of those people. They don't work 40 hour weeks.”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“Coke consistently repurchases his shares. We generally like the policy of companies that have really wonderful businesses repurchasing their shares.”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“Roberto and Don Keough and some other people spent 20 or 25 years getting that rationalized... it made an enormous difference over time in the value of the company.”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“And the Coca-Cola company was faced over the years with a problem of having the bottling system”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“Mr. Candler didn't think much of bottling. So he gave them a contract in perpetuity for almost all of the United States for a dollar.”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“Well, I do think Coca-Cola company is one of the most interesting cases in the history of business. And it ought to be way more stuff studied than it is.”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“Berkshire's values represented by an interest in Coke, for example. So there's a different emphasis”
Morning Session - 1997 Meeting
“Coca-Cola had a market value of $4 billion when Roberto Goizueta took over.”
Morning Session - 1997 Meeting
“if we'd bought the entire Coca-Cola company, I wish we had, in 1980 or 2, whenever he came in it for $4 billion, and we now had a business worth $150 billion”
Morning Session - 1997 Meeting
“sharing with the kind of people who are doing the important work pretty well down in the organization at a place like Costco or Coca-Cola or any other”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“I don't think that the Coca-Cola company is in a dangerous position, you know, in a dangerous era”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“if we would say the world is going to hell at Coke or Disney or Gillette, we might be better off in terms of being able to buy more stock”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“I think Coke's market share will go up pretty much year after year, but not, you know, we're talking tenths of a percent”
Afternoon Session - 1997 Meeting
“why do we decide to buy Coca-Cola in 1988? Well, it may have been, you know, just a couple small incremental bits of information. But that came into a mass that had been accumulated over decades. And ”
Practical Thought About Practical Thought (1996)
“Glotz wants to use a name that has somehow charmed him: Coca-Cola. The other half of the new corporation's equity will go to the man who most plausibly demonstrates that his business plan will cause G”
Practical Thought About Practical Thought (1996)
“we must make your name, "Coca-Cola," into a strong, legally protected trademark”
Practical Thought About Practical Thought (1996)
“"I want a can of Coke within arm's reach of every American serviceman—something to remind him of home." –Dwight D. Eisenhower”
Practical Thought About Practical Thought (1996)
“The "Coca-Cola" trade name and trade dress will act as the stimuli, and the purchase and ingestation of our beverage will be the desired responses.”
Practical Thought About Practical Thought (1996)
“we will have wisely chosen the exotic and expensive-sounding name "Coca-Cola," instead of a pedestrian name like "Glotz's Sugared, Caffeinated Water."”
Practical Thought About Practical Thought (1996)
“our new business... powerful "monkey-see, monkey-do" aspect... We design advertising and sales promotion... increased selling power will come from each increase in sales”
Practical Thought About Practical Thought (1996)
“we will work obsessively to keep our formula secret. We will make a big hoopla over our secrecy, which will enhance Pavlovian effects.”
1996 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Robert Woodruff, the business genius who built Coca-Cola over many decades and who owned a huge position in the company, was once asked when it might be a good time to sell Coke stock.”
Practical Thought About Practical Thought (1996)
“the real Coca-Cola Company followed so much of the plan given to Glotz that is now worth about $125 billion”
Practical Thought About Practical Thought (1996)
“the real Coca-Cola Company did lose half its trademark and did grant perpetual bottling franchises at fixed syrup prices”
Practical Thought About Practical Thought (1996)
“the brilliant and effective executives who surrounded by business school and law school graduates, have run the Coca-Cola Company”
Practical Thought About Practical Thought (1996)
“the "New Coke" fiasco, which dangerously threatened their company... Coke's executives came to the brink of destroying the most valuable trademark”
Practical Thought About Practical Thought (1996)
“a universal product as successful as Coca-Cola is not properly”
Practical Thought About Practical Thought (1996)
“those of you with fifty percent of net worth in Coca-Cola stock, occurring because you tried to so invest ten percent”
1996 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“200,000,000 The Coca-Cola Company.............. 1,298.9 10,525.0”
1996 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Take Coca-Cola: The zeal and imagination with which Coke products are sold has burgeoned under Roberto Goizueta, who has done an absolutely incredible job in creating value for his shareholders.”
1996 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Companies such as Coca-Cola and Gillette might well be labeled "The Inevitables."... no sensible observer questions that Coke and Gillette will dominate their fields worldwide”
1996 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Loss of focus is what most worries Charlie and me when we contemplate investing in businesses that in general look outstanding... That's not going to happen again at Coke and Gillette, however - not g”
"Berkshire is not a one-man show"
“is Coca-Cola going to suddenly stop selling because some managers dead at Berkshire Hathaway?”
1996 Annual Meeting Highlight Reel
“Is Coca-Cola going to suddenly stop selling because some managers dead at Berkshire Hathaway?”
Afternoon Session - 1996 Meeting
“Coca-Cola is a great example. A lot of fortunes have been built on that.”
Afternoon Session - 1996 Meeting
“if you read the Coca-Cola on your report, you will not get the idea that Roberto Goyceweta is thinking about a whole lot of things other than Coca-Cola”
Afternoon Session - 1996 Meeting
“We are indirectly in all of these emerging markets through Coca-Cola and Gillette... At Coca-Cola, the international markets are 80% of profits”
Afternoon Session - 1996 Meeting
“if you say Coca-Cola, or, you know, against Johnson Johnson, or Pfizer, which are very powerful companies”
Afternoon Session - 1996 Meeting
“I have the feeling that Coca-Cola stock would be there, the Gillette stock would be there”
Afternoon Session - 1996 Meeting
“they're very hard to beat the name Coca-Cola, but Disney's got a very, very big name.”
Afternoon Session - 1996 Meeting
“would we want to own Coca-Cola, the 8% we own Coca-Cola or the 11% of Gillette, if they said they, you know, we're just going to delist”
Morning Session - 1996 Meeting
“We own, we just went over 8% of the Coca-Cola company, probably in the last three or so months by a very tiny fraction... our percentage interest in the Coca-Cola company has gone up significantly.”
Morning Session - 1996 Meeting
“a good example might be Coca-Cola. I think a number of people might have thought Coca-Cola was repurchasing shares at a very high price... people who understood that business well, the management, hav”
Morning Session - 1996 Meeting
“Coca-Cola has 7X down there in the vaults of the what used to be the Trust Company of Georgia, now SunTrust”
Afternoon Session - 1996 Meeting
“They do it a Coca-Cola, they do it a Gillette. But many companies are thinking about what kind of”
Afternoon Session - 1996 Meeting
“I think Disney, Coca-Cola, July, I think those companies are very focused”
Afternoon Session - 1996 Meeting
“what's complicated about Coca-Cola or Gillette or Wells Fargo, for that matter?”
Morning Session - 1996 Meeting
“for example, today with long rates at about 7 percent, if you did the same exercise with Coca-Cola, at what rate of interest would you discount back their owner earnings?”
Morning Session - 1996 Meeting
“the Coca-Cola company in terms of of carbonated soft drink. So it's a constant subject.”
Afternoon Session - 1996 Meeting
“Now, you have had situations like a Coke, for example, where 25 years ago they would not have repurchased stock, and so they'd have piled up more equity in the business.”
Morning Session - 1996 Meeting
“is Coca-Cola going to suddenly stop selling because some manager is dead at Berkshire Hathaway?”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“Let us go back to 1885 in Atlanta and invent from scratch a new nonalcoholic beverage business out of which we will all get rich”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“If you ask the average business school professor, "What is the business of the Coca-Cola Company?" he won't give you the right answer.”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“It actually improves its effects. In effect, cognition is distorted by Pavlovian mere-association effects... And, therefore, we are going to make this beverage a maximized reinforcer.”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“Of course, that is what Coca-Cola's advertising campaign does. There is never a big, important, positive-image-type event in the world that Coca-Cola isn't there.”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“that is exactly what Coca-Cola has—except they were not smart enough to do it my way on purpose when they started out.”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“we come up with Coca-Cola.. We have an exotic script.. We make the bottles shaped in a slightly unusual way”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“If you see everybody else drinking Coca-Cola, you are likely to drink it.. People are enormously influenced by what they see other people doing.”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“Suppose that we have a different problem—only this time in real time. This time, it is 1996. And we want to predict the future of the Coca-Cola Company.”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“we want more control over our franchisees than Coca-Cola originally got. We want to do it more like McDonald's”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“the way that coca-cola did it. After all, we are poor and small when we start.”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“won't do what the Coca-Cola Company was so mistaken to do as it started out—which was to give bottling franchises in perpetuity”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“availability is a religion at Coca-Cola. And, again, it ties right into the psychology books.”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“So we are trying to figure out if Coca-Cola Company can continue its utterly remarkable performance. Here is a company that earns way more than 50% per annum on book value after taxes.”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“They have competed successfully for years—for good reasons. They have been competing for a long time. And look how they are winning.”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“it isn't hard at all for me to imagine the profits of the Coca-Cola Company in due course being 16 times what they are today”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“So there is no reason Coke's profits couldn't grow 16 times.”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“Coke has room to grow its worldwide volume many-fold.”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“OUR MODELS SUGGEST LOTS OF UPSIDE POTENTIAL AND POWERFUL COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES.”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“So I think we can bet reasonably that Coca-Cola will enjoy pretty good trademark protection in the future.”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“going through these simple models, you get at least a rational way to look at Coke's future...It is quite high.”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“Psychology's worked wonders for Coke and Tupperware. As I demonstrated, I think psychology has worked wonders for Coca-Cola.”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“IF BRILLIANT FOLKS AT COKE CAN MAKE A HUGE BONER, SO CAN YOU... The "New Coke" snafu”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“the gentlemen running Coke—Keogh and Goizueta—were both brilliant.. And so were their junior executives.. They'd spent their entire lives thinking about the soft drink business”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“But that was a marvelous question about Coke. The "New Coke" story, properly explained, ought hereafter to be in every introductory psychology text”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“Like Coke, Disney just got this enormous tailwind... just as Coke could prosper when refrigeration came”
Stanford Law: Worldly Wisdom Revisited — Business: What Lawyers Should Know (1996)
“keep you in coca-cola. But Mr. X is a walking minefield of wonderful legal business.”
1995 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“100,000,000 The Coca-Cola Company ................ 1,298.9 7,425.0”
Munger: An "idiot" could successfully run Berkshire
“I don't think Razor Blade sales or Coca-Cola sales are going to fall off dramatically the day, Charlie, or I die.”
Afternoon Session - 1995 Meeting
“Coca-Cola in my book is doing exactly the right thing with its cash when it both uses all the cash that it can effectively in the business”
Afternoon Session - 1995 Meeting
“when we own Coca-Cola and Gillette, we are a part of the global environment”
Afternoon Session - 1995 Meeting
“we've got almost $8 billion in Coca-Cola and Gillette combined, and Coke has 80% plus of the earnings from non-U.S. sources”
Morning Session - 1995 Meeting
“I might think I understand Coca-Cola or Gillette, and he may have a, he may have the ability to understand a lot of other businesses that seem as clear to him as Coke or Gillette would seem to me.”
Morning Session - 1995 Meeting
“My first was Coca-Cola a week and a half ago, and there were only 200 people there.”
Morning Session - 1995 Meeting
“Coca-Cola was number two on that list, second only to General Electric, and that Coca-Cola had done twice as well as Pepsi-Cola”
Morning Session - 1995 Meeting
“I really didn't need to read the November issue, 1994 issue of Fortune. know that Coca-Cola had had a lot of value. We added about $4 billion sum of value to Berkshire.”
Afternoon Session - 1995 Meeting
“we can buy part of the Coca-Cola company with it and buy into another wonderful business”
Afternoon Session - 1995 Meeting
“if I'm buying Coca-Cola I'll probably go back and read the fortune articles from the 1930s on it”
Afternoon Session - 1995 Meeting
“The Coca-Cola has a shareholder equity of $5 billion. It has a market value of $75 billion or so.”
Morning Session - 1995 Meeting
“I don't think razor blade sales or Coca-Cola sales are going to fall off dramatically the day Charlie or I die”
Afternoon Session - 1995 Meeting
“Generally speaking, maybe Coca-Cola can have a negative equity, but I don't think would be a good idea for General Motors.”
Afternoon Session - 1995 Meeting
“if Coca-Cola is such a wonderful investment, has returned so much, why not redeploy some capital in purchasing additional shares of Coca-Cola?”
Afternoon Session - 1995 Meeting
“why would I rather have this than more Coca-Cola? Well, there he's saying something that is very useful”
Morning Session - 1995 Meeting
“we have Don Keel of Coca-Cola? And we have Kay Graham for the Post and Tom Murphy from Cap Cities... those three were sitting together... if those three combined, we have about six and a half billion ”
Afternoon Session - 1995 Meeting
“We bought our Coca-Cola, for example, in 1988 and 89 on this stock had a price of $11 a share, which as low as nine as high as 13, but it averaged about $11.”
1994 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“In 1994, Coca-Cola sold about 280 billion 8-ounce servings and earned a little less than a penny on each. But pennies add up. Through Berkshire's 7.8% ownership of Coke, we have an economic interest i”
1994 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Those we don't control, such as Coca-Cola or Gillette, are carried at current market values.”
1994 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“The Coca-Cola Company ......... 7.8% 7.2% 116(2) 94”
1994 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“The Coca-Cola Company. ............. 1,298,888 5,150,000”
1994 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“we went that direction by enlarging our holdings in Coca-Cola and American Express.”
Afternoon Session - 1994 Meeting
“whether it's Coke or Gillette or anything, we made decisions at a given time at a given price”
Why Buffett prefers to buy entire businesses
“You'll never get a chance to buy the whole Coca-Cola company or the whole Chile company. Businesses like that, the sensational businesses”
Afternoon Session - 1994 Meeting
“whether it's Gillette or Coke, or it might be something we already own”
Afternoon Session - 1994 Meeting
“you were using Coca-Cola puts as a way to increase income”
Afternoon Session - 1994 Meeting
“Five million shares, as I remember, of Coke. Sometime, early fall or there, but I don't remember exactly the last year.”
Afternoon Session - 1994 Meeting
“Mr. Buffett, this is Chuck Peterson from Omaha. And I was just wondering if you could comment on the Coca-Cola company. Haven't really talked about it too much today in regards to what you foresee ove”
Afternoon Session - 1994 Meeting
“Coca-Cola, as I mentioned, gets 80 percent the earnings from a variety of currencies, the yen and the mark being two very important ones.”
Morning Session - 1994 Meeting
“one which you are drinking, which is a flat Coke. Also, I have observed Merck over the last several years”
Afternoon Session - 1994 Meeting
“Coca-Cola is very well managed... I'm not concerned at all. No. Coca-Cola is very well managed.”
Afternoon Session - 1994 Meeting
“growth prospects of Solomon Brothers or the quality, or your anticipation of your ability to clip the coupons at Solomon Brothers justify such a dramatic discount to the growth prospects of Coca-Cola ”
Morning Session - 1994 Meeting
“we don't pay any attention to what people say about Coca-Cola stock or Gillette stock”
Morning Session - 1994 Meeting
“on any given day, two million shares of Coca-Cola may trade. That's a lot of people selling, a lot of people buying it.”
Morning Session - 1994 Meeting
“There are 750 million or so eight-ounce servings of one product or another from the Coca-Cola company consumed every year. every day around the world. And there are those of us who think the utility i”
Morning Session - 1994 Meeting
“They like Coke and Gillette. The global brand leaders in the shoe business being Nike and Reebok.”
Morning Session - 1994 Meeting
“You mentioned Wrigley as being a company that has worldwide dominance, somewhat like Coca-Cola and Gillette.”
Morning Session - 1994 Meeting
“80% of Coca-Cola's earnings roughly will come from outside the United States.”
Morning Session - 1994 Meeting
“we might this year get something like $150 million of earnings indirectly for Berkshire's interest from the rest of the world just through Coca-Cola alone.”
Morning Session - 1994 Meeting
“Coke is expanding in China. Well, you know, I think, I forget what they showed last year, maybe 38% growth or something like that in cases.”
Morning Session - 1994 Meeting
“we like the international prospects, obviously, a company like Coke. We like the international prospects of a company like Gillette.”
Morning Session - 1994 Meeting
“you'll never get a chance to buy the whole Coca-Cola company or the whole Chile company. Businesses like that, sensational businesses”
Morning Session - 1994 Meeting
“the risk of buying something like Coca-Cola at the price we bought it at a few years ago is essentially so close to nil in terms of our perspective holding period.”
Morning Session - 1994 Meeting
“whether it's Coca-Cola or Gillette or Wells Fargo, is in its intrinsic valuation, is 100% sensitive to interest rates”
USC Lecture: A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom (1994)
“MODELS FROM BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INVESTMENTS: COKE, GILLETTE, GEICO & THE WASHINGTON POST”
USC Lecture: A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom (1994)
“One advantage of Coca-Cola is that it's available almost everywhere in the world.”
USC Lecture: A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom (1994)
“bottlers of Pepsi and Coke both make a lot of money and many others where they destroy most of the profitability of the two franchises.”
USC Lecture: A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom (1994)
“you'd be holding a block of Wal-Mart and a block of Coca-Cola and a block of something else”
USC Lecture: A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom (1994)
“What's the next Coca-Cola investment for us?”
USC Lecture: A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom (1994)
“Coca-Cola had it all. It was perfect.... we invested in Coca-Cola - which had some untapped pricing power. And it also had brilliant management.”
USC Lecture: A Lesson on Elementary, Worldly Wisdom (1994)
“Gillette and Coke make fairly low-priced items and have a tremendous marketing advantage all over the world.”
1993 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“From 1991 to 1993, Coke and Gillette increased their annual operating earnings per share by 38% and 37% respectively, but their market prices moved up only 11% and 6%.”
1993 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Two years ago, Coca-Cola and Gillette, both large holdings of ours, enjoyed market price increases that dramatically outpaced their earnings gains.”
1993 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Coke went public in 1919 at $40 per share. By the end of 1920 the market, coldly reevaluating Coke's future prospects, had battered the stock down by more than 50%, to $19.50.”
1993 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“The Coca-Cola Company ........ 7.2% 7.1% 94 82”
1993 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“The Coca-Cola Company. ............... 1,023,920 4,167,975”
1993 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“investing $40 in The Coca-Cola Co. in 1919... a 50-fold increase in physical volume from a company that in 1938 was already dominant”
1993 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“It would be hard to name any company comparable in size to Coca-Cola and selling, as Coca-Cola does, an unchanged product that can point to a ten-year record anything like Coca-Cola's.”
1993 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Why, then, should we need a quote on our 7% interest in Coke?”
1993 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Coca-Cola and Gillette possess far less business risk over the long term than, say, any computer company or retailer? Worldwide, Coke sells about 44% of all soft drinks”
1993 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Roberto Goizueta had become CEO of Coke in 1981... took hold of a company that had stagnated... moved it from $4.4 billion of market value to $58 billion in less than 13 years”
1993 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Another of last year's retirees was Don Keough of Coca-Cola, although, as he puts it, his retirement lasted "about 14 hours."”
1993 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Coca-Cola wants its product to be present at the happy times of a person's life.”
1993 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“decision to have Berkshire make a record $1 billion investment in Coca-Cola in 1988-89”
1992 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“The Coca-Cola Company ......... 7.1% 7.0% 82 69”
1992 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“93,400,000 The Coca-Cola Company. ............... 1,023,920 3,911,125”
1991 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“a dramatic rise in the price-earnings ratios of Coca-Cola and Gillette. These two stocks accounted for nearly $1.6 billion of our $2.1 billion growth”
1991 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“The Coca-Cola Company .......... 7.0% 7.0% 69 58”
1991 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“46,700,000 The Coca-Cola Company. .............. 1,023,920 3,747,675”
1991 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Guinness, however, earns its money in much the same fashion as Coca-Cola and Gillette, U.S.-based companies that garner most of their profits from international operations.”
1991 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“a mistake that, thankfully, I did not repeat when Coca-Cola stock rose similarly during our purchase program”
1989 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“large capital gains realized by GEICO and Coca-Cola. If this $212 million had been distributed”
1989 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“23,350,000 The Coca-Cola Co. ....................... 1,023,920 1,803,787”
1989 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Coca-Cola had in 1981 become a new company with the move of Roberto Goizueta to CEO”
1989 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Coke blanketed the world. During this period, however, I carefully avoided buying even a single share”
1989 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“What was already the world's most ubiquitous product gained new momentum, with sales overseas virtually exploding”
1989 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Through a truly rare blend of marketing and financial skills, Roberto has maximized both the growth of his product and the rewards that this growth brings to shareholders”
1989 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Of course, we should have started buying Coke much earlier, soon after Roberto and Don began running things”
1988 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“The Coca-Cola Company - listed in common stock holdings with market value of $632,448 thousand”
1988 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“In 1988 we made major purchases of Federal Home Loan Mortgage Pfd. ('Freddie Mac') and Coca Cola. We expect to hold these securities for a long time.”
1985 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“after 48 years of allegiance to another soft drink, your Chairman, in an unprecedented display of behavioral flexibility, has converted to the new Cherry Coke”
1983 Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letter
“Mrs. B" (a personal trademark now as well recognized in Greater Omaha as Coca-Cola or Sanka)”