巴菲特致股东的信（2009年）⑥制造业、服务业和零售业

Manufacturing, Service and Retailing Operations

制造业、服务业和零售业

Our activities in this part of Berkshire cover the waterfront. Let’s look, though, at a summary balance sheet and earnings statement for the entire group.

伯克希尔在这些行业中业务众多。首先让我们先看一下整个集团的资产负债表和损益表摘要。

Almost all of the many and widely-diverse operations in this sector suffered to one degree or another from 2009’s severe recession. The major exception was McLane, our distributor of groceries, confections and non-food items to thousands of retail outlets, the largest by far Wal-Mart.

2009 年全球经济衰退使我们旗下种类繁多的业务都受到某种程度上的影响，但麦克莱恩(McLane)却是个例外，它是杂货、糖果及其它非食品类商品的分销商，为数千家零售店提供供应服务，目前其最大客户是著名零售企业沃尔玛。

Grady Rosier led McLane to record pre-tax earnings of $344 million, which even so amounted to only slightly more than one cent per dollar on its huge sales of $31.2 billion. McLane employs a vast array of physical assets – practically all of which it owns – including 3,242 trailers, 2,309 tractors and 55 distribution centers with 15.2 million square feet of space. McLane’s prime asset, however, is Grady.

格雷迪·罗齐尔(Grady Rosier)领导下的麦克莱恩 2009 年创下了 3.44 亿美元的税前收益纪录。尽管如此，其 312 亿美元的销售收入中，每 1 美元的利润只有 1 美分。麦克莱恩拥有一系列实物资产，包括 3242 辆拖车、2309 辆牵引机及总面积达 1520 万平方英尺的 55 个分销中心。当然麦克莱恩最重要的资产是 Grady。

We had a number of companies at which profits improved even as sales contracted, always an exceptional managerial achievement. Here are the CEOs who made it happen:

我们许多公司尽管销售下滑但盈利增长，这一直是一项非凡的管理成就，以下是成就这一事实的 CEO 们：

Among the businesses we own that have major exposure to the depressed industrial sector, both Marmon and Iscar turned in relatively strong performances. Frank Ptak’s Marmon delivered a 13.5% pre-tax profit margin, a record high. Though the company’s sales were down 27%, Frank’s cost-conscious management mitigated the decline in earnings.

在我们拥有的受低迷工业部门影响的主要企业中，Marmon 和 Iscar 的表现都相对强劲。尽管弗兰克-普塔克(FrankPtak)领导的 Marmon 公司销售额下降了 27%，但税前利润增长 13.5%创下历史新高，弗兰克的成本管理弥补了收益下滑。

Nothing stops Israel-based Iscar – not wars, recessions or competitors. The world’s two other leading suppliers of small cutting tools both had very difficult years, each operating at a loss throughout much of the year. Though Iscar’s results were down significantly from 2008, the company regularly reported profits, even while it was integrating and rationalizing Tungaloy, the large Japanese acquisition that we told you about last year. When manufacturing rebounds, Iscar will set new records. Its incredible managerial team of Eitan Wertheimer, Jacob Harpaz and Danny Goldman will see to that.

无论战争、经济衰退还是竞争对手，都无法阻止以色列的 Iscar 公司前进的步伐。世界上另外两家小型切削工具供应商年内大半时间都处在亏损状态。尽管 Iscar 业绩相比 2008 年也明显下滑，但是依然盈利，即使在合并和吸收 Tungaloy 的过程中也是如此(去年我曾向你介绍 Iscar 在日本收购切削工具供应商 Tungaloy)。一旦制造业复苏，Iscar 将再创新高。由 EitanWertheimer，JacobHarpaz 和 DannyGoldman 组成的管理团队对此翘首以待。

Every business we own that is connected to residential and commercial construction suffered severely in 2009. Combined pre-tax earnings of Shaw, Johns Manville, Acme Brick, and MiTek were $227 million, an 82.5% decline from $1.295 billion in 2006, when construction activity was booming. These businesses continue to bump along the bottom, though their competitive positions remain undented.

2009 年，我们拥有的与住宅及商业建筑相关的业务都遭到了严重的冲击。Shaw，JohnsManville，MiTek，AcmeBrick 的税前总收益是 2.27 亿美元，较 2006 年建筑业高潮期的 12.95 亿美元减少 82.5%。上述企业仍将奋力挣扎，但其竞争力依然完好无损。

The major problem for Berkshire last year was NetJets, an aviation operation that offers fractional ownership of jets. Over the years, it has been enormously successful in establishing itself as the premier company in its industry, with the value of its fleet far exceeding that of its three major competitors combined. Overall, our dominance in the field remains unchallenged.

伯克希尔去年面临的最主要的问题是经营飞机部分所有权的利捷航空 NetJets。多年来，NetJets 成功的确立为该行业的龙头企业，它拥有的机队价值超过其三大竞争对手的总和。总体上说，NetJets 在该行业中的主导地位仍然没有收到挑战。

NetJets’ business operation, however, has been another story. In the eleven years that we have owned the company, it has recorded an aggregate pre-tax loss of $157 million. Moreover, the company’s debt has soared from $102 million at the time of purchase to $1.9 billion in April of last year. Without Berkshire’s guarantee of this debt, NetJets would have been out of business. It’s clear that I failed you in letting NetJets descend into this condition. But, luckily, I have been bailed out.

但NetJets管理运营上存在问题。在我们拥有 NetJets 的 11 年中，累计税前亏损达到了 1.57 亿美元。此外，截至去年 4 月，公司债务由最初的 1.02 亿美元飞涨至 19 亿美元。如果没有伯克希尔对其债务提供担保，恐怕 NetJets 已经倒闭了。显然对于 NetJets 走到今天这个地步我难辞其咎，但幸运的是我们已经获得救援。

Dave Sokol, the enormously talented builder and operator of MidAmerican Energy, became CEO of NetJets in August. His leadership has been transforming: Debt has already been reduced to $1.4 billion, and, after suffering a staggering loss of $711 million in 2009, the company is now solidly profitable.

中美能源杰出的建立者及管理者大卫·索科尔(Dave Sokol)于去年 8 月成为 NetJets 的新任 CEO。他改革了旧有的领导方式，目前公司债务已下降至 14 亿美元，在 2009 年遭受了 7.11 亿美元惊人的亏损后，公司现在已经实现了稳定的赢利。

Most important, none of the changes wrought by Dave have in any way undercut the top-of-the-line standards for safety and service that Rich Santulli, NetJets’ previous CEO and the father of the fractional-ownership industry, insisted upon. Dave and I have the strongest possible personal interest in maintaining these standards because we and our families use NetJets for almost all of our flying, as do many of our directors and managers. None of us are assigned special planes nor crews. We receive exactly the same treatment as any other owner, meaning we pay the same prices as everyone else does when we are using our personal contracts. In short, we eat our own cooking. In the aviation business, no other testimonial means more.

更为重要的是，大卫采取的措施丝毫没有损害 NetJets 前任 CEO 共享飞机之父 RichSantulli 所坚持的安全和服务的严格标准。大卫和我对于保持上述标准非常赞同，我们及家人的出行几乎都乘 NetJets 的航班，而且公司的许多主管和经理也是如此。我们没有人被指派专机和服务人员。我们与其他乘客一视同仁，支付同样的价格，享受同样的服务。简言之，我们自己做饭自己吃。在航空业，没有其它的(安全)证明文件能比这个更有力。