巴菲特致股东的信（1983年）⑥喜诗糖果

See’s Candy Shops

The financial results at See’s continue to be exceptional. The business possesses a valuable and solid consumer franchise and a manager equally valuable and solid.

喜诗糖果

喜诗糖果的经营表现依旧亮丽，它拥有可贵而稳固的客户基础与管理阶层。

In recent years See’s has encountered two important problems, at least one of which is well on its way toward solution. That problem concerns costs, except those for raw materials. We have enjoyed a break on raw material costs in recent years though so, of course, have our competitors. One of these days we will get a nasty surprise in the opposite direction. In effect, raw material costs are largely beyond our control since we will, as a matter of course, buy the finest ingredients that we can, regardless of changes in their price levels. We regard product quality as sacred.

近年来喜诗遇到两个重大的难题，所幸其中至少有一个已找到解决的方法，这问题与成本有关，不过不是指原料成本，虽然我们跟竞争同业比原料成本较高，而若这种情况相反的话我们反而会不高兴，事实上原料成本是我们较无法控制的，因为不管价格如何变化，我们所使用皆属最上等的的原料，我们视产品品质为最重要的一点。

But other kinds of costs are more controllable, and it is in this area that we have had problems. On a per-pound basis, our costs (not including those for raw materials) have increased in the last few years at a rate significantly greater than the increase in the general price level. It is vital to our competitive position and profit potential that we reverse this trend.

但在其它成本却是我们所可以控制的，不过问题却出在这身上，我们的成本(以每磅为基本单位，但不包括原料成本)增加的速度远高于一般物价水准，若要扭转现在的竞争劣势与获利危机，降低成本绝对有其必要性。

In recent months much better control over costs has been attained and we feel certain that our rate of growth in these costs in 1984 will be below the rate of inflation. This confidence arises out of our long experience with the managerial talents of Chuck Huggins. We put Chuck in charge the day we took over, and his record has been simply extraordinary, as shown by the following table:

所幸最近几个月，成本已受到有效控制，相信1984年的成本增加率将会低于通货膨胀，这自信源自于我们与Chuck多年来共事的经验，打从我们买下喜诗以来便由他负责，而他的表现就如同下表一样有目共睹:

The other problem we face, as the table suggests, is our recent inability to achieve meaningful gains in pounds sold. The industry has the same problem. But for many years we outperformed the industry in this respect and now we are not.

我们面临的另一个问题，如上表中可看到的是我们在实际售出的糖果磅数停滞不前，事实上这是这个行业普遍遇到的困难，只是过去我们的表现明显优于同业，不过现在却一样惨。

The poundage volume in our retail stores has been virtually unchanged each year for the past four, despite small increases every year in the number of shops (and in distribution expense as well). Of course, dollar volume has increased because we have raised prices significantly. But we regard the most important measure of retail trends to be units sold per store rather than dollar volume. On a same-store basis (counting only shops open throughout both years) with all figures adjusted to a 52-week year, poundage was down .8 of 1% during 1983. This small decline was our best same-store performance since 1979; the cumulative decline since then has been about 8%. Quantity-order volume, about 25% of our total, has plateaued in recent years following very large poundage gains throughout the 1970s.

过去四年来我们平均每家分店卖出的糖果数事实上无多大变化，尽管分店数有所增加(而销售费用有同样增加)，当然营业额因我们大幅调涨售价而增加许多，但我们认为衡量一家店经营绩效的标准在于每家分店卖出糖果磅数而非销售额，1983年平均一家店的销售量减少了0.8%，不过这已是1979年来较好的表现了，累计的降幅约达8%，集体订购量(约占整体销售的25%)在经过1970年代成长高峰后已停滞不前。

We are not sure to what extent this flat volume - both in the retail shop area and the quantity order area - is due to our pricing policies and to what extent it is due to static industry volume, the recession, and the extraordinary share of market we already enjoy in our primary marketing area. Our price increase for 1984 is much more modest than has been the case in the past few years, and we hope that next year we can report better volume figures to you. But we have no basis to forecast these.

我们不确定分店与集体订购的销售量无法增加主要是受到我们的定价策略还是景气萧条或是我们的市场占有率太高的影响，不过1984年我们调涨的幅度较以往几年温和，希望明年跟各位报告的销售量能因此增加，不过我们却无任何依据能保证这种情况一定会发生。

Despite the volume problem, See’s strengths are many and important. In our primary marketing area, the West, our candy is preferred by an enormous margin to that of any competitor. In fact, we believe most lovers of chocolate prefer it to candy costing two or three times as much. (In candy, as in stocks, price and value can differ; price is what you give, value is what you get.) The quality of customer service in our shops - operated throughout the country by us and not by franchisees is every bit as good as the product. Cheerful, helpful personnel are as much a trademark of See’s as is the logo on the box. That’s no small achievement in a business that requires us to hire about 2000 seasonal workers. We know of no comparably-sized organization that betters the quality of customer service delivered by Chuck Huggins and his associates.

除了销量的问题，喜诗具有多项且重要的竞争优势，在我们主要的销售地区-西部，我们的糖果为消费者所偏爱，他们甚至愿意用多花二三倍的价钱来享受(糖果就如同股票一样，价格与价值乃有所不同，价格是指你所付出的，而价值却是指你所得到的)，我们全美直营店服务的品质跟我们的产品一样好，亲切贴心的服务人员就跟包装上的商标一样，以一家雇用二千名季节性员工的企业来说，可是不容易办到的，这都要归功于Chuck与所有同仁的努力。

Because we have raised prices so modestly in 1984, we expect See’s profits this year to be about the same as in 1983.

而由于我们在1984年仅微幅调整价格，所以预期明年度的获利只与今年相当。

See’s Candy Shops The financial results at See’s continue to be exceptional. The business possesses a valuable and solid consumer franchise and a manager equally valuable and solid.

The other problem we face, as the table suggests, is our recent inability to achieve meaningful gains in pounds sold. The industry has the same problem. But for many years we outperformed the industry in this respect and now we are not.

Because we have raised prices so modestly in 1984, we expect See’s profits this year to be about the same as in 1983.

See’s Candy Shops

The financial results at See’s continue to be exceptional. The business possesses a valuable and solid consumer franchise and a manager equally valuable and solid.