Mike Searles, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway-owned (BRK.A) Benjamin Moore, says working for Warren Buffett is ‘an honor and a privilege’ and a dream come true. Searles says as a Berkshire Hathaway employee, he feels like a rookie baseball player that just got signed with the Yankees. Searles says Buffett has created a unique workplace culture that emphasizes values and promises kept. He says one example of that is when Berkshire Hathaway bought Benjamin Moore in 2000, he promised the independent dealers that the company’s paint would never be sold in big box stores and he kept his word. Searles says Benjamin Moore could have sold a lot more paint and done a lot more volume in the big box stores, but Buffett kept his promise to the company’s family-owned dealers. He adds that he can’t imagine the environment created by Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger over the past fifty years being replicated in American business. Benjamin Moore’s sales in 2014 were the best they’ve been in the past nine years. Searles says the start of 2015 was a little rough due to bad weather in the Northeast, but the first quarter ended positive and April sales did well. Searles spoke with TheStreet’s Rhonda Schaffler in Omaha, Nebraska ahead of the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting.
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