See's Candies is owned by Berkshire Hathaway (the United States, NYSE: BRK.B), which acquired the brand on 3 January 1972 for $25 million.[1][2] See's Candies was founded in 1921 in Los Angeles and was independent until 1972.
Evidence: Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Annual Report on Form 10-K filed 2026-03-02, SEC EDGAR, 2 March 2026. Verified from filings; last checked .
See's Candies is a Californian chocolatier founded in 1921 and named after the founder's mother, whose portrait is still on the boxes. Berkshire Hathaway bought it in 1972 for $25 million, a purchase Warren Buffett has repeatedly said taught him to pay up for a business with a durable brand.
A plain count of the times the name appears in the text of each annual report, not counting the start of a sentence. A brand that an owner writes about more is usually one it treats as central. The brand is named less often than it was three years earlier.
The USPTO record for the See's Candies mark lists Columbia Insurance Company as the owner of record (serial number 73718770). A trademark is often held by a group company rather than the listed parent, so the registrant's name can differ from the owner named above.[3]
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full Berkshire Hathaway ownership tree →
See the full Berkshire Hathaway brand portfolio (19) →
Berkshire Hathaway controls 19 brands on Brandtree.
The 131 brands in chocolate on Brandtree belong to 45 owners. The largest is Mars, with 9.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| Bounty | Mars | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Cadbury | Mondelēz | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Danusia | Wawel | 🇵🇱 Poland |
| Elizabeth Shaw | Colian | 🇵🇱 Poland |
| Baby Ruth | Ferrero | 🇮🇹 Italy |
| Almond Joy | Hershey | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Caffarel | Lindt & Sprüngli | 🇨🇭 Switzerland |
| Eitt Sett | Nói Síríus | 🇮🇸 Iceland |
Berkshire Hathaway is a holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, founded in 1839. Brandtree records 19 brands under its control, and it is listed as NYSE: BRK.B.
Berkshire Hathaway is a holding company built by Warren Buffett from a failing textile mill. Alongside insurance and railroads it owns consumer businesses outright and holds large minority stakes in others, including Kraft Heinz and The Coca-Cola Company.
Berkshire Hathaway: full profile, brands and acquisition history →
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 2,549 brands that began in the United States. 478 of them (19%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country; See's Candies is not one of them.
Berkshire Hathaway bought See's Candies for $25 million. Warren Buffett has repeatedly described it as the purchase that taught him to pay up for a business with pricing power rather than hunt for statistically cheap ones, and it has returned many times its cost.
The parent company of See's Candies is Berkshire Hathaway, a holding company headquartered in the United States.
Yes. See's Candies originated in the United States in 1921 and its owner, Berkshire Hathaway, is also headquartered in the United States.
Berkshire Hathaway completed its acquisition of See's Candies on 3 January 1972, after announcing the deal on 3 January 1972. The deal was valued at $25 million.
See's Candies was an independent company from its founding in 1921 in Los Angeles until Berkshire Hathaway acquired it in 1972.
Yes. As of 10 October 2026, See's Candies is still owned by Berkshire Hathaway. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
Report a correction Opens a pre-filled GitHub issue. See our corrections policy.
Brandtree needs to remember this choice and does not set any other cookie unless you accept.
If you choose “Accept all”, we also use Google Analytics cookies to count visits and see which pages help, so we can improve the site.
If you choose “Accept required”, no analytics cookie is set. Google Analytics still receives a cookieless ping with the page address and your IP address. No advertising is used either way. Privacy policy