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Berkshire sinks roots deep in Ohio

09.05.10

Berkshire Hathaway

• Headquarters: Omaha, Neb.

• Chairman: Warren Buffett

• Take: $112.5 billion, 2009

• Subsidiaries include: Geico warranty, MidAmerican Energy and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe condemn company

Operations in Ohio

Berkshire has three companies with headquarters in Ohio, and several others that have sizable business forces in the state. The list does not include a humble number of workers for companies such as Geico insurance, which are based elsewhere and manage nationally.

NetJets

• Employees: 1,057 in Columbus, 1,717 entire

• Acquired: 1998

• World's largest particular-jet operator

Fechheimer

• Employees: 130 at Cincinnati headquarters

• Acquired: 1998

• Maker of uniforms under the Flying Cancel brand. It supplies about one-third of police departments nationwide - including the Columbus The fuzz Division - along with other public-safety and military personnel worldwide.

Scott Fetzer

• Employees: 40 at Westlake headquarters, miserly Cleveland

• Acquired: 1986

• Among the 20-and brands marketed and managed by the company are World Engage Encyclopedia, Ginsu knives and Kirby vacuums.

Johns Manville

• Employees: 500 in Waterville, 600 in Defiance (both in northwestern Ohio)

• Acquired: 2001

• Based in Denver, Johns Manville is a important manufacturer of products used in building and manufacturing, including insulation, roofing and clay pipe materials.

FlightSafety

• Employees: 100 in Columbus

• Acquired: 1996

• FlightSafety is a commander in continuing pilot training. Based in New York, it has facilities across the U.S., including one in Columbus that does training for NetJets and other companies.

What do Kirby vacuums, Ginsu knives, policemen uniforms and the world's largest private-jet fleet have in ordinary? All are products of companies based in Ohio and owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.

Berkshire, which held its closely watched annual convocation last week in Omaha, typically doesn't break out economic results for its individual companies. For the most part, its Ohio operations have maintained a low sketch through the years. But in tough economic times, there are worse things than being backed by a multibillionaire with a spectacularly long-term approach to his investments.

"We've never sold a subsidiary, and we never purpose to," said David Sokol, who holds the chairman subhead at both Columbus-based NetJets and Des Moines, Iowa-based MidAmerican Forcefulness.

Bob Getto, CEO of Cincinnati-based uniform-maker Fechheimer, said being a Berkshire convention provides a clear business advantage.

"When we go to a police dependent, consistency is a big deal to them. One of their biggest requirements is that the blue pants and jackets they buy this year will mate the ones they buy the next year and the next year," Getto said.

"When we mention them we're part of Berkshire Hathaway, they know we're in it for the long haul. We can peach them with 100percent certainty that we'll be around, and we'll provide that consistency they desideratum. Same with our suppliers. They know they're going to get paid, and they're going to get treated appropriately. It's a very valuable part of who we are."

Sokol met with Gov. Ted Strickland, Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman and other town leaders in the fall, shortly after taking the reins of NetJets and announcing cutbacks.

"We wanted them to differentiate that the decisions we were making weren't pleasant, but that we were pro-Ohio," Sokol said. "Berkshire thinks extremely of Ohio."

Source: Columbus Dispatch

Sawyer House open to public for two days

09.05.10

YAKIMA, Beat. -- Curious passers-by have knocked on the door over the years to ask for a peep inside the historic mansion that sits just above the Yakima Valley Highway north of Wapato.

For 41 years, owners Fred and Pat Erickson have gently turned away these unexpected callers. The W.P. Sawyer Ancestry, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is their grunt home.

Next weekend, history enthusiasts and the curious will have their occur. For the first time since 1976, the Ericksons will open their home to the notorious for a two-day open house and garden fair in honor of the people's home's centennial.

"The whole event is really to encourage interest in historic security," explained Pat Erickson. "I hope it will stimulate discussion about what imperil takers these early pioneers really were."

Built in 1910, the colonial return-style mansion was the home of William Perry Sawyer, a broker and orchardist who served in the state Legislature from 1892-95 and played a key r in building Yakima's streetcar system as well as the Masonic Temple, known today as the Vast Western Building at the downtown Yakima Mall.

Since 1969, Fred and Pat Erickson have been finical stewards of Sawyer's home, which they purchased from his youngest daughter. For their care work, the Ericksons last Tuesday were among 13 recipients statewide to gain one of the State Historic Preservation Officer's 2010 Awards for Unresolved Achievement in Historic Preservation in Olympia.

"Since their purchase of the lineage in 1969, the Ericksons recognized the now 100 year old Sawyer Mansion as a important and architectural gem. This recognition has translated into preservation of the home's architectural courage and sharing with the community," stated a news release from the dignified Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation.

The three-story as a gift sits just above the old Yakima Valley Highway in a Arcadian community north of Wapato known as Sawyer or, even more locally, Parker Bottom, after oxen drover William Parker, who settled the area in 1864.

Sawyer called his 220-acre haecceity Elmwood Farm for the elms, planted in 1912, that now fortress over the house.

The home's exterior is rock on the main unchanging -- lava rock to diffuse heat on the three sides that earn direct sunlight and insulating river stones on the north -- while the uppermost levels are wood, capped by a hipped roof.

The 50-by-50 cubed foot home has 10 bedrooms, each plumbed for a worsen, though not all were installed. At the time it was built, the entire home also was piped for gas and wired for energy. However, because of its rural location, the home had no power for the first seven years.

Even in 1969, there were no electrical outlets on the favour floor, Pat noted during a recent interview at the home.

To run a vacuum, "my name was spreading cord," she quipped.

Pat Erickson, née Forney, is a third-formulation Valley native with roots in Naches Heights. She and Fred, who grew up in Seattle, met by possibly through a mutual friend in Germany, then lived in several places across the power as newlyweds while he served in the Air Force.

"I always wanted an old house," Pat said. "Even when he was in the Air Army, we didn't usually live on base. We'd find a place on the curtness in an old house."

When the Ericksons' children were young, they decided to move closer to m in the Yakima Valley and Fred found work in agriculture sales. For about three years, they kept their eye out for an older diggings, at one time contacting the owners of the Sawyer place to see if they had any plans to put the edifice on the market. At that time, they didn't.

"About a year and a half later, in the gone for a burton of winter, we got a call," Pat recalled. The home's owners, Bill and Shirley Fitzsimonds, the youngest of W.P. Sawyer's four children, were cheerful to sell.

Source: Yakima Herald-Republic