Warren Buffett endorses Chinese suit maker

"Buy American.....I am!" - Warren Buffett in OpEd piece last October before the stock mkt fell another -30%

and now this.....




Warren Buffett 'Suits Up' .. and a Chinese Stock Soars

Published: Monday, 14 Sep 2009 | 5:14 PM ET Text Size By: Alex Crippen
Executive Producer

Warren Buffett's enthusiastic praise of his Chinese business suits and the company that made them may have given the mensware manufacturer's stock a big boost.

In Shanghai trading, shares of Dalian Dayang Trands are up almost 19 percent over a few days to a high for the year, after China Daily highlighted Buffett's endorsement.

The state-run English-language newspaper says it has an average daily circulation of over 300,000 around the world.


China Daily ran this photograph with the caption: "Warren Buffett, widely acknowledged as the 'Oracle of Omaha' embraces Li Guilian, chairwoman of Dayan Trands, a sign of the friendship and respect he developed for one of China's leading businesswomen."
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The effusive September 10 article includes a photo of Buffett hugging Dayang Trands chairwoman Li Guilian, who was invited by Buffett to this year's Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha .. where he wore only tailor-made suits from her company.

It describes a video tape made by Buffett to mark Dayang Trand's 30th anniversary, in which the billionaire says he has nine suits made in China that "fit perfectly" and has thrown everything else away. Buffett adds that his friend, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, is also wearing Trands suits, at Buffett's recommendation.

In the tape, Buffett describes his visit to Dayang Trands as a "highlight" of his stop in Dalian, part of a 2007 tour of China and South Korea.

While he doesn't say anything about buying a stake in the company, Buffett does joke in the tape that he and Gates might start a clothing store to sell Trands suits. "We will be great salesmen, because we love them so much."

Buffett's Berkshire has taken a 10 percent stake in BYD, a Chinese company producing an all-electric-car.

No word from Buffett on how he feels about Chinese-made tires.

http://www.trands.com

http://www.cnbc.com/id/32845411

Wow. Anyone have pics of Buffet or Gates wearing the suits?

Those are some proud shoulders in that pic. I'd be curious to see other pics as well.

But doesn't Buffet drive a 1922 Ford Pinto? They may very well be amazing suits, but I don't need his style advice.

they do look so cute together.

Wow, at least he has the right idea as these are tailored suits, they fit right....and throw away the rest.

Regards.

Oh wow, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. I can't wait to copy how they dress.

Make no mistake, Buffet is no friend of the American worker. He's closed down more American factories and laid off more American workers than one can count. It's no surprise that he's endorsing a Chinese suit. I simply shake my head at how misguided he and Gates are.

Originally Posted by justindo

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Make no mistake, Buffet is no friend of the American worker. He's closed down more American factories and laid off more American workers than one can count. It's no surprise that he's endorsing a Chinese suit. I simply shake my head at how misguided he and Gates are.
They are ingenious profiteers and they don't pretend they aren't. Buffett has also dedicated something like 90% of his billions to charity following his death; not a bad guy. Also, you think Warren Buffett and Bill Gates singlehandedly shut down American factories? Your post is pointless on so many levels. This is the clothing section. Take it to politics/money section if you want to discuss how anti-American billionaires are.

Buffett can't make money in the US anymore.

Anyway, is anybody really surprised that Buffett supports a publicly traded company?

Their suits are made entirely out of lead and melamine.

Kidding aside, they probably use the same machines the factories in other countries do.

Some of these Chinese made suits are not bad in fabrics and construction quality, it's the cut and the lack of "tailoring" that are missing. Many local makers basically copy the pattern of other commercially successful brands such as Zegna and Cerruti and sells them at about 50% discount to the originals. These are the type of RTW suits you typically find at higher end department stores around China.

Originally Posted by maomao1980

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Some of these Chinese made suits are not bad in fabrics and construction quality, it's the cut and the lack of "tailoring" that are missing. Many local makers basically copy the pattern of other commercially successful brands such as Zegna and Cerruti and sells them at about 50% discount to the originals. These are the type of RTW suits you typically find at higher end department stores around China.
If they're copying the pattern and fabrics and construction quality, I don't see what's so bad about it at 50% off. Plus, it'll have more of the hand tailoring that you guys want. You can argue that the fabrics won't be as good, but Italians don't get tailoring skills by genetics. Also, as generous as those two are, they have more than enough money for generations of their offspring. Might as well give yourself a good name a la Rockefeller.

Originally Posted by Alias

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Kidding aside, they probably use the same machines the factories in other countries do.

Originally Posted by maomao1980

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Some of these Chinese made suits are not bad in fabrics and construction quality, it's the cut and the lack of "tailoring" that are missing. Many local makers basically copy the pattern of other commercially successful brands such as Zegna and Cerruti and sells them at about 50% discount to the originals. These are the type of RTW suits you typically find at higher end department stores around China.

Madam Li is one of the smartest people I have ever worked with; she started her company as a small workshop in a tiny village and it's now a HUGE manufacturing group. I don't know what the real numbers are, but at the time I heard the something to the effect of 10 to 15 thousand people working for her, which I have no trouble believing.

The real beauty of her organization is that she recognized that she had resources but not know-how; if you (as a western buyer) were ready to commit to a certain number of units per month, she would build you a (sparkling, clean, new) building, and stock it with whatever equipment you wanted (all brand new and imported from Europe, thank you) but you had to show them what you wanted to do. We were a bunch of technicians from all over the world in our respective factories teaching them how to make suits the western way, from fused all the way to fully hand made canvas construction. She also hired Italians who had been losing their jobs because of the collapse of manufacturing who would spend six months to a year at a time floating between the factories to maintain quality standards while we went home. This is, by the way, a technician's dream, to have a blank canvas to create the perfect factory, and no time or budget constraints or piece-work rates to worry about. The mantra was just do it right. They used our patterns and made the suits our way to our quality standards. Madam Li threw a lot of money at us, but in the end she gained from our know-how and technology.

Manufacturers are all under pressure from retailers to lower prices so as we were all marching to northern China it was not about making more money or enslaving Chinese workers or cutting corners and reducing quality- in fact, the lower wage rate meant we could INCREASE the quality and the amount of time spent on the garment for a better price.

Like China, Japan was once known as a source of cheap crap but has turned that around; the day will come that China erases this stigma attached to its goods as well.

Originally Posted by jefferyd

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Like China, Japan was once known as a source of cheap crap but has turned that around; the day will come that China erases this stigma attached to its goods as well.

jefferyd, I'm glad you cleared that up and added insightful info. A recent thread on PRL and made in China garments/goods had brought on much debate, with a lot of it being political. While I respect that some insist on buying goods made in the USA or elsewhere, I take exception to the assumption that they are of better quality simply because of that.

I had an interesting chat with a guy who picks up loads of suits from the Montreal manufacturers and sells them out of his home. He commented about the apparent decline in quality of goods made here, including some by a well respected maker. He pointed out apparent faults on a couple of suits he had for sale. He went on to say that the Chinese are quickly catching up; this is likely due to increased qc, combined with a better trained workforce and better facilities (as you have mentionned). It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the future.