英文早读第208篇，选自巴菲特年度信，友才翻译。
Blue Chip and Wesco are public companies with reporting requirements of their own. Later in this report we are reproducing the narrative reports of the principal executives of both companies, describing their 1978 operations. Some of the figures they utilize will not match to the penny the ones we use in this report, again because of accounting and tax complexities. But their comments should be helpful to you in understanding the underlying economic characteristics of these important partly‐owned businesses. A copy of the full annual report of either company will be mailed to any shareholder of Berkshire upon request to Mr. Robert H. Bird for Blue Chips Stamps, 5801 South Eastern Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90040, or to Mrs. Bette Deckard for Wesco Financial Corporation, 315 East Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena, California 91109.
蓝芯票证公司和韦斯科金融公司均为上市公司，有各自的信息披露要求。在本报告的后续部分，我们将转载这两家公司主要高管的叙述性报告，这些报告描述了它们1978年的运营情况。由于会计和税务方面的复杂性，他们使用的一些数据与我们在本报告中使用的数据不会精确到分毫不差。但他们的评论应有助于您理解这些重要的部分持股企业的潜在经济特征。伯克希尔的任何股东，若有需求，可向蓝芯票证公司的罗伯特H伯德先生（地址：加利福尼亚州洛杉矶市东南大道5801号，邮编90040）索取蓝芯票证公司的完整年报副本，或向韦斯科金融公司的贝蒂德卡德夫人（地址：加利福尼亚州帕萨迪纳市科罗拉多大道东315号，邮编91109）索取韦斯科金融公司的完整年报副本。
Textiles
纺织业务
Earnings of 1.3 million in 1978, while much improved from 1977, still represent a low return on the 17 million of capital employed in this business. Textile plant and equipment are on the books for a very small fraction of what it would cost to replace such equipment today. And, despite the age of the equipment, much of it is functionally similar to new equipment being installed by the industry. But despite this “bargain cost” of fixed assets, capital turnover is relatively low reflecting required high investment levels in receivables and inventory compared to sales. Slow capital turnover, coupled with low profit margins on sales, inevitably produces inadequate returns on capital. Obvious approaches to improved profit margins involve differentiation of product, lowered manufacturing costs through more efficient equipment or better utilization of people, redirection toward fabrics enjoying stronger market trends, etc. Our management is diligent in pursuing such objectives. The problem, of course, is that our competitors are just as diligently doing the same thing.
1978年盈利130万美元，尽管与1977年相比有显著改善，但就该业务投入的1700万美元资本而言，回报率仍然较低。纺织厂的厂房和设备在账面上的价值，仅占如今更换这些设备所需成本的极小一部分。而且，尽管设备老旧，但其中很多在功能上与该行业正在安装的新设备类似。不过，尽管固定资产的“成本低廉”，但资本周转率相对较低，这反映出与销售额相比，应收账款和库存方面需要较高的投资水平。资本周转缓慢，再加上销售利润率较低，必然导致资本回报率不足。提高利润率的常见方法包括产品差异化、通过更高效的设备或更合理的人力利用来降低制造成本、转向市场趋势更强劲的面料等。我们的管理层一直在努力实现这些目标。当然，问题在于我们的竞争对手也同样在努力做着相同的事情。
The textile industry illustrates in textbook style how producers of relatively undifferentiated goods in capital intensive businesses must earn inadequate returns except under conditions of tight supply or real shortage. As long as excess productive capacity exists, prices tend to reflect direct operating costs rather than capital employed. Such a supply‐excess condition appears likely to prevail most of the time in the textile industry, and our expectations are for profits of relatively modest amounts in relation to capital.
纺织业堪称经典案例，它表明，在资本密集型行业中，生产相对同质化产品的企业，除非面临供应紧张或真正的短缺局面，否则往往只能获得较低的回报。只要存在过剩产能，产品价格往往反映的是直接运营成本，而非所投入的资本。纺织行业似乎大多时候都会处于这种供应过剩的状态，因此我们预计，相对于资本投入而言，利润水平相对有限。
22.penny：分；便士
23.underlying：根本的；潜在的；下层的
24.plant：工厂；机器；设备
25.turnover：营业额；成交量；周转
26.inevitably：不可避免地
27.redirection：改方向；重定向
28.prevail：盛行；流行；普遍
