Warren Buffett is trying to paint over the ugly picture at Benjamin Moore — again.
The folksy tycoon bragged on TV Wednesday that his struggling paint brand is generating profits — despite charges that they have come at the expense of the company’s longtime employees and its stressed network of independent dealers.
“Incidentally, Benjamin Moore is making a lot of money,” Buffett said in an interview on CNBC, when asked about recent troubles at the 130-year-old label.
Buffett — whose Berkshire Hathaway bought Benjamin Moore for $1 billion in 2000 — boasted that Benjamin Moore has raked in $1.5 billion in profits over the past decade despite the housing crash.
“I was surprised he’d brag about the rewards he got at the expense of people like us,” a former Benjamin Moore exec said.
As reported by The Post, a New York dealer filed a lawsuit against the company, accusing it of using ruthless tactics to milk dealers for cash, including yanking credit lines without notice and welching on ad agreements.
Employees in recent seasons, meanwhile, have weathered layoffs, salary cuts and canceled bonuses as top execs have scrambled to harvest earnings, sources said.
Buffett, confirming an exclusive June, 2012 report by The Post, said Wednesday he ousted Benjamin Moore’s former CEO Denis Abrams after the exec tried to sign a distribution deal with a big-box retailer.
At the time, sources told The Post that Abrams had been wooing home-improvement giant Lowe’s as he sought to dismantle the century-old dealer network. Buffett Wednesday mentioned Lowe’s and Home Depot in addressing the issue but didn’t elaborate.
“I made a promise to the dealers that we were going to stick with them, we would not go with the big boxes,” Buffett said.
Insiders noted, however, that before last summer’s shake-up, Benjamin Moore had already signed deals with two other major chains.
Benjamin Moore inked a deal in February 2012 with Orchard Supply, a West Coast chain of about 100 hardware stores. Three months later, it announced a deal with Canadian Tire, a $12 billion Toronto chain.
As reported by The Post, Buffett’s 29-year-old financial assistant Tracy Britt, installed as chairman of Benjamin Moore last summer, was forced last month to fire the exec she had tapped to replace Abrams.
Bob Merritt, a 61-year-old restaurant veteran, was ousted amid allegations he had harassed female employees, sources told The Post.
“Recently, we had to make a change for a reason I can’t get into,” Buffett told CNBC when asked about The Post’s report. “We’ve got a new manager in there that’s working fine.”