CORT Launches Full Range of Transition Services for Companies and Individuals.

Industry's Leading Furniture Rental Company Evolves Into a Powerful, Uniquely Positioned Rental Relocation Services Company

FAIRFAX, Va. -- CORT, a Berkshire Hathaway company and the nation's leading furniture provider in the "rent-to-rent" industry, announces a comprehensive suite of services for the rental and related needs of companies and individuals in transition, from office moves to employee relocations and temporary assignments.

Building upon its core business of furniture rental for offices, apartments, trade shows and events, CORT has enhanced and expanded its capabilities to support the full range of transition services for companies and individuals, including hotels, apartments, corporate housing, area orientation tours, utility services, renter's insurance, car rental, job search assistance for spouses and much more. CORT relocation consultants can assist with virtually any services needed to help employees and their families begin living in new communities.

Companies need rental services when their business is in a state of transition, such as moving, expanding, hiring or acquiring. Start-up companies need to consider conserving cash resources for business needs, not buying furniture, and their needs can fluctuate quickly.

To showcase CORT's new strategy, Warren Buffett, legendary investor and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway, is touting CORT's distinctive capabilities to support businesses in transition through national print and broadcast outlets featuring the promise, "Wherever you're heading, we'll be there."

Buffett's renowned investment approach focuses on high-quality business with enduring competitive advantages to create what he calls a "moat" that is difficult for rivals to replicate. The strategy results in Berkshire Hathaway's many businesses that are dominant players in their industries with strong, sustainable competitive advantages.

CORT's competitive advantages include market leadership in the rent-to-rent furniture industry, a national presence with offices in every major U.S. market and employees with extensive local-market knowledge, existing business relationships with more than 80 percent of the Fortune 500 companies, the most expansive online apartment search service in the industry, a rapidly growing array of rental and related support services, and a tradition and culture of customer service excellence developed over more than 35 years.

"Over the past decade, we have continued to enhance CORT's capabilities to provide complementary relocation services," said Paul Arnold, chief executive officer of CORT. "By offering a full range of rental and related relocation services to companies and employees, we are positioned to directly support corporate customers. No other company exclusively focused on the needs of renters can provide these services everywhere in the nation."

Rental Relocation Needs Historically Neglected

Relocations and temporary assignments are on the rise. Approximately 60 percent of permanently relocated employees and more than 90 percent of temporarily assigned employees are renters. Even employees who intend to buy a home in a new location have rental needs for a period of time.

Traditionally, corporate relocation policies have been designed to support home owners. Outsourced services from third party companies have been provided by companies founded by real estate companies, mortgage companies or household goods movers that are also primarily interested in home owners and often turn to CORT for help with renters.

"The industry has recognized that the rental and related needs of relocating employees are underserved yet critical to employee productivity. Most companies providing these services in the past have been focused on the needs of home buyers, not renters," said Jeff Pederson, president of CORT. "For the past decade, CORT has been assembling the elements and partnerships necessary to become a single source and trusted provider of these services for companies and their employees."

Two Pronged Strategy

CORT has developed the industry's leading Internet-based apartment search service, ApartmentSearch.com. ApartmentSearch is designed to primarily support individuals seeking apartments anywhere in the nation. It offers a collection of 3.4 million apartments through a growing number of relationships with more than 17,000 apartment communities across the country.

CORT's new Rental Relocation Services sales force and a national call center, 1-888-360-CORT, target human relations professionals to provide coordinated services for companies and their employees.

Both ApartmentSearch and Rental Relocation Services leverage many of the same resources, including the collection of 3.4 million apartments. In addition, to support Rental Relocation Services, CORT can help customers find lodging through more than 70,000 hotels and extended stay units and more than 10,000 corporate housing units.

According to a CORT survey of human resource professionals and employees, reducing the stress of relocation is the primary benefit of working with a single service provider. Human resource professionals also appreciate the benefit of reducing the amount of time they spend to help employees and their families get settled into their new locations.

CORT designates a single point of contact for customers. A national representative will work with a human resource professional to create a custom suite of services. CORT's Seibel-based customer relationship management technology enables the development of business rules and the provision of services based on each corporate customer's policies.

CORTLine consultants will work with each individual employee to help them access the services they need.

By helping employees, CORT supports a customer's strategic recruitment and retention goals and, therefore, increases employee satisfaction and helps efficiently manage costs. In fact, high employee ratings for customer service and satisfaction may be the single most important measure of a company's relocation program's value.

About CORT

CORT is a Berkshire Hathaway Inc. company (NYSE: BRKA) (NYSE: BRKB). For more than 35 years, CORT has been a leading provider in rental furniture, accessories and related services in the "rent-to-rent" furniture industry for companies and individuals. CORT customers include more than 80 percent of the Fortune 500 companies. CORT has more than 2,500 employees in 34 states with offices in every major metro market. In addition, CORT has an expanding global presence with affiliates in more than 50 countries.

For more information about CORT, visit www.cort.com