Nevertheless, Lemann has made a believer out of Buffett, widely recognized as one of savviest and most successful investors in the world.

With Buffett, who’s sitting on an $85 billion cash hoard, the strategy is simple. Buffett ponies up the money to help finance the acquisitions and Lemann’s team does the dirty work. Invariably, that means firing workers, closing factories and paring unnecessary expenses.

When all the savings are wrung out, 3G looks for the next target. And there’s no shortage of options in the packaged-food industry, which is struggling as consumers shun traditional grocery staples for healthier options.

At Heinz, the first deal that Buffett did with Lemann, 3G immediately installed its own managers. They shuttered five factories, did away with employee perks and eliminated more than 7,000 jobs. After just 18 months, Heinz’s profit margins (based on a measure known as Ebitda) rose to an industry-leading 26 percent from 18 percent prior to the takeover.

‘Loaded Up’

That paved the way for the Kraft Foods takeover, which was announced in March 2015. At the time, 3G promised to cut $1.5 billion in annual costs by the end of 2017. So far, it’s ahead of schedule. According to research from Bernstein, Kraft Heinz is already 88 percent of the way there. Margins are also up. Before the acquisition, Kraft’s Ebitda consistently hovered around 20 percent of revenue. Now, the combined company’s margin is at 30 percent.

In addition, Kraft Heinz has announced plans to fire at least 5,000 workers. Charles Munger, vice chairman at Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, has endorsed the job cuts pushed by 3G’s managers, saying such measures are essential to a productive capitalist system.

Investors have taken notice. Shares of Kraft Heinz have risen 23 percent since the company began trading in July 2015 -- more than double the gain of consumer staples stocks in the S&P 500 Index.

Kraft Heinz’s success is fueling speculation 3G will soon need to look for yet another target to tack on to keep things going. Last November, news that the investment firm was raising at least $5 billion to finance a new acquisition pushed shares of General Mills, Kellogg, Campbell and Mondelez higher.

“They’ve pretty much implemented the playbook, so they’re loaded up and ready to go,” said Asit Sharma, an analyst at The Motley Fool.