The Kraft Heinz Company (KHC), commonly known as Kraft Heinz, is an American multinational food company formed by the merger of

Kraft Foods The second incarnation of Kraft Foods is an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. in 2012 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz in 2015. A merger with Heinz, arra ...

and

Heinz The H. J. Heinz Company is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869. Heinz manufactures thousands of food products in plants on six conti ...

co-headquartered in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

. Kraft Heinz is the third-largest

food and beverage The foodservice (US English) or catering (British English) industry includes the businesses, institutions, and companies which prepare meals outside the home. It includes restaurants, school and hospital cafeterias, catering operations, and many ...

company in North America and the fifth-largest in the world with over $26.0 billion in annual sales as of 2020. In addition to Kraft and Heinz, over 20 other brands are part of the company's profile including

Boca Burger Boca Burger is a veggie burger produced by Kraft Heinz in Chicago, Illinois. Like all of Boca Foods' products, Boca Burgers serve as a meat alternative. History The Boca Foods Company began in 1979 with the vegetarian "Sun Burger" product, as one ...

Gevalia Gevalia ( , , ) is the largest coffee roastery in Scandinavia. In North America, the company sells coffee directly to consumers via home delivery and through big box stores such as Wal-Mart. Gevalia discontinued sales of tea in 2015. Customers ...

Grey Poupon Grey Poupon is a brand of Dijon mustard which originated in Dijon, France. The U.S. rights to the brand were acquired by the Heublein Company, later passing on to Kraft Foods. Grey Poupon became popular in the United States in the late 1970s an ...

Oscar Mayer Oscar Mayer is an American meat and cold cut producer known for its hot dogs, bologna, bacon, ham, and Lunchables products. The company is a subsidiary of the Kraft Heinz Company and based in Chicago, Illinois. History Early years German immigr ...

Philadelphia Cream Cheese Philadelphia Cream Cheese is a brand of cream cheese. It is one of the best selling brands of cream cheese worldwide, first produced in 1872 and is currently owned by Kraft Heinz. Origin Despite its name, Philadelphia Cream Cheese was invented ...

, Primal Kitchen, and

Wattie's Heinz Wattie's Limited (or simply Wattie's) is a New Zealand-based food producer of frozen and packaged fruit, vegetables, sauces, baby food, cooking sauces, dressings and pet foods in the New Zealand market. History Founded in 1934 by Sir Jame ...

, eight of which have total individual sales of over $1 billion. Kraft Heinz ranked 114th in the 2018

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...

list of the largest United States corporations based on 2017 total revenue.

History

The merger of Kraft Foods and H.J. Heinz was agreed to by the boards of both companies, with approval by shareholders and regulatory authorities in early 2015. The new Kraft Heinz Company became the world's fifth-largest food and beverage company and the third-largest in the United States. The Kraft Heinz co-headquarters are in Chicago at the Aon Center and in Pittsburgh at PPG Place, with other offices across the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The merger was completed on July 2, 2015. The merger in 2015 did not immediately affect the

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of t ...

Heinz Field Acrisure Stadium is a football stadium located in the North Shore neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It primarily serves as the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL) and the Pittsburgh Panth ...

in Pittsburgh PA, home of the

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...

. In July 2022 reports leaked that the company did not renew the rights, which Heinz initially acquired in 2001. On February 17, 2017, it was reported that Kraft Heinz Co. had made a $143 billion approach to take over the British-Dutch multinational

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...

, a significantly larger competitor with 126,000 more employees and £24bn larger revenue than Kraft Heinz. Unilever declined the initial proposal. The takeover was subsequently abandoned on February 19 soon after UK Prime Minister

Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...

had ordered a scrutiny of the deal. On October 19, 2017, Kraft Heinz announced that it was acquiring Cerebos Pacific, including the

Saxa Saxa may refer to: *Saxa (food product), a brand of salt and pepper *Saxa (musician) Saxa may refer to: *Saxa (food product) Saxa is a brand of herbs, spices, salt and pepper in the United Kingdom and Australia. Formerly a brand of Rank Hovis McD ...

salt, Gregg's, and

Bisto Bisto is a popular and well-known brand of gravy and other food products in the United Kingdom and Ireland, currently owned by Premier Foods. History The first Bisto product, in 1908, was a meat-flavoured gravy powder which rapidly became a best ...

brands, from

Suntory (commonly referred to as simply Suntory) is a Japanese multinational brewing and distilling company group. Established in 1899, it is one of the oldest companies in the distribution of alcoholic beverages in Japan, and makes Japanese whisky. Its ...

. On March 9, 2018, New Zealand's Commerce Commission approved the purchase, on the condition that they sell the licenses for Gregg's brand of sauces and the F. Whitlock Worcestershire sauce brand due to competition concerns. In May 2018, Kraft Heinz launched Springboard Brands, a business focused on growing organic, natural, and "super-premium" food brands. Later that year, it was announced Kraft Heinz would acquire the Primal Kitchen brand as part of the company's Springboard Incubator. The $200 million deal was completed in early 2019 and was expected to generate $50 million in new annual revenue. On October 24, 2018, Kraft Heinz announced that it was selling its Indian nutritional beverage assets, including

Complan Complan Foods is a British company that makes powdered milk energy drinks. It was acquired by Danone in 2011. In India the Complan brand is owned by the Zydus Wellness. History Complan was launched by Glaxo in 1954. As part of Glaxo's Farley's, F ...

and energy drink Glucon-D to

Zydus Wellness Zydus Wellness (previously Carnation Nutra-Analogue Foods) is an Indian Fast-moving consumer goods, consumer goods company headquartered in Ahmedabad, which produces human nutrition, nutrition and skincare products. It is a subsidiary of the ph ...

. The sale was completed on January 30, 2019. In April 2019, it was announced

Miguel Patricio Miguel Patricio (born 1966/1967) is a Portuguese businessman, and the CEO of Kraft Heinz. He succeeded Bernardo Hees in July 2019. Early life Patricio was born in Portugal. He graduated in Business Administration at FGV EAESP - Escola de Administ ...

, former Chief Marketing Officer of

InBev InBev () is a brewing company that resulted from the merger between Belgium-based company Interbrew and Brazilian brewer AmBev which took place in 2004. It existed independently until the acquisition of Anheuser-Busch in 2008, which formed Anheu ...

would replace Bernardo Hees as CEO of Kraft Heinz. Patricio took position of CEO in late June 2019 and

Alex Behring Alexandre Behring da Costa (born 1967) is a Brazilian businessman. He is a co-founder and managing partner at 3G Capital, executive chairman of Restaurant Brands International, a director of Anheuser-Busch InBev, as well as chairman of Kraft Heinz ...

remained chairman of the company. Later that year, Paulo Basilio returned to his role at Chief Financial Officer and Corrado Azzarita assumed the position of Chief Information Officer. In June 2019, Kraft Heinz reached a milestone in achieving a 100 percent

Corporate Equality Index The Corporate Equality Index is a report published by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation as a tool to rate American businesses on their treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, consumers and investors. Its primary source o ...

score from the

Human Rights Campaign The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is an American LGBTQ advocacy group. It is the largest LGBTQ political lobbying organization within the United States. Based in Washington, D.C., the organization focuses on protecting and expanding rights for LGB ...

. The score recognized the company for its

LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

inclusion efforts and becoming a leader in the area among food CPG companies. On July 2, 2019, Kraft Heinz sold its Canadian natural cheese business, including the Cracker Barrel, P’tit Quebec and aMOOza! brands to

Parmalat Parmalat S.p.A. is a dairy and food corporation which is a subsidiary of French multinational company Lactalis. It was founded by Calisto Tanzi in 1961. Having become the leading global company in the production of long-life milk using ultra-h ...

for C$1.62 billion. In September 2020, Kraft Heinz reached a deal to sell part of its cheese business to French multinational dairy products corporation

Lactalis Lactalis is a French multinational dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. The company's former name was Besnier SA. Lactalis is the largest dairy products group in the world, and is the se ...

for $3.2 billion. The sale included the Breakstone's, Knudsen,

Polly-O Polly-O is an American brand of cheese products, currently owned by BelGioioso Cheese Inc. The original Polly-O manufacturing company had been established in 1899, operating independently until it was acquired by Kraft Foods Inc. in 1986. Kraft o ...

, Athenos, Hoffman's, and

Cracker Barrel Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc., doing business as simply Cracker Barrel, is an American chain of restaurant and gift stores with a Southern country theme. The company was founded by Dan Evins in 1969. Its first store was in Lebanon, T ...

cheese brands for the United States, and

Cheez Whiz Cheez Whiz is a brand of processed cheese sauce or spread produced by Kraft Foods. It was developed by a team led by food scientist Edwin Traisman (1915–2007). It was first sold in 1952, and with some changes in formulation continues to be in ...

outside of North America. Kraft Heinz then partnered with Lactalis to manufacture Kraft and Velveeta cheeses. On November 10, 2021, the

U.S. Justice Department The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United States ...

approved the acquisition on the condition that they divest the Athenos and Polly-O businesses. The sale was completed on November 29. The divestiture of Athenos to Emmi Roth was completed on December 1, while the divestiture of Polly-O to BelGioiso was completed on December 3. On September 15, 2020, Kraft Heinz announced its new Strategic Transformation Plan including a new company purpose, "''Let’s Make Life Delicious''" and an all new vision, "''To sustainably grow by delighting more consumers globally''." The next day Kraft Heinz also released its updated 2020 Environmental Social Governance (ESG) report with goals to make 100% of Kraft Heinz product packaging recyclable, reusable, or compostable by 2025 and plans to sustainably source 100 percent of

Heinz Ketchup Heinz Tomato Ketchup is a brand of ketchup manufactured by the H. J. Heinz Company, a division of the Kraft Heinz Company. History It was first marketed as " catsup" in 1876 In 1907, manufacturing reached 12 million bottles and it was expo ...

tomatoes by 2025. On February 11, 2021, Kraft Heinz announced its Q4 2020 and full year results resulting in 6.2 percent increased sales and over $26 billion in revenue. The same day, Kraft Heinz announced their plans to sell its nuts business, including the

Planters Planters Nut & Chocolate Company is an American snack food company now owned by Hormel Foods. Planters is best known for its processed nuts and for the Mr. Peanut icon that symbolizes them. Mr. Peanut was created by grade schooler Antonio Gentil ...

brand to

Hormel Hormel Foods Corporation is an American food processing company founded in 1891 in Austin, Minnesota, by George A. Hormel as George A. Hormel & Company. The company originally focused on the packaging and selling of ham, sausage and other pork, ...

for $3.35 billion. The transaction was completed on June 7. In September 2021, Kraft Heinz announced that

Hemmer Hemmer is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Bill Hemmer (born 1964), American television news anchor *Frank Hemmer (born 1963), West German-German slalom canoeist *Hans Ritter von Hemmer, (1869–1931), officer in the Royal Bava ...

, a Brazilian company focused on condiments and sauces, was being acquired for an undisclosed amount. This acquisition follows the recent agreement with

Assan Foods Assan may refer to: *Asan Barrage, India *Asan (people), an extinct ethnic group of Russia *Assan language, an extinct language once spoken by those people *Assan (surname), a family name See also *Assam, where Assan may be a misspelling or a mispr ...

– a Turkish company focused on sauces – belonging to

Kibar Holding Kibar is a Turkish name. Notable people with this name include: * Kibar Khalvashi (born 1963), Georgian businessman * Kibar Tatar (born 1968), Turkish boxer * Melih Kibar Melih Kibar (6 September 1951 – 7 April 2005) was a Turkish composer ...

, for approximately $100 million. On January 19, 2022, Kraft Heinz announced that it had completed its acquisition of an 85% stake in Germany-based ''Just Spices GmbH''. Launched in 2014, Just Spices is a start-up with annual sales of approximately €60 million. Its 170-plus product portfolio includes spice blends, salad dressings, easy-to-prepare “In Minutes” blends, and organic offerings for diverse meal occasions ranging from breakfast and light snacks to salads and baking, with a broad range of savory, sweet, classic, and exotic flavors. The proposed deal was first announced on Dec. 10, 2021.

Brands

As of 2021, in addition to both Kraft and Heinz, many more global brands are included in the Kraft Heinz portfolio: *

A.1. Sauce A.1. Sauce (formerly A.1. Steak Sauce and sometimes stylized as A1 Sauce in certain markets) is a brand of brown sauce produced by Brand & co, a subsidiary of Premier Foods in the United Kingdom (as "Brand's A.1. Sauce") and in North America by ...

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

Amoy Xiamen ( , ; ), also known as Amoy (, from Hokkien pronunciation ), is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Strait. It is divided into six districts: Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong'an, ...

* Aproten *

Baker's Chocolate Baker's Chocolate is a brand name for the line of baking chocolates owned by Kraft Heinz. Products include a variety of bulk chocolates, including white and unsweetened, and sweetened coconut flakes. It is one of the largest national brands of c ...

* Bénédicta *

* Breakstone's * Brinta *

Capri Sun Capri Sun (, , stylized as CAPRISUN in the United States and Capri-Sun internationally) is a German brand of juice concentrate drinks owned by Capri Sun Group Holding in Germany, which is a privately held company of Hans-Peter Wild. It was in ...

* Classico *

Claussen pickles Claussen is an American brand of pickled cucumbers that is headquartered in Woodstock, Illinois, an exurb of Chicago. Unlike many other brands, Claussen pickles are uncooked and are typically located in the refrigerated section of grocery stores. ...

Corn Nuts Corn nuts, also known as toasted corn, are a snack food made of roasted or deep-fried corn kernels. It is referred to as ''cancha'' in Peru and ''chulpi'' in Ecuador. Preparation Corn nuts are prepared by soaking whole corn kernels in wa ...

* Cracker Barrel (cheese brand) *

Crystal Light Crystal Light is a line of powdered and artificially sweetened beverage mixes produced by Kraft Heinz. It was first sold in 1982 to a test market and released to the public in April 1984. General Foods, a now defunct company, were the original se ...

Daddies Daddies is a brand of ketchup and brown sauce in the United Kingdom. History The brown sauce product, known as "Daddies Sauce", was launched in 1904, and the ketchup was launched in 1930. The brand is owned by the H. J. Heinz Company; it was bou ...

* De Ruijter * Greenseas *

* Golden Circle *

* Honig *

HP Sauce HP Sauce is a British brown sauce, the main ingredients of which are tomatoes and tamarind extract. It was named after London's Houses of Parliament. After making its first appearance on British dinner tables in the late 19th century, HP Sauce w ...

Jell-O Jell-O is an American brand offering a variety of powdered gelatin dessert (fruit-flavored gels/jellies), pudding, and no-bake cream pie mixes. The original gelatin dessert (genericized as jello) is the signature of the brand. "Jell-O" is a reg ...

* Karvan Cévitam *

Kool-Aid Kool-Aid is an American brand of flavored drink mix owned by Kraft Heinz based in Chicago, Illinois. The powder form was created by Edwin Perkins in 1927 based upon a liquid concentrate called Fruit Smack. History Kool-Aid was invented by E ...

Lea & Perrins Lea & Perrins (L&P) is a United Kingdom-based subsidiary of Kraft Heinz, originating in Worcester, England where it continues to operate. It is best known as the maker of Lea & Perrins brand of Worcestershire sauce, which was first sold in 183 ...

Lunchables Lunchables is a brand of food and snacks manufactured by Kraft Heinz in Chicago, Illinois and marketed under the Oscar Mayer brand. They were initially introduced in Seattle in 1988 before being released nationally in 1989. Many Lunchables product ...

* Master Soy Sauce *

Maxwell House Maxwell House is an American brand of coffee manufactured by a like-named division of Kraft Heinz in North America and JDE Peet's in the rest of the world. Introduced in 1892 by wholesale grocer Joel Owsley Cheek, it was named in honor of the Ma ...

* Mio *

Miracle Whip Miracle Whip is a sauce condiment manufactured by Kraft Heinz and sold throughout the United States and Canada. It is also sold by Mondelēz International (formerly also Kraft Foods) as "Miracel Whip" throughout Germany. It was developed as a less ...

* Mr. Yoshida's * Nancy's *

Ore Ida Ore-Ida is an American brand of potato-based frozen foods currently produced and distributed by Kraft Heinz's, H.J. Heinz Company Brands LLC. based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Ore-Ida's primary production facility is located in Ontario, Oregon, ...

Bagel Bites Bagel Bites are a frozen snack pizza bagel. History Bagel Bites were invented by Bob Mosher and Stanley Garkzynski, both of Fort Myers, Florida, who then sold the company to major food producer John Labatt Co. Later a large portion of Labatt Co ...

* Original Juice Co. * Orlando *

* P3 *

Plasmon In physics, a plasmon is a quantum of plasma oscillation. Just as light (an optical oscillation) consists of photons, the plasma oscillation consists of plasmons. The plasmon can be considered as a quasiparticle since it arises from the quantiz ...

* Primal Kitchen * Pudliszki * PurePet * Quero * Roosvicee *

Shake 'n Bake Shake 'n Bake is a seasoned bread crumb coating originally marketed to mimic the flavor and texture of Southern fried chicken. Introduced in 1965 by General Foods, it is currently made under the Kraft Heinz brand. Concept Shake 'n Bake provid ...

Smart Ones Smart Ones is a brand of Frozen food, frozen food products which is promoted based on wholesome ingredients, taste, and convenience, especially for consumers who are managing their weight via portion control. Smart Ones products, including frozen ...

* Sure-Jeil * Tassimo * Twisted Ranch *

Velveeta Velveeta is a brand name for a processed cheese product similar to American cheese. It was invented in 1918 by Emil Frey of the "Monroe Cheese Company" in Monroe, New York. In 1923, "The Velveeta Cheese Company" was incorporated as a separate ...

* Venz *

* Wijko * Wyler's

Finance

For the fiscal year 2017, Kraft Heinz reported earnings of 11.0 billion, with an annual revenue of 26.2 billion, a decline of 0.6% over the previous fiscal cycle. Kraft Heinz's shares traded at over $61 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at over 136 billion in September 2018. In February 2019, shares in Kraft Heinz fell to a record low of under $35, after the company reported a $10.2bn loss for the previous year as the company announced that it would take a $15.4 billion write-down of its Kraft and Oscar Mayer brands, cut its dividend, and acknowledged that the

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

had opened a probe into its accounting practices. In August 2019, Kraft Heinz announced a further $1.22 billion in write-downs, as well as the return of its former CFO, Paulo Basilio, who held the position until 2017, to replace David Knopf, saying that it wanted a "seasoned veteran" following a series of accounting errors. In September 2021, Kraft Heinz was fined $62m to settle the

probe into its improper claim of $200m in cost savings. In September 2020, Kraft Heinz announced its new enterprise strategy including plans to cut $2 billion in costs over five years resulting in an estimated generation of 4% to 6% adjusted earnings per share growth. The announcement resulted in multiple stock upgrades by CFRA and Guggenheim due to the renewed positive financial outlook of the company. On February 21, 2019, Kraft Heinz reported that they received a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) subponea in October that aimed to look into the company's accounting policies and internal controls. Kraft Heinz also announced that they slashed their

dividend A dividend is a distribution of profits by a corporation to its shareholders. When a corporation earns a profit or surplus, it is able to pay a portion of the profit as a dividend to shareholders. Any amount not distributed is taken to be re-in ...

from 62.5 cents a share to 40 cents. The company also announced a goodwill

impairment charge An impaired asset is an asset which has a market value less than the value listed on its owner's balance sheet. According to U.S. accounting rules (known as US GAAP), the value of an asset is impaired when the sum of estimated future cash flows fr ...

that wrote down the value of the company's

Kraft The second incarnation of Kraft Foods is an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. in 2012 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz in 2015. A merger with Heinz, arra ...

and

brands of $15.4 billion in the fourth quarter, which resulted in a net loss of $12.61 billion. The all-resulting news made the company's stock crash more than 20% in after-hours trading. The stock plunge resulted in

Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Its main business and source of capital is insurance, from ...

, the largest stockowner, a

write down A write-off is a reduction of the recognized value of something. In accounting, this is a recognition of the reduced or zero value of an asset. In income tax statements, this is a reduction of taxable income, as a recognition of certain expenses ...

of $3 billion and a stock value loss of $4.3 billion just a day before Berkshire Hathaway's quarterly earnings and annual report to investors.

References

External links

* {{authority control, state=expanded American companies established in 2015 Berkshire Hathaway Brand name condiments Condiment companies of the United States Dairy products companies of the United States Food and drink companies based in Chicago Food and drink companies established in 2015 Manufacturing companies based in Pittsburgh Multinational companies headquartered in the United States Multinational dairy companies Multinational food companies

History

Brands

Finance

See also

References

Further reading

External links