Kraft Foods Group, Inc. was an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. on October 1, 2012, and was headquartered in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, Illinois. It became part of

Kraft Heinz The Kraft Heinz Company (KHC), commonly known as Kraft Heinz (), is an American multinational food company formed by the merger of Kraft Foods Group, Inc. and the H.J. Heinz Company co-headquartered in Chicago and Pittsburgh. Kraft Heinz is t ...

on July 2, 2015 after merging with

Heinz The Kraft Heinz Foods Company, formerly the H. J. Heinz Company and commonly known as Heinz (), is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869. ...

. The merger was arranged by Heinz owners

Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Originally a textile manufacturer, the company transitioned into a conglomerate starting in 1965 under the management of c ...

and

3G Capital 3G Capital is a private equity investment firm. Founded in 2004, 3G Capital evolved from the Brazilian investment office of Jorge Paulo Lemann, Carlos Alberto Sicupira, and Marcel Herrmann Telles. 3G Capital is led by Alex Behring, Co-Founder ...

, was completed on July 2, 2015, forming Kraft Heinz, the fifth-largest

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

company in the world.

History

Spinoff of Kraft Foods Group from Kraft Foods Inc.

In August 2011, Kraft Foods Inc. announced plans to split into two publicly traded companies—a snack food company and a grocery company. On April 2, 2012, Kraft Foods Inc. announced that it had filed a Form 10 Registration Statement to the SEC to split the company into two companies to serve the "North American grocery business". On October 1, 2012, Kraft Foods Inc. spun off its North American grocery business to a new company called ''Kraft Foods Group'', Inc. The remainder of Kraft Foods Inc. was renamed Mondelēz International, Inc., and was refocused as an international snack and confection company. Burt P. Flickinger III of Strategic Resource Group said the strategy "worked for Mondelez, but not for Kraft". On November 19, 2013, an arbitration ruling ordered Starbucks to pay Kraft Foods Inc. $2.7 billion because of an early contract termination. The money would go to Mondelēz International, Inc. In October 2013, Kraft announced that it would remove artificial dyes from three macaroni and cheese varieties made in kid-friendly shapes, but not its plain elbow-shaped Kraft Macaroni and Cheese product with "original flavor". This was in response to a petition by activist

Vani Hari Vani Deva Hari (born March 22, 1979), who blogs as the Food Babe, is an American author, activist, and affiliate marketer who criticizes the food industry. She started the Food Babe blog in 2011, and it received over 54 million views in 2014. ...

and blogger Lisa Leake who delivered a petition to the company to remove controversial synthetic dyes

Yellow 5 Tartrazine is a synthetic lemon yellow azo dye primarily used as a food coloring. It is also known as E number E102, C.I. 19140, FD&C Yellow 5, Yellow 5 Lake, Acid Yellow 23, Food Yellow 4, and trisodium 1-(4-sulfonatophenyl)-4-(4-sulfonatop ...

(labeled as

Tartrazine Tartrazine is a synthetic lemon yellow azo dye primarily used as a food coloring. It is also known as E number E102, C.I. 19140, FD&C Yellow 5, Yellow 5 Lake, Acid Yellow 23, Food Yellow 4, and trisodium 1-(4-sulfonatophenyl)-4-(4-sulfonato ...

) and

Yellow 6 Sunset yellow FCF (also known as orange yellow S, or C.I. 15985) is a petroleum-derived orange azo dye with a pH-dependent maximum absorption at about 480 nm at pH 1 and 443 nm at pH 13, with a shoulder at 500 nm. When added to ...

from its signature macaroni and cheese products.

Kraft and Heinz merger

On March 25, 2015, Kraft Foods Group Inc. announced that it would merge with the H.J. Heinz Company, owned by

and

Inc. Kraft's shares rose about 17 percent in premarket trading after the announcement of the deal, which will bring Heinz back to the public market following its takeover over two years prior. The companies completed the merger on July 2, 2015.

Sponsorships and promotions

Kraft is an official partner and sponsor of both

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

and the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

. Since 2006, Kraft Foods has sponsored ''

Kraft Hockeyville ''Kraft Hockeyville'' is an annual competition sponsored by Kraft Heinz, the National Hockey League and the NHL Players' Association in which communities compete to demonstrate their commitment to the sport of ice hockey. The winning community ...

'', a reality television series produced by CBC/SRC Sports, in which communities demonstrate their commitment to the sport of ice hockey in a contest revolving around the theme of community spirit. The winning community gets a cash prize dedicated to upgrading their hometown arena, as well as the opportunity to host an NHL preseason game. In 2007, it was then relegated to segments aired during ''

Hockey Night in Canada ''Hockey Night in Canada'' (often abbreviated ''Hockey Night'' or ''HNiC'') is a long-running program of broadcast ice hockey play-by-play coverage in Canada. With roots in pioneering hockey coverage on private radio stations as early as 1923, ...

''. In 2015, ''Kraft Hockeyville'' was expanded to the United States with a separate competition for communities there. From 2002 to 2014, Kraft sponsored the Kraft Nabisco Championship, one of the four "majors" on the

LPGA The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekly ...

tour. The company also sponsored the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, a post-season

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...

, from 2010 to 2012.

Brands

The company's core businesses are in

beverage A drink or beverage is a liquid intended for human consumption. In addition to their basic function of satisfying thirst, drinks play important roles in human culture. Common types of drinks include plain drinking water, milk, juice, smoothie ...

cheese Cheese is a type of dairy product produced in a range of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk (usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats or sheep). During prod ...

, dairy foods,

snack food A snack is a small portion of Human food, food generally Eating, eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including Food packaging, packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at ho ...

s, and

convenience food Convenience food (also called tertiary processed food) is food that is commercially prepared (often through processing) for ease of consumption, and is usually ready to eat without further preparation. It may also be easily portable, have ...

s. Kraft's major brands include: * A.1. * Boca Burger * Capri-Sun (U.S. Licensee) * Claussen pickles *

Gevalia Gevalia ( , , ) is a coffee brand originating from Gävle, Sweden. Founded in 1853, it has grown to become the largest Coffee roasting, coffee roastery in Scandinavia. The brand name "Gevalia" is derived from the Latin name for Gävle. A mains ...

Grey Poupon Grey Poupon () is a brand of Dijon mustard which originated in Dijon, France, in 1866. The U.S. rights to the brand were acquired by the Heublein Company in 1946, later passing on to Kraft Foods. Grey Poupon became popular in the United States ...

Jell-O Jell-O (stylized in all caps) 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 ...

* Kool-Aid * Kraft **

Kraft Dinner Kraft Dinner (marketed as KD in Canada; Kraft Mac & Cheese in the United States, Australia and New Zealand; and Mac and Cheese in the United Kingdom and internationally) is a nonperishable packaged macaroni and cheese mix. It is made by Kraf ...

Kraft Singles Kraft Singles is a brand of processed cheese product manufactured and sold by Kraft Heinz. Introduced in 1950, the individually wrapped "slices" are not really slices off a block, but formed separately in manufacturing. Kraft Singles do not q ...

** Kraft Mayo ** Kraft Ketchup ** Kraft Dressings * Lunchables * Maxwell House *

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

* Philadelphia Cream Cheese * Primal Kitchen *

Pudliszki Pudliszki is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Krobia, within Gostyń County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. It lies approximately south-west of Krobia, south-west of Gostyń, and south of the regional capi ...

* RIDG's Finer Foods, licensing name used by Kraft addressing Bull's-Eye Barbecue Sauce * Seven Seas – salad dressings *

Velveeta Velveeta is a brand name for a processed cheese similar to American cheese. It was invented in 1918 by Emil Frey (1867–1951) of the Monroe Cheese Company in Monroe, New York. In 1923, The Velveeta Cheese Company was incorporated as a separat ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control Kraft Heinz Condiment companies of the United States Dairy products companies of the United States Food manufacturers of the United States Multinational dairy companies Multinational food companies Multinational companies headquartered in the United States American companies established in 2012 Food and drink companies established in 2012 American companies disestablished in 2015 Food and drink companies disestablished in 2015 2012 establishments in Illinois 2015 disestablishments in Illinois Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Corporate spin-offs 2015 mergers and acquisitions Defunct manufacturing companies based in Chicago