History
The boards of both companies agreed to the merger of Kraft Foods and H.J. Heinz, 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 to Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, home of the Pittsburgh Steelers. 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, 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 had ordered regulators to examine the potential deal. On October 19, 2017, Kraft Heinz announced that it was acquiring Cerebos Pacific, including the Saxa salt, Gregg's, and Bisto brands, from Suntory. 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 and energy drink Glucon-D to Zydus Wellness. The sale was completed on January 30, 2019. In April 2019, it was announced Miguel Patricio, former Chief Marketing Officer of InBev would replace Bernardo Hees as CEO of Kraft Heinz. Patricio took position of CEO in late June 2019 and Alex Behring 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. Todd Kaplan has been named chief marketing officer of North America at Kraft Heinz. In June 2019, Kraft Heinz reached a milestone in achieving a 100 percent Corporate Equality Index score from the Human Rights Campaign. The score recognized the company for itsBrands
As of 2023, a partial list of global brands included in the Kraft Heinz portfolio: Kraft and Heinz: * Kraft Dinner * Kraft Parmesan Cheese * Kraft Peanut Butter (Canada) * Heinz Corned Beef (Africa and the Middle East) * Heinz Ketchup Other: * A.1. Sauce * ABC * Amoy * Aproten * Baker's Chocolate * Bénédicta * Boca Burger * Breakstone's * * Capri-Sun * Cheez Whiz * Classico * Claussen pickles * Cool Whip * Corn Nuts * Crystal Light * Daddies * De Ruijter * Greenseas * Grey Poupon * Golden Circle * Hamper (Australia) * Hemmer * Honig * HP Sauce * Jell-O * Karvan Cévitam * Kool-Aid * Lea & Perrins * Lunchables * Master Soy Sauce * Maxwell House * MiO * Miracle Whip * Mr. Yoshida's * Nancy's * Ore-Ida ** Bagel Bites * Original Juice Co. * Orlando * Oscar Mayer * Ox & Palm (Australia) * P3 * Philadelphia Cream Cheese * Plasmon * Primal Kitchen * Pudliszki * PurePet * Quero * Roosvicee * Shake 'n Bake * Smart Ones * Stove Top * Sure-Jeil * Taco Bell * Tassimo * TGI Fridays * Velveeta * Venz * Wattie's * Wijko * Wyler'sFinance
For the fiscal year 2017, Kraft Heinz reported earnings of 11.0 billion, with 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 writedown of its Kraft and Oscar Mayer brands, cut its dividend, and acknowledged that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had opened a probe into its accounting practices. In August 2019, Kraft Heinz announced a further $1.22 billion in writedowns, 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. On February 21, 2019, Kraft Heinz reported that they received a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) subpoena in October that aimed to look into the company's accounting policies and internal controls. Kraft Heinz also announced that they cut their dividend from 62.5 cents a share to 40 cents. The company also announced a goodwill impairment charge that wrote down the value of the company's Kraft and Oscar Mayer 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, the largest stockowner, recording a write down 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. 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. In September 2021, Kraft Heinz was fined $62m to settle the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission probe into an improper claim of $200m in cost savings. The $200 million in "bogus cost savings" (reportedly from merger) forced the company to restate its financial results for the years 2015 through 2018.Animal welfare
In 2017, Kraft Heinz made a number of committed to making a number of improvements to the welfare of broiler chickens in their supply chains by 2024. These included commitments to source chickens from high welfare breeds, provide birds with more space, and implement third-party monitoring. In 2019, Kraft Heinz made an updated pledge to comply with the European Chicken Commitment, an animal welfare standard, for 100% of the chickens in its supply chain, by 2026. In 2021, the BBFAW, an animal welfare monitoring organization, gave Kraft Heinz a rating that indicated it had established animal welfare practices but still has room to grow. At that time, according to Kraft Heinz, 70% of the chickens in the company's supply chain were cage-free or free-range.Controversies
In 2017, the claim that the Kraft Parmesan Cheese label was misleading was rejected by judges. The label reads "Kraft 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese". It was argued that a " reasonable consumer" would know the product could not be 100% cheese, as any dairy product degrades quickly without preservatives. On December 1, 2023, a federal jury in Illinois awarded $17.8 million to several large food companies, including Kraft Heinz, in a lawsuit against Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. and others over allegations of egg price fixing. Cal-Maine Foods, contesting the verdict, insists on its innocence and the absence of wrongdoing in its business practices.See also
* List of food companies * List of brand name food products * List of dairy product companies in the United StatesReferences
Further reading
*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 Coffee companies of the United States Meat companies of the United States American pasta companies 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