Type Subsidiary. Fate Merged with Heinz. Area served Worldwide. Founder James L. Kraft Parent organization Kraft Heinz Company | Industry Food processing Successor Kraft Heinz. Revenue 18.22 billion USD (2013) Number of employees 23,000 | |
 | ||
Key people John Cahill
(Chairman and CEO). Headquarters Northfield, Illinois, United States Founded 2012, Chicago, Illinois, United States Subsidiaries Nabisco, Oscar Mayer, Gevalia, Freia | ||
Kraft foods 100th anniversary
Kraft Foods Group, Inc. is an American manufacturing and processing conglomerate headquartered in the Chicago suburb of Northfield, Illinois.
Contents
- Kraft foods 100th anniversary
- Spinoff of Kraft Foods Group from Mondelz International Inc
- Kraft and Heinz merger
- Sponsorships and promotions
- Brands
- Corporate social responsibility
- Controversy
- References
The company was restructured in 2012 as a spin off from Kraft Foods Inc., which in turn was renamed Mondelēz International. The new Kraft Foods Group was focused mainly on grocery products for the North American market while Mondelēz is focused on international confectionery and snack brands. Until the merger with Heinz, Kraft Foods Group was an independent public company listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
On July 2, 2015, Kraft completed its merger with Heinz, arranged by Heinz owners Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital, creating the fifth-largest food and beverage company in the world, Kraft Heinz Company.
Spinoff of Kraft Foods Group from Mondelēz International, 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.
On November 19, 2013, it was ruled that Starbucks will have to pay Kraft Foods Inc. $2.7 billion because of an early contract termination. The money will go to Mondelēz International, Inc.
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 3G Capital and Berkshire Hathaway Inc, to form the world's fifth-largest food and beverage company. 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 two years ago. The companies completed the merger on July 2, 2015.
Sponsorships and promotions
Kraft is an official partner and sponsor of both Major League Soccer and the National Hockey League. Kraft Hockeyville originally began in 2006 as a Canadian reality television series developed by CBC/SRC Sports and sponsored by Kraft Foods in which communities across Canada compete to demonstrate their commitment to the sport of ice hockey. The contest revolves around a central theme of community spirit. The winning community gets a cash prize dedicated to upgrading their local home 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. In 2015, Kraft Hockeyville was expanded into the United States, with a separate competition for communities in America.
From 2002 to 2014, Kraft sponsored the Kraft Nabisco Championship, one of the four "majors" on the LPGA tour. The company also sponsored the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, a post-season college football bowl game, from 2010 to 2012.
In 2011, Kraft has released an iPad app called "Big Fork Little Fork" which, in addition to games and other distractions, has information regarding how to use Kraft foods in nutritious ways.
Brands
The company's core businesses are in beverage, cheese, dairy foods, snack foods, and convenience foods. A selection of Kraft's major brands is as follows:
Corporate social responsibility
For years, Kraft purchased paper for its packaging from Asia Pulp & Paper, the third-largest paper producer in the world, which was labeled as a "forest criminal" for destroying "precious habitat" in Indonesia's rainforest. In 2011, when Kraft canceled its contract with Asia Pulp & Paper, Greenpeace Executive Director Phil Radford commended Kraft for efforts made towards forest protection, for "taking rainforest conservation seriously."
Controversy
In 2013, food blogger and activist Vani Hari and 100 Days of Real Food blogger Lisa Leake launched an online petition drive to compel Kraft Foods Group, Inc. to remove controversial synthetic dyes Yellow 5 (labeled as Tartrazine) and Yellow 6 from its macaroni and cheese products.
In April 2013, Hari and Leake delivered a petition with some 270,000 signatures to Kraft headquarters in Chicago, Ill., and asked the company to change its macaroni and cheese recipes.
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."