KRAFT FOODS

'Kraft Foods Inc.' () is the largest food and beverage company headquartered in North America and the second largest in the world after Nestlé SA.
The Philip Morris Company (now known as Altria Group), a company that produces tobacco products, acquired Kraft for $12.9 billion in 1988, eventually merging it with another food subsidiary, 'General Foods', which it had acquired in 1985. In 2000, Philip Morris acquired 'Nabisco' and merged it with Kraft. Altria sold 280 million Kraft shares via an initial public offering in 2001, retaining an 88.1% stake. On January 31, 2007, after months of speculation, the company announced that its 88.1% stake would be spun off to Altria shareholders, however the exact date is not expected to be announced until January 2008^[1]
Kraft is headquartered in Northfield, Illinois, USA, a Chicago suburb. Kraft Foods markets many popular brands in more than 155 countries.
Kraft Foods is named after James L. Kraft, who founded the original wholesale cheese business in 1903.

Contents

Kraft Foods in the news

Acquisitions

Sponsorships

Brands

Former Brands

See also

References

External links

Kraft Foods in the news

In 1992, the gelatin industry, in particular Kraft's Atlantic Gelatin plant in Woburn, Massachusetts, which supplies the vast majority of Jell-O, came under scrutiny for a history of noxious smells, toxic waste releases into Boston Harbor, and a policy of corporate secrecy. Heading off a rash of local complaints, industry lobbyists invited Massachusetts state representatives Paul Casey and Carol Donovan into the plant. However, the representatives were barred from going past the conference room. Repeated requests for a plant tour by journalists were refused. In 1993, the plant was hit with a $250,000 fine for violating the Clean Air Act of 1970. In a February 4 1996 article, the Associated Press reported that a Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection official was one of only a few outsiders who had seen the inside of the Woburn plant.

In 2005, Kraft was sued for spamming its Gevalia coffee brand by Hypertouch, an ISP. Kraft was accused of sending multiple waves of spam to the ISP, and the action brought under the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 act. At the time of writing, the suit had not yet been ruled upon.^[2]
Kraft began a major restructuring process in January 2004, following a year of declining sales, (blamed largely on the rising health consciousness of Americans), and the sacking of co-CEO Betsy Holden. The company announced closures of 19 production facilities worldwide and the reduction of 5500 jobs, as well as the sale of 10% of its branded products. Kraft Foods expects to eliminate 8000 jobs, roughly 8% of its workforce.

Acquisitions

Kraft Foods sold several brands after its Nabisco merger. It sold Lifesavers Co. to Wrigley, its certain Canada grocery items, particularly Del Monte and Aylmer to CanGro, its sugar confectionery business and its pet snacks business under the Milk-Bone brand to Del Monte Foods.
Kraft bought several brands parallel to its portfolio, like Boca Burger Co., which makes Boca meat alternatives, Fruit2o, and Veryfine beverages.
Altria announced on January 31, 2007 that it will sell all the remaining Kraft Foods' shares to Altria's shareholders; each will be given 0.7 share of Kraft for every Altria share they have.
Investor Nelson Peltz bought a three percent stake at Kraft Foods and is talking with the executives on revitalizing the business,^[3] with options such as buying Wendy's fast food chain or selling off Post cereals and Maxwell House coffee.
In July 2007, the company bought Groupe Danone's biscuit (cookie) and cereal division for $7.2 billion.^[4] While two years earlier firestorms of protest had arisen over plans for American PepsiCo's hostile takeover of the French company, Kraft's announcement was not met with the same protests, although a possible deal comes with strings: promising not to close French factories and keep the cookie headquarters near Paris for at least three years. Kraft is much more powerful in the US than in foreign markets.

Sponsorships

Kraft Foods is an official partner and sponsor of Major League Soccer and sponsors the Kraft Nabisco Championship, one of the four "majors" on the LPGA tour.

Brands

Kraft Foods' core businesses are in beverage, cheese and dairy, snackfoods and confectionery, convenience foods and cereals.
Notable products produced by Kraft Foods are

★ A1 Steak Sauce

★ Africana Romania

★ Ali Coffee

★ Arrowroot biscuits

★ Athenos mediterranean food products

★ Back to Nature (cookies, crackers, etc.)

★ Baker's

★ Better Cheddars

★ Boca Burger Vegetarian products

★ Bonox

★ Breakstone's or Knudsen's

★ BullsEye Barbecue Sauce

★ California Pizza Kitchen (Only products sold in grocery stores)

★ Calumet Baking Powder

★ Cameo biscuits

★ Capri Sun (aseptic juice drinks and aseptic flavored water only)

★ Carte Noire (Sold mainly in France)

★ Charada (Peru)

★ Cheese Nips

★ Cheez Whiz

★ Chicken in A Biskit

★ Chips Ahoy!

★ Chunky Chunks sandwich spreads (Philippines)

★ Claussen

★ Clight

★ Cool Whip

★ Corn Nuts

★ Coronita (Peru)

★ Côte d'Or

★ Country Time (Only powder drink mix)

★ Cracker Barrel

★ Crystal Light

★ Daim (Sweden)

★ DairyleaCheese (Europe)

★ Del Monte beverage in Canada

★ DiGiorno (''Delissio'' in Canada)

★ Easy Cheese

★ Eden processed cheese loaves (Philippines)

★ Estrella Potato Chips (Sweden)

★ Field (Peru)

★ Filipinos (Spain & Portugal)

★ Freia (Scandinavia)

★ Fruit2o

★ General Foods International coffee and other hot beverages

★ Gevalia

★ Grey Poupon

★ Handi-Snacks

★ Honey Maid

★ Jack's

★ Jacobs (sold mainly in Europe)

★ Japp (Scandinavia)

★ Jell-O gelatin

★ Kaffee HAG

★ Kenco (UK)

★ Knox gelatin

★ Knudsen (cottage cheese, sour cream)

★ Kong Haakon (Norway)

★ Kool-Aid

★ Kraft BBQ Sauce

★ Kraft Caramels

★ Kraft Macaroni and cheese (known as Kraft Dinner in Canada, and includes Kraft Easymac)

★ Kraft Mayo

★ Kraft Peanut Butter

★ Kraft Singles

★ Kraft Salad Dressings

★ Lacta

★ Maarud Potato Chips (Norway)

★ Marabou (Sweden)

★ Maxwell House

★ Milka

★ Miracle Whip

★ Miracoli

★ Mostro (Peru)

★ Nabisco (and their Canadian division Christie; other countries use the Kraft brand for their biscuits.)

★ Nabob (in Canada)

★ Non-Stop (Scandinavia)

★ O'boy (Scandinavia & Estonia)

★ Oreo

★ Oscar Mayer

★ Grated Parmesan cheese

★ Philadelphia cream cheese

★ Planters

★ Poiana Romania

★ Polly-O cheese

★ Post Cereal and its many brands

★ P'tit Québec

★ Premium

★ Pretzels

★ Prince Polo

★ Ritz

★ Seven Seas

★ Shake 'n Bake

★ Simmenthal canned meat

★ Snackabouts (Nabisco biscuits with Vegemite, Peanut Butter, Cream Cheese, or Cheddar Cheese)

★ SnackWell's

★ Starbucks (Only products sold in grocery stores)

★ Stove Top stuffing

★ Suchard

★ Svoge (Bulgaria)

★ Taco Bell (Only products sold in grocery stores)

★ Tang

★ Tassimo T-DISCS.

★ Teddy Grahams

★ Terry's chocolates

★ Terry's Chocolate Orange

★ Toblerone

★ Tombstone

★ Triscuit

★ Twist

★ Vegemite

★ Velveeta

Former Brands

★ Cream of Wheat and Cream of Rice sold to B&G Foods in 2007

★ Minute Rice in 2006

★ Milk-Bone (sold to Del Monte Foods in 2006)

★ Del Monte, Aylmer, Coronation and other grocery products in Canada (sold to CanGro in 2005)

★ Life Savers and Altoids (sold to Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company in 2005)

★ Life Savers in Canada (sold to Hershey's in 1987 then sold to Beta Brands in 1996 then sold to Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company in 2005)

★ Trolli (sold to Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company and then to Farley's & Sathers)

★ Breyers and Light N' Lively yogurt, sold to CoolBrands International

★ Breyers, Sealtest, Frusen Gladje and Light N' Lively ice cream, sold to Unilever in 1993, though the Oreo ice cream in the U.S. is made by Breyers.

★ Bird's Eye frozen products, sold to Dean Foods in 1993

★ Budget Gourmet frozen meals, sold to H.J. Heinz in 1994

★ Lender's bagels sold to Kellogg's in 1996

★ Rondele spreadable cheeses sold to Waterbury Holdings in 1996

★ Stella D'oro (sold to Stella D'oro Holdings LLC, a newly formed subsidary of Brynwood Partners in 2006)

★ Farley's & Sathers now independent.

★ Celestial Seasonings (Bought back by original owners in 1988)

★ Kraft Foodservice sold to Clayton, Dubilier and Rice Inc. in 1995

★ Bakery business (consists of Entenmann's, Freihofers, Orowheat and Boboli brands) to Bestfoods in 1995, now owned by George Weston Limited

★ Specialty oils business sold to Associated British Foods in 1995

★ Parkay, Touch of Butter, and Chiffon sold to Nabisco Brands, Inc. in 1995.

★ Caramel and marshmallow business, sold to Texas Pacific Group in 1995, which later, reacquired

★ Koogle flavored peanut butter, discontinued

★ Spreadery spreadable cheeses, discontinued

★ Cheddarie cheese spread, discontinued

★ Cheese Pot cheese spread, discontinued

★ Kraft Eating Right frozen entrees, discontinued

See also

★ General Foods Corporation

★ Wise Use Movement

★ Ovson Egg

References

1. Altria Continues its Breakup
2. Kraft sued over Gevalia spam
3. No ketchup, please
4. Getting better?

External links

★ Kraft Corporate Website

★ Kraft Foods Inc. Fact Sheet from Hoover's

★ Kraft Foods Radio Show

★ List of North American Kraft Companies