Kraft Foods
| Kraft Foods Logo | |
| Company type | Public (NYSE: KFT) |
|---|---|
| ISIN | US50076Q1067  |
| Industry | Branded foods and beverages [1] |
| Founded | 1903 |
| Headquarters | Northfield, Illinois |
Key people | Roger K. Deromedi, CEO |
| Products | See brands listing. |
| Revenue |  $34.113 billion USD (2005) |
Number of employees | 94,000 (2005) |
| Website | www.kraft.com |
Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT) is the largest food and beverage company headquartered in North America and the second largest in the world (Nestlé SA being the largest). It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, but is majority owned by the Altria Group, which took control in 1988 (when it was known as Philip Morris Companies Inc). Kraft is headquartered in Northfield, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. Kraft Foods markets many popular brands in more than 155 countries.
Kraft Foods is named after James L. Kraft.
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
- Boca Burger
- Baker's
- Breakstone's or Knudsen's
- Capri Sun (in North America only)
- Cheez Whiz
- Chips Ahoy!
- Cracker Barrel
- Philadelphia cream cheese
- Crystal Light
- Daim
- Dairylea (UK)
- Del Monte beverage in Canada
- Digiorno (Delissio in Canada)
- Easy Cheese
- Eden
- Gevalia
- Honey Maid
- Jack's
- Jacobs
- Jell-O gelatin
- Kaffee HAG
- Kenco
- Knox gelatin
- Kool-Aid
- Kraft Macaroni and cheese (known as Kraft Dinner in Canada)
- Kraft Peanut Butter
- Kraft Singles
- Kraft Salad Dressings
- Maxwell House
- Milka
- Miracle Whip
- Miracoli
- Nabisco (and their Canadian division Christie)
- Nabob (in Canada)
- Oreo
- Oscar Mayer
- Planters
- Post Cereal and its many brands
- P'tit Québec
- Premium
- Prince Polo
- Ritz
- Starbucks (Only products sold in grocery stores)
- Stove Top stuffing
- Suchard
- Tang
- Tassimo T-DISCS.
- Terry's Chocolate Orange
- Toblerone
- Tombstone
- Triscuit
- Vegemite
- Velveeta
Diversity
Kraft received a 100% rating on the Corporate Equality Index released by the Human Rights Campaign starting in 2004, the third year of the report. In addition, the company was named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 by Working Mothers magazine.
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.
Kraft began a major restructuring process in January 2004, following a year of poor 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. It has since revealed that Kraft Foods expects to eliminate 8000 jobs, roughly 8% of its workforce.
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, its pet snacks business under the Milk-Bone brand to Del Monte Foods and will sell 8% more of its brands in 2006.
But Kraft bought several brands parallel to its portfolio, like Boca Burger Co. who makes Boca meat alternatives, Fruit20 and Veryfine beverages.
There is also a possible spin-off from Altria that can cause short-term volatility in trading volume and the price of its common stock. Altria owns 87.2% of the company's capital stock, and has 98.3% voting power.
There are also speculations that it will acquire Danone--after confirming that PepsiCo's alleged acquisition of this dairy, snack and beverage giant will not happen. Kraft and Danone are not stating anything about this issue.
Also, Kraft were stopped in producing a controversial sweet called Gummi Roadkill, after animal rights groups said this would encourage animal cruelty. These gummy sweets were in the shape of animals that had been victims of roadkill!