Kraft

Type: Public (NYSE: KFT)
Founded: 1903, Chicago, IL
Headquarters: Northfield, Illinois, USA
Key people: Irene Rosenfeld, CEO
Industry: Food Processing
Website: www.kraft.com

General Information

Kraft Foods, Inc. (NYSE: KFT) is the second-largest food and beverage company headquartered in the United States (behind PepsiCo) and the third largest in the world (after Nestlé SA and PepsiCo).The Philip Morris Company (now known as Altria Group), 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 at the end of March 2007. Kraft is now an independent publicly held company.Kraft is headquartered in Northfield, Illinois, USA, a Chicago suburb. Kraft Foods markets many popular brands in more than 155 countries.Kraft Foods became a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average on September 22, 2008, replacing AIG.

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.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.[citation needed]In 2005 the MX newspaper in Melbourne, Australia reported that Kraft refused to disclose the trans fats content of its products in its labelling.[citation needed] Company spokespeople contested the evidence that trans fats posed a known health risk and stated that a causal link was unproven.[citation needed]Kraft Foods is a very controversial company in Bulgaria, due to several food poisoning issues, concerning their best-selling product- Milka