Kraft Heinz

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Universal comfort food.

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The Kraft Heinz Company is one of the world’s largest food and beverage manufacturers. A conglomerate formed in 2015 by the merger of Kraft Foods Group and H.J. Heinz Holding Corporation, Kraft Heinz is one of the top 20 consumer staples companies in the U.S., with a product lineup that includes dozens of the world’s most recognizable brands. Kraft Heinz is headquartered in Chicago and Pittsburgh.

In September 2025, Kraft Heinz announced it would separate into two publicly traded companies by the second half of 2026—one focused on sauces and spreads, the other on grocery staples and ready-to-eat meals. But in July 2026, new CEO Steve Cahillane pivoted away from this plan, focusing instead on licensing and marketing agreements with the National Football League (NFL) and the Walt Disney Company.

Kraft Heinz holds a portfolio of more than 200 brands that are produced and sold in more than 40 countries. Its main product categories can be broken down into five general segments:

Condiments and sauces

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First sold as “catsup” in 1876.

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Cheese and dairy products

Meals, snacks, and meat products

Beverages

Other grocery items

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“It’s all-righta!”

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In 2013, Berkshire Hathaway and private equity firm 3G Capital collaborated to take the H.J. Heinz Company private. The end goal—which came to fruition less than two years later, in March 2015—was to create a mega company in the food and beverage industry by merging Heinz with Kraft Foods Group.

In addition to cutting costs and increasing profits, Berkshire and 3G hoped the merger would lead to:

In the early days of the combined company, analysts and investors seem to have bought into the idea of the whole of Kraft Heinz being greater than the sum of its parts. They were looking for the “Warren Buffett effect”—a strong historical correlation between robust stock performance and involvement by the legendary investor and Berkshire Hathaway chair. Sure enough, Kraft Heinz saw earnings growth and stock price performance improve in the two years following the merger.

After the merger was completed, some critics argued that a lack of innovation and an inability to adapt to changing consumer tastes—namely, fresh versus processed foods—could become an impediment to future growth. Additionally, Kraft Heinz faced competition from smaller brands like Beyond Meat, Applegate Farms, Annie’s Homegrown, and others that were aggressively targeting evolving consumer tastes.

Market sentiment may have set Kraft Heinz stock on a downward curve in early 2017. But the plunge accelerated following its February 2019 earnings release and quarterly conference call, with shares dropping 27% in a single session. In addition to announcing a dividend slash of more than 36%, the company acknowledged:

The stock market’s reaction was punishing. The value of Kraft Heinz shares sank 78% from their highest point in 2017 to their lowest in 2020. The company’s saving grace, ironically, came in the form of bad news—the COVID-19 pandemic.

As the U.S. and most of the world went into mandatory lockdowns at the front end of the COVID-19 pandemic, many consumers, forced to dine at home, relied on prepared and prepackaged foods. Kraft Heinz suddenly saw an increase in demand for several of its products, particularly its Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and Lunchables product lines.

Kraft Heinz had presented positive earnings beginning two quarters before the pandemic. Its stock price stabilized, but it didn’t recover until the spring of 2020. And although the company’s earnings remained positive in the years that followed, its stock fluctuations remained near the midpoint of its 2017 peak and 2020 trough. The beleaguered company would attempt a fresh start in the next two years with leadership changes and the quiet exit of 3G Capital.

3G had begun trimming its holdings as early as 2018—even before the devastating February 2019 earnings report. From 2021 onward, 3G’s intention to relinquish its stake in Kraft Heinz became clear as founding partners Jorge Paulo Lemann and Alexandre Behring, and 3G board member Joao Castro-Neves (former CEO of AB InBev), gradually resigned from the Kraft Heinz board.

By 2023, 3G Capital had completely divested its stake in Kraft Heinz. Warren Buffett admitted in 2019 that “we paid too much for Kraft,” and in August of 2025, Berkshire announced a $3.76 billion write-down on its stake. But as of 2026, Berkshire Hathaway still owns 27.5% of the company.

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What’s driving the brand?

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Despite ongoing challenges, Kraft Heinz maintained valuable competitive advantages. Many of its brands—including Heinz ketchup, Kraft Mac & Cheese, Philadelphia cream cheese, Oscar Mayer, and Jell-O—remain category leaders. Its industry position—from manufacturing to limited shelf space in the grocery store—has high barriers to entry. As a company within the consumer staples sector, demand for many of its products has historically been less sensitive to economic downturns than more discretionary purchases.

Efforts at innovation earned the company a spot in the Fast Company World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2024 list, highlighted by the Heinz Remix—a digital dispenser offering up to 200 condiment combinations while collecting real-time data for restaurants. Yet these initiatives were not enough to reverse broader struggles, and in 2025 Kraft Heinz announced plans to split into two companies, separating its slower-growing North American grocery brands from its faster-growing international sauces and condiments business.

But after Steve Cahillane—former CEO of Kellanova—became CEO in early 2026, the company abandoned the breakup to instead focus on licensing and marketing its existing portfolio of brands. Less than three months after Callihane took over, the company signed a five-year agreement making Heinz the NFL’s first official condiment partner, securing a larger presence for Kraft and Heinz brands at stadiums, league events, and in football-themed marketing campaigns. In July of that year, Kraft Heinz announced a broad partnership with theWalt Disney Company that would bring its products to Disney’s U.S. theme parks, resorts, and cruise ships, while allowing Disney characters and franchises to appear on Kraft Heinz products.