KRAFT FOOD STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
KRAFT FOOD INC.
– 2009
Case Note Prepared by: Fikri
Case Note Prepared by: Fikri
1.0
CASE
ABSTRACT
Kraft Foods Incorporated is the largest
brand food and beverage company in North America and the second largest in the
world with operating in more than 150 countries from Mexico to Singapore. Kraft operates in two main segments; Kraft
Foods North America (KFNA) and Kraft Foods International (KFI).
Kraft, the holder of some of the world’s
favorite food and beverage brands, markets in five product sectors named
beverages, snacks, cheese, grocery and convenient meals. It was started by James L. Kraft in 1903 with
a horse drawn wagon delivering wholesale cheese he manufactured in Chicago,
Illinois. Through the years the company
has been built on a strong sense of innovation and quality. You will find Kraft’s brands in a Parisian
market in France, a vending machine in Japan and a grocery store in
America. Kraft Foods is the number one
food distributor in the United States and second only to Nestlé worldwide.
Kraft Food Inc.
(www.Kraftfoodscompany.com) is a
comprehensive strategic management case that include the company’s calendar
December 31, 2008 financial statements, competitors information and more. The case
time setting is the year 2009. Sufficient internal and external data are
provided to enable students to evaluate current strategies. Headquartered in
Northfield, IL, Kraft Food Inc. is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under
ticker symbol KFT.
2.0 VISION STATEMENT (Actual)
One company
growing by nourishing lives and finding better way today one bite at a time.
3.0 MISSION STATEMENT (Actual)
Make Today
Delicious.
4.0 MISSION
STATEMENT (Proposed)
As a global
company (3), we pride ourselves in producing superior products and services (2)
to our customer. With superior technology (4) and dedicated employees (9), we
are constantly working on introducing new and innovative products, meeting our
customer’s expectation (6) and ensuring to achieve higher than expected return
to our shareholders (5). Our desire is to be the number one choice for our
loyal customers (7, 8).
- Customer
- Products
or services
- Markets
- Technology
- Concern
for survival, profitability, growth
- Philosophy
- Self-concept
- Concern
for public image
- Concern
for employees
5.0 COMPETITIVE
PROFILE MATRIX (CPM)
Critical Success Factor
|
Weight
|
|
|
|
|||
Rating
|
Score
|
|
|
Rating
|
Score
|
||
1. Advertising
|
0.12
|
3
|
0.36
|
|
|
2
|
0.24
|
2. Financial Position
|
0.10
|
3
|
0.30
|
|
|
2
|
0.20
|
3. Global Expansion
|
0.09
|
3
|
0.27
|
|
|
2
|
0.18
|
4. Market Share
|
0.10
|
3
|
0.30
|
|
|
2
|
0.20
|
5. Product Diversity
|
0.16
|
4
|
0.64
|
|
|
3
|
0.48
|
6. Consumer Demands
|
0.14
|
4
|
0.56
|
|
|
3
|
0.42
|
7. Customer Loyalty
|
0.13
|
3
|
0.39
|
|
|
2
|
0.26
|
8. Product Safety
|
0.16
|
2
|
0.32
|
|
|
3
|
0.48
|
Total
|
1
|
3.14
|
|
|
2.46
|
The Competitive Profile Matrix is a vital
strategic management tool to compare the firm
with the major competitors of the
industry. The competitive profile matrix displays a well-defined
picture to the firm about their strengths
and weaknesses relative to their competitors. The
primary competitors to Kraft are Nestlé
and ConAgra, so we used those two companies in this
matrix. After an in depth analysis of the
external and internal environment we came up with
these critical success factors:
Advertising, Financial Position, Global Expansion, Market Share,
Product Diversity, Consumer Demands,
Customer Loyalty, and Product Safety. After we came
up with each factor, we must weight and
rate each factor for each company. The
rating in the
CPM represents the response that the firm
has towards the critical success factors. The
response scale is from 1 to 4. A poor
response is represented by 1, the response is average if
it's represented by 2, the response is
above average if it's represented by 3, and the response is
superior if it's represented by 4.
The Competitive
Profile Matrix is a vital strategic management tool to compare the firm with
the major competitors of the industry. The competitive profile matrix displays
a well-defined picture to the firm about their strengths and weaknesses
relative to their competitors. The primary competitors to Kraft and ConAgra, so
we used those two companies in this matrix. After an in depth analysis of the
external and internal environment we came up with these critical success factors:
Advertising, Financial Position, Global Expansion, Market Share, Product
Diversity, Consumer Demands, Customer Loyalty, and Product Safety. After we
came up with each factor, we must weight and rate each factor for each company. The rating in the CPM represents the response
that the firm has towards the critical success factors. The response scale is
from 1 to 4. A poor response is represented by 1, the response is average if
it's represented by 2, the response is above average if it's represented by 3,
and the response is superior if it's represented by 4.
In this industry we felt that Kraft has an
above average effort in their advertising field, but
felt that Nestlé does a little more in
their efforts. We see more diverse
advertising by Nestlé,
whether its newspaper ads or commercials.
Also their advertising is more eye catching and
appealing to the public. ConAgra received
a 2 because they aren’t really on the same page
6.0 EFE Matrix of Kraft Foods
Opportunities
|
Weight
|
Rating
|
Weighted
Score
|
Operates in fast growing
industry
|
0.08 (8%)
|
4
|
0.32
|
Increase in demand of healthy
products
|
0.05 (5%)
|
3
|
0.15
|
Cost competition
|
0.10 (10%)
|
3
|
0.30
|
Merger and acquisition
|
0.08(10%)
|
3
|
0.24
|
Online existence on Internet
for shopping
|
0.07 (7%)
|
3
|
0.21
|
Change in people lifestyle
|
0.07 (7%)
|
2
|
0.14
|
New product development
|
0.08 (8%)
|
3
|
0.24
|
|
|
|
|
Threats
|
|
|
|
Strong competition
|
0.10 (10%)
|
3
|
0.30
|
New entrants in retail industry
|
0.05 (5%)
|
3
|
0.15
|
Online sales increasing which
will results in increasing competition
|
0.10 (10%)
|
3
|
0.30
|
Economics recession
|
0.05 (5%)
|
1
|
0.05
|
Political issues
|
0.05 (5%)
|
1
|
0.05
|
Increase in obesity rate
|
0.10 (10%)
|
2
|
0.20
|
|
|
|
|
Total
Weighted Score
|
1.0(100%)
|
2.65
|
The
score of 2.65 is above average which means that the company is performing well
but there is still enough of improvement.
External Factor
Evaluation Matrix in order to evaluate the opportunities and threats affecting
Kraft and the food processing industry.
We gathered economic, social, cultural, demographic, environmental,
political, governmental, legal, technological, and competitive information to
develop our key external factors. These
factors include 7 key external opportunities and 8 key external threats, all of
which were assigned a weight and rating in order to develop a weighted score
which are accumulated to determine Kraft’s external position in the
industry. A weight is given to indicate
the relative importance of each factor to being successful in the food
processing industry. A rate is assigned
to each factor to indicate how effectively Kraft’s current strategies respond
to the factor. The rates are evaluated
on scale of 1 through 4, where 4 indicates their response is superior, 3 shows
their response is above average, 2 means their response is average, 1 indicates
their response is poor. The rates are based by the company whereas the weights
are based on the industry.
7.0 INTERNAL FACTOR EVALUATION (IFE) MATRIX
Weighted
Key internal factors Weight Rating Score
Strengths
1. Positive
sales in all 5 operating segments; Snacks,
Beverages, Cheese, Grocery, Convenient
Meals. 0.06
4 0.24
2. High
priority and standards on food safety. 0.06 3 0.18
3. Diverse
range of brands and products. 0.08 4 0.32
4. Strong
focus on R&D. 0.08 4 0.32
5. Sales
increased by 2.9% in North American markets. 0.04 3 0.12
6. Strong
reputation and perceived value among customers. 0.12 4 0.48
7. Organic
food revenue increased by 2.3% in first quarter
2009 0.07 4 0.28
Weakness
1. Possibility of perceived
weakness from female CEO in certain
foreign markets. 0.02 2 0.04
2. Risk of
contamination in agricultural products 0.12 1 0.12
3. Sales
drop 5.9% in second quarter 2009. 0.08 2 0.16
4. High
amount of goodwill - over $27.5 billion. 0.07 1 0.07
5. $18.5 billion in
long-term debt - increased 50% in 2008 from
2007. 0.07 1 0.07
6. Difficulty launching new brands. 0.09 1 0.09
7. Margins depend on commodity prices. 0.04 2 0.08
TOTAL 1.00 2.57
Major Weakness (rating =1)
Minor Weakness (rating =2)
Minor Strength (rating =3)
Major Strength (rating =4)
Internal Factor
Evaluation Matrix in order to evaluate the major strengths and weaknesses in
Kraft’s functional areas of business. We
used our intuitive judgments to determine the factors and assign each with a
weight and a rating. A weight is given
to each factor to indicate the relative importance of it being successful in
Kraft’s industry, then a rating is provided to indicate whether the factor is a
major strength, minor strength, major weakness, or minor weakness. Then we calculated a weighted score for each
factor and summed them together to determine Kraft’s internal position.
Each factor
under strengths received a rating of 3 or 4; 3 being a minor strength and 4
being a major strength. Kraft has shown
positive sales growth and has been operating effectively in all five of its
operating segments, which we considered to be a major strength of the company,
so it received a rating of 4. We
weighted this strength as a 0.06; we felt that this was of average importance
to Kraft’s success. The same weight was
given to the next factor under strengths; Kraft’s high priority and standards
on food safety. It would be expected of
any large company in the food industry to have a high priority and standards on
food safety, so we determined this factor to be minor strength that is of
average importance to the company’s success in this industry.
8.0 FINANCIAL RATIO ANALYSIS FOR 2008
No.
|
Title
|
Calculation for Sept 2008 (million)
|
|
Description
|
1.
|
Debt Ratio
|
Total liabilities x
100
Total Assets
= USD 40,878 x 100
USD 63,078
= 64.80%
|
|
Debt ratio for the both years
shows that Kraft Food Inc. financial analysis is within industry average.
However Kraft Food Inc. needs to consider and settle all their short and long
term debts and also other liabilities in order to portray a promising
opportunity to potential creditors for loan purposes.
|
2.
|
Current Ratio
|
Current Assets
Current Liabilities
= 11,366
11,044
= 1.02
|
|
Current ratios for 2008 show
that every dollar of current liability, Kraft Food Inc. has 1.02 current
assets for its payment.
|
No.
|
Title
|
Calculation for Sept 2008 (million)
|
|
Description
|
3
|
Quick Ratio
|
Current
Assets – (Inventory + Prepayments)
Current Liabilities
= 11,366 – (3,729 + 56)
11,044
= 0.68
Note: No Prepayments
|
|
The Quick ratio for both years shows 0.68. This shows that Kraft
Food Inc. liquidity level is good. For every dollar of current liability, Kraft
Food Inc. has USD 2.70 and 1.25 cash and assets that can be converted into
cash to pay their short term debts immediately.
|
4.
|
Debt Equity Ratio
|
Long-Term Liabilities x
100
Shareholders’ Equity
= 18,589 x 100
22,200
= 83.73%
|
|
Debt ratio for 2008 are high at 83.73%. Kraft Food Inc. should maintain their Debt Equity
Ratio to attract potential creditors.
|
No.
|
Title
|
Calculation for Sept 2008 (million)
|
|
Description
|
5
|
Return on Assets
|
Profit After Tax x
100
Total Asset
= 2901 x 100
63,078
= 4.59%
|
|
Return on assets for both years
are high and shows that Kraft Food Inc. has managed its assets well to
generate profit.
|
6.
|
Return on Equity
|
Profit After Tax x
100
Shareholders’ Equity
= 2901 x 100
22,200
= 13.06%
|
|
Kraft Food Inc. has higher ratio
for their return on equity for both the years. This shows that Apple is able
to generate high profit for their owners.
|
No.
|
Title
|
Calculation for Sept 2008 (million)
|
|
Description
|
7
|
Return on Capital Only
|
Net Income -
Dividend x 100
Equity + Long Term Debt
= 2901 – 1.12 x 100
22,200 + 18,589
= 71.09%
|
|
Kraft Food Inc. has high return
on capital for both the years. It obtained above 50% and this shows that Kraft
Food Inc. has efficient system for transforming their investor’s capital into
profit.
|
8
|
Net Profit Margin
|
Profit After
Tax x 100
Sales
= 2901 x 100
42,201
= 6.87%
|
|
Net profit margin for 2008 show
improvement of the returns. In 2008 Kraft Food Inc. managed to generate 21.48
cent of every USD 1 dollar compared to 19.19% cent of every USD 1 dollar in
2009. This reflects that the purchasing team has managed their purchasing
cost efficiently.
|
9.0 SWOT STRATEGIES (Strenght, weaknesses, oppurtunities and
threats)
The SWOT analysis of Kraft Foods Inc. is as follows:
Strengths
·
World’s second
largest food company
·
Strong brand equity
·
Innovation
·
Distribution network
·
Ad Hoc R&D
|
Weaknesses
·
Market share
·
Competition
·
Debt requirements
·
Geographic
concentration
|
Opportunities
·
Expansion in
developing markets
·
Explore Cadbury
markets
·
Repositioning
·
Offer Organic
Products
|
Threats
·
Cadbury purchase
issues
·
Fierce competition
·
Poor implementations
on Cadbury division
·
Unhappy customers
|
STRENGHTS
Kraft Foods Inc. enjoys the position of world’s second
largest food company after Nestle (Trevis, 2011). The company masters the
manufacturing and marketing of confectionary, food items and beverages. It has
more than 11 brands in the markets of America, Europe and Asia. The company has
strong brand image and offers innovative products to its customer base.
More than 40 of its brands has 100 years heritage (Kraft Foods, 2011).
Kraft Foods provides an interesting portrait of a company that employs
traditional distribution network as well as 2 tier direct store delivery
distribution network (MWPL, 2011). With its continuous Research and development
units the company is continuously in a process of offering safe, healthy and
innovative products to its customers. The effective R&D is a key to sustain
its market position and competition in the industry.
WEAKNESSES
The company is weak on its market performance. Kraft foods
acquired Cadbury which no doubt increased its profit ratio to many folds but it
also added lot of debt pressure on the company. Along with the debt requirements
the company faces cut throat competition with Nestle and Harshey in the
markets. Despite of its operations in various markets and presence in US
and other markets, the company is weak on geographic concentration. Kraft foods
has low market share but it enjoys high margins in grocery business. Kraft has
about 9% market share in the $40 billion global grocery market. Although
the grocery division's contribution to Kraft's revenues is lower compared to
other divisions, it has EBITDA margins of 33% which are higher than the 14-15%
margins in Kraft's other businesses. The high profit margins make grocery
a lucrative business line for Kraft (Trevis, 2011).
OPPORTUNITIES
Kraft Foods has long way to go. It can utilize number of
options available currently to get rid of debt requirements and other frills
that are causing low market share to the company. Firstly, Kraft Foods can
engage itself in the market expansion process. This can be achieved in the
developing markets of Asia like India, China, and Japan etc. these markets show
great potential for the business. Although Kraft Foods have acquired Cadbury
but lots of its resources of revenue are still untapped to the company. Cadbury
is a major player in the developing countries and earns billions of revenues
from its customers in India, China and other Asian countries. Kraft foods can
use Cadbury’s brand equity to offer new products in these markets to explore
these markets and opportunities present there further. Secondly, Kraft Foods
can reposition itself in the existing markets with more unique and health
centered products. There is an increasing trend among the customers that
they like to buy fresh, original and organic products. The company can
reposition itself in the market as a provider of farm fresh products to gain
the customer attention.
THREATS
The main issue currently faced by Kraft Foods Inc. is the
Cadbury purchase related issues. After the purchase of Cadbury, there was lot
of protest among the British nationals against this acquisition. The profit
margins of the company dropped subsequently during this. The customers stopped
purchasing the products offered by Kraft Foods, thus, hurting the market
position of the company badly (YouGove SixthsSense, 2011). The acquisition
brought no changes to the company as they failed to properly utilize the
resources of Cadbury and failed to implement the proper positioning structure
in the markets. There are chances that this acquisition can lead to the
customer walk outs from Kraft products as a reaction to the purchase of
Cadbury. This does not end here, the company faces fierce competition with
Nestle and Harshey, the two giants that Kraft is competing with.
10.0 STRATEGIC POSITION AND ACTION EVALUATION
SPACE MATRIX
FINANCIAL
POSITION (FP)
|
|
Factors
|
Rating
|
Revenues
increased 16.8% to $42.2 billion
|
4
|
Earnings
increased 12% to 2.9 billion
|
3
|
Total L+SE+ Assets decreased 7.5%
to $6.3 billion
|
3
|
Gross profit margin of 34.1
compared to the industry average of 31.1
|
4
|
Current ratio
of 1.1
|
2
|
TOTALS
|
16
|
INDUSTRY
POSITION (IP)
|
|
Factors
|
Rating
|
Growth
potential
|
5
|
Ease of
market entry
|
4
|
Profit
potential
|
4
|
Financial
stability
|
3
|
Resource
utilization
|
3
|
TOTALS
|
19
|
STABILITY POSITION (SP)
|
|
Factors
|
Rating
|
Competitive
pressure
|
-4
|
Barriers to
entry
|
-4
|
Unemployment
|
-5
|
Technology
changes
|
-2
|
Price range
of competitors products
|
-4
|
TOTALS
|
-19
|
COMPETETIVE
POSITION (CP)
|
|
Factors
|
Rating
|
Customer
loyalty
|
-3
|
Product
quality
|
-3
|
Market share
|
-2
|
Technological
knowledge
|
-4
|
Competition
|
-5
|
TOTALS
|
-17
|
Conclusions
SP
Average: -19/5= -3.8 IP
Average: 19/5= 3.8
CP
Average: -17/5= -3.4 FP
Average: 16/5= 3.2
Directional
Vector Coordinates:
X-axis:
-3.4 + (3.8) = .4 Y-axis: -3.8 +
(3.2) = -.6
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
The Strategic
Position and Action Evaluation Matrix, also known as the SPACE Matrix is an
important matching stage tool used to match different variables along two
axis. With the two axis intersecting in
the middle then creating a four quadrant matrix which are labeled going
top-right to bottom-right is aggressive, conservative, defensive and
competitive. The Y-axis includes two
dimensions; one internal which is the financial position (FP) and one is
external, which is the stability position (SP).
The X-axis includes the other two dimensions the competitive position
(CP) which is internal and the industry position (IP) which is external. These factors are possibly the most
important determinants of an organization’s strategic position.
11.0 GRAND
STRATEGY MATRIX
The Grand Strategy Matrix is based on two
evaluative measures, competitive position and market growth. Kraft Foods is the leader in North America
when it comes to the food industry, and the food processing industry is growing
both domestically and internationally.
There are new technologies coming around that the industry needs to look
into so that they can continue to expand and keep their products at the top of
their potential. When we were making the
Grand Strategy Matrix we found that because of the market growth and Kraft’s
strong competitive position they belong in quadrant one. The strategies that suggest they use from
being in that quadrant are market development, market penetration, product
development, forward integration, backward integration, horizontal integration,
and related diversification. As a result
of this matrix we can conclude that the company is in great strategic position
and can even take on some aggressive risks if necessary. Kraft can continue to concentrate their
efforts within the food processing industry by working on their market or on
their products. They are in excellent
strategic position and because of that they have a great chance to continue
being successful in the future.
12.0 QUALITATIVE STRATEGIC PLANNING (QSPM
MATRIX)
STRATEGIC ALTERNATIVES
|
|||||
|
1
|
2
|
|||
Market Penetration
|
Product Development
|
||||
Use customer loyalty and diverse range of products to increase sales
to restaurants.
|
Create new organic products to add to existing product lines.
|
||||
Key Factors
|
Weight
|
AS
|
TAS
|
AS
|
TAS
|
Opportunities
|
|
||||
1. U.S. sales of organic food and beverage have increased
from $1 billion
(1990) to
$26.7 billion (2009).
|
0.08
|
1
|
0.08
|
4
|
0.32
|
2. Food manufactures have experienced an increase in
sales due to a
higher
number of people dining out.
|
0.10
|
4
|
0.4
|
2
|
0.2
|
3. Women are becoming more common in upper management
(11.2% in
1995 to
16.4% in 2005).
|
0.06
|
―
|
―
|
|
|
4. Baked goods prices increased 10.7% compared
to 2008.
|
0.03
|
―
|
―
|
|
|
5. Increased trends of flavor enhancer for bottled water .
|
0.13
|
―
|
―
|
|
|
6. Growing environmental consensus.
|
0.06
|
1
|
0.06
|
4
|
0.24
|
7. Increased demand for packaged and processed foods
around the world
due to
change in lifestyles .
|
0.07
|
1
|
0.07
|
4
|
0.28
|
Threats
|
|
||||
1. Increasing obesity rates in
North America.
|
0.03
|
1
|
0.03
|
4
|
0.12
|
2. Due to a weak economy and increased competition,
the food
processing
industry saw a work force reduction on average of 7.5% in
2009.
|
0.04
|
―
|
―
|
|
|
3. Rising costs of petroleum
cause an increase in cost for food companies.
|
0.05
|
2
|
0.1
|
1
|
0.05
|
4. Difficult to differentiate product pricing
between competitors in the
food
processing industry.
|
0.04
|
―
|
―
|
|
|
5. Customers switching to
generic brands.
|
0.09
|
2
|
0.18
|
1
|
0.09
|
6. Increased intensity between competitors in
European as well as other
Markets.
|
0.07
|
―
|
―
|
|
|
7. North American competition is now primarily
focused on the food
Industry.
|
0.13
|
3
|
0.39
|
4
|
0.52
|
8. Declining value of the dollar
with an increasing value of the Euro.
|
0.02
|
―
|
―
|
|
|
Strengths
|
|
||||
1. Positive sales growth and operating effectively
in all 5 operating segments; Snacks, Beverages, Cheese, Grocery, Convenient
Meals.
|
0.06
|
2
|
0.12
|
3
|
0.18
|
2. High priority and standards
on food safety.
|
0.06
|
―
|
―
|
|
|
3. Diverse range of brands and
products.
|
0.08
|
2
|
0.16
|
4
|
0.32
|
4. Strong focus on R&D.
|
0.08
|
―
|
―
|
|
|
5. Sales increased by 2.9% in
North American markets.
|
0.04
|
2
|
0.08
|
4
|
0.16
|
6. Strong reputation and
perceived value among customers.
|
0.12
|
2
|
0.24
|
3
|
0.36
|
7. Organic revenue increased by
2.3% in first quarter 2009.
|
0.07
|
1
|
0.07
|
4
|
0.28
|
Weaknesses
|
|
||||
1. Possibility of perceived weakness from female CEO
in certain foreign markets.
|
0.02
|
―
|
―
|
|
|
2. Risk of contamination in
source products.
|
0.12
|
―
|
―
|
|
|
3. Sales drop 5.9% in second
quarter 2009.
|
0.08
|
2
|
0.16
|
3
|
0.24
|
4. High amount of goodwill -
over $27.5 billion.
|
0.07
|
―
|
―
|
|
|
5. $18.5 billion in long-term
debt - increased about 50% in 2008 from
2007.
|
0.07
|
―
|
―
|
|
|
6. Difficulty launching new
brands.
|
0.09
|
1
|
0.09
|
4
|
0.36
|
7. Margins depend on commodity
prices.
|
0.04
|
―
|
―
|
|
|
Total
|
|
|
2.23
|
|
3.72
|
Quantitative
Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM) to determine the most effective alternative
strategy for Kraft Foods. To develop
this matrix, we selected two strategies taken directly from the SWOT Matrix
that we felt Kraft should consider implementing and listed the key external and
internal factors taken directly from the EFE and IFE that related to both of
those strategies. The strategies that we
selected were to create new organic products to add to the product line, and to
use customer loyalty to increase market share in the restaurant industry. After examining each factor, we were able to
determine which ones would affect the choice of the strategies being made, and
from there we determined the Attractiveness Score to indicate the relative
attractiveness of each strategy in the set of alternatives. Scores ranged from 1 through 4; 1 meaning not
attractive, 2 showing there were somewhat attractive, 3 meaning reasonably
attractive, and 4 indicating there were highly attractive. Each factor’s weight was multiplied by the
Attractiveness Score to come up with the Total Attractiveness Scores. By summing the Total Attractiveness Scores in
each strategy column of the QSPM, we were able to determine which alternative
strategy would be best for Kraft to implement.
13.0 RECOMMENDATIONS
Kraft just reported strong second quarter 2009 result
although revenues declined 5.9 percent year-over-year to $10.2 billion,
primarily due to the unfavorable negative 8.1 percent impact of foreign
currency and a negative 0.7 percent impact from divestitures. Kraft’s organic
revenues increased 2.9 percent. For that quarter, Kraft’s North American
segment (KNAC) sales were flat year-over-year as gains in U.S. Convenient Meals
(7.1 percent), U.S. Grocery (6.7 percent), U.S. Beverages (6.0 percent), and
U.S. Snacks (1.3 percent) were offset by the declines in U.S. Cheese (8.7
percent) and Canada & North American Foodservice (10.0 percent). In the
International segment, net revenues in the European Union decreased 17.4
percent. Based on the strong year-to-date performance, CEO Rosenfeld has raised
guidance for 2009. She now expects earnings of at least $1.93 per share compared
to $1.88 guided earlier.
As indicated earlier in the evaluation
matrix of external factors, one possibility was US sales of organic food and
beverages rose by 1 billion (1990) to 26.7 billion (2009). We believe that
Kraft should focus on this part of the industry and develop products that meet
the organic market. Taking all conservative, take down the high levels of salt
and saturated fat would be ideal for sales of their company and their hearts
consumers. Another recommendation that we felt treated the same, but felt the
way the organic line is introduced is key. Kraft has a lot of brands that stand
alone. Prior to this case, we are not as well informed for how brands were
actually owned by Kraft, so a recommendation would be to introduce organic food
line actually under the name Kraft. Another recommendation would be to decrease
the levels of salt in food. "Salt and sodium are not the same. We often
use the terms interchangeably, but only 40% salt is composed of sodium. The
other 60% is chloride. Salt (sodium chloride) is the main contributor sodium in
our diets "(Kraft.com). Sodium is essential for good health and life
itself. We need to eat a small amount of sodium because the body cannot
manufacture this mineral.
ATTACHMENT
REFERENCES
Food Business Review (FBR), 2008. Kraft
foods deploys SAP Netweaver technology, Retrieved on June 21, 2011 from
http://www.food-business- review.com/news/kraft_foods_deploys_sap_netweaver_technology_platfor m
Kraft Foods, 2011. Financial News
Release, Retrieved on June 30, 2015 from http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=129070&p=irol- newsArticle&ID=1374445
Kraft Foods, 2011. Political
Involvement, Retrieved on June 30, 2015 from http://www.kraftfoodscompany.com/investor/corporate- governance/politicalcontributions.aspx
Kraft Foods Brands, 2011.
Retrieved on June 30, 2015 from http://www.kraftfoodscompany.com/Brands/largest-brands/index.aspx
Kraft Foods Company, 2011. Trevis
Website. Retrieved on June 30, 2015 from https://www.trefis.com/company?hm=KFT.trefis#
Kraft replaces AIG in Dow Jones
Industrial Average. USA TODAY, Associated Press, Retrieved on June 21, 2011
from http://www.usatoday.com/money/markets/2008- 09-18-dow- adds-kraft_N.htm
MWPL, 2011. DSD vs Centralized
Distribution Network, Retrieved on June 30, 2015 from http://www.mwpvl.com/html/dsd__vs_central_distribution.html
Steven Goers, 2008. Fostering
Innovation at Kraft Foods, Retrieved on June 30, 2015 from http://www.ideaconnection.com/interviews/00058-Fostering-Innovation-at-Kraft- Foods.html
YouGov SixthSense, 2011. Kraft
Foods Inc. Retrieved on June 30, 2015 from http://sixthsense.yougov.com/food--drink-reports/snacking-.aspx