Kraft Heinz May Split Into Two Companies, Shares Jump
Kraft Heinz is weighing a plan to spin off its legacy grocery brands — think Kraft mac-and-cheese, Oscar Mayer and Maxwell House — into a standalone firm worth about $20 billion, insiders told The Wall Street Journal. Investors cheered the story, pushing shares up nearly 4 percent in Friday trading as hopes rose that two focused companies could unlock more value than today’s all-in-one behemoth.
Under the sketch being discussed, the remaining “Heinz Co.” would keep high-margin condiments such as Heinz ketchup, Grey Poupon and Primal Kitchen, betting that premium sauces and international expansion can deliver faster growth. The grocery spinoff would inherit six North-American plants and roughly 3,600 workers, giving it scale but also the challenge of reviving a cereal-aisle portfolio that’s lost ground to private-label rivals.
No formal decision has been made, and any breakup would need board, shareholder and regulatory approval — not to mention a sign-off from Berkshire Hathaway, Kraft Heinz’s largest investor. But after a decade of sluggish sales, write-downs and cost-cutting, analysts say management’s willingness to consider a split signals a major strategic reset aimed at reigniting growth and narrowing the valuation gap with nimbler food peers.
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