Kraft Foods

Kraft grew out of a wholesale cheese-delivery business established in Chicago in 1903 by James L. Kraft. Three years later he and his brother Charles began processing cheese for distribution to area retailers. Two other brothers later joined the firm, and in 1909 it was incorporated as J.L. Kraft Bros. & Company. The brothers patented a spoil-resistant processed cheese, which was sold in great quantities to the U.S. Army during World War I. In 1930 the company was acquired by National Dairy Products Corporation (established 1923), which adopted the names Kraftco Corporation in 1969 and Kraft, Inc., in 1976.

In 1980 the company merged with Dart Industries, Inc., a diversified company manufacturing goods including home appliances, plastic products, and batteries. When Kraft, Inc., split off in 1986, it retained the batteries division for two years. Kraft was acquired in 1988 by tobacco giant Philip Morris Companies, which had also purchased General Foods in 1985 and went on to buy Nabisco Holdings in 2000. General Foods’ and Nabisco’s businesses were integrated into the operations of a giant Kraft General Foods, Inc. In 2001, with a partial stock offering, Philip Morris began to sell off its stake in Kraft, and in 2007 Kraft Foods Inc. became a fully independent, publicly traded corporation. (Meanwhile, in 2003, Philip Morris changed its name to Altria Group.) In 2007 Kraft purchased the biscuit division of Groupe Danone, a French company, for more than $7 billion, and in 2010, after lengthy and often contentious negotiations, Kraft purchased Cadbury, a British candy company, for more than $19 billion. Two years later the company reorganized into two separate companies, one selling grocery products in North America (operating under the name Kraft) and the other snack products worldwide (Mondelēz International). In 2015 Kraft’s parent company merged with the H.J. Heinz Holding Corporation. Kraft Foods became a division and brand within the newly formed conglomerate.

Some of Kraft’s most popular products included Kraft cheese, Milka and Toblerone chocolates, Philadelphia cream cheese, Planters nuts, Jell-O desserts, Kool-Aid powdered beverages, Jacobs and Maxwell House coffees, Lu biscuits, Nabisco cookies and crackers, Oscar Mayer meats, and Cadbury Creme Egg and Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolates.