Why Kraft Heinz Is Warren Buffett's Worst Bet
Nine years after its megamerger, food behemoth Kraft Heinz is facing challenging times amid slumping sales, high inflation, a shift away from processed foods and stiff competition. Despite $27 billion in annual sales, the company must keep innovating if it wants to compete with private-label brands such as Costco's Kirkland or Wegmans' various brands which are quickly stealing market share as recent generations value lower prices over loyalty. With a new CEO, a renewed focus on core brands, and Brazilian private equity company 3G out of the picture, majority stakeholder Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is betting it can make a comeback. But experts say it could be difficult.
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
2:01 Chapter 1. A bad deal
7:40 Chapter 2. Turn around?
11:37 Chapter 3. Industry Risks
Clarification: At 4:12 a speaker in this video misstated the relationship between 3G and Kraft. 3G owned Heinz prior to the Kraft Heinz merger.
Produced and shot by: Natalie Rice
Edited by: Evan Lee Miller
Animation by: Christina Locopo, Jason Reginato
Senior Managing Producer: Tala Hadavi
Additional Sources: FactSet, Reuters
Additional Footage: Getty, AP Photos, The Kraft Heinz Company
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Why Kraft Heinz Is Warren Buffett's Worst Bet
Highly processed and addictive foods… their failure is a win for humanity!
Like the failure of any highly processed and addictive morality mill. Like all the crazy cults.
Buffet pushing trash like soda
100% True, but sometimes they are so tasty.
The quality of their products is awful compared to what it once was.
High level of lead in lunchables
Bad, expensive and boring.
I actually still buy & like the ketchup, mustard, relish & the cheddar/white shredded cheese (not American cheese FYI). I used to eat the Mac & Cheese as a kid. I loved that too. I don't eat it anymore. If I want pasta, I am just making it myself & will add on my own cheese if needed.
and they keep business in russia. So many europeans just boycott them and nasty Nestle choosing local brands instead.
i suppose there are just more alternatives and expectations changed
The brand is known for affordable food. Hotdogs, Kraft Mac and Cheese, etc, etc. Their prices don't reflect that and they lost touch with their consumers. Mac and cheese used to be a cheap meal a mom could put on for their kid when they came home for lunch from school. Now it's fine dining with the cost of their products.
Mac and cheese costs a buck, LOL.
Why you guys eat that sh*t? It looks bad
@@JohnEastmanExAttyAtLaw depends where you are. Ive travel to many paces around the world and the cost is wildly different from place to place. Up in Canada it is nearly $4 a box.
@@JohnEastmanExAttyAtLaw Please, inform us where you get it for a buck.
@@kennethwersat Walmart and Target the price of Kraft Mac and Cheese cost a dollar.
Had to increase prices by 15% in 2023 ... to pay off ridiculous corporate bonuses? And shrinkflation? No mention of these things. Suspicious.
Definitely don't go look up salaries of the executives.
Ridiculous comparison. Regardless if prices go up or down, if jobs are laid off or expanded, if revenues are growing or shrinking; people still get a decent salary and a bonus. Cry harder lol you're not the ones who put in the work to lead a corporation
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The problem with big corporations is their need for constant never-ending growth to make wall street speculators happy.
Luiz, capitalism at its finest. but this cluster of brands is diabetes in different forms. Que Triste !
Until there's one giant mega-corporation that owns everything. A few thousand people have every penny of wealth, and then what? What are you gonna do then?
@@willreasoner4472 I sense that we will know pretty soon.
This isn't another spam comment chain is it
Or in this case huge cost gutting....Short term value long term loss...
I love how many euphemisms CNBC uses for layoffs: "private equity meritocracy", "zero-based budgeting", "cost-cutting", "streamlined operation".
10:48 This lady is master of corporate jargon. She never said anything substantial throughout the video but talked a lot. Lol
Classic corporate drone- dead eyes and completely useless
not to mention the creepy smiling performance!
KraftHeinz lost because they forgot they were in the business of feeding people. People who want premium branded food products aren't buying frozen pizza, and the people who are tend to look for value/bargains
Pretty much.
This brand has lived off of boomer nostalgia for the last 20 years. The biggest problem for this brand, is it pretends to be a premium food brand, but most of what they make is done better by private labels for a lower price.
Hmm. Where do you think private label brands are getting their products from?
@@TheBooban Depends on the chain behind the private label and the kind of product. Some chains even own their own production facilities. Some work with well etablished mega corps, some with smaller producers. But plenty of products have different recipes than the name brand product their derived from. While some of those recipes are better, some are worse and for some products like dairy the distinction isn't measureable.
When the merger happened, in Canada, there was a huge fiasco about heinz no longer buying tomatoes from Canadian farmers. Whether or not this has changed, it was irreparable brand damage at least in Canada. Many families I know still avoid heinz because of this.
Kraft destroyed Cadbury chocolate after acquiring it. They shut down operations in the UK where Cadbury originated and moved to Poland. Quality of the product rapidly declined after the acquisition.
It's disgusting now
Thats sad wtf
That's sad because European candies and chocolates are usually better
yeah they started to add palm oil and shea butter, which made the chocolate taste "waxy". Should've stayed in Bourneville, UK where it was created, great shame. The previous owners in the 19th/20th centuries were Quakers and even built homes etc for their staff, all that has gone now. Rowntree is another example who did this, ruined by a Nestle takeover
Cadbury's chocolate tastes like Hershey's now which is one of the worst chocolate
I just don’t see them innovating their way out of this one. Private label brands are just cheap with the same quality
They can sell off-brand versions at a lower price.
@@danyala.1659 and at worse specs, even branded versions wildly differ across different stores
off brand are usually made at the same factories
@@damnitschris_ true, but not with same specs; in my experience off brand ones are considerably worse but one cannot tell apart from branded by look and feel alone
I disagree with cheese products. Cream Cheese being the worst offender with knockoffs. Target i think had a semi recent redo that seems pretty decent, but some products are russian roulette IF you can find one you like as much or better.
"elevating food experiences" elevating rates of diabetes
High fructose corn syrup doesn’t belong in ketchup. I hope brands that unapologetically use ingredients like this continue to fail
Agree 1000 percent!
Bingo!!!!
Ketchup in Europe is still just tomatoes, vinegar and a bit of sugar, in the usa it's horrible.
Partially the fault of the government that subsidizes corn and keeps corn syrup cheap.
All trash food like products, Your health is better off not touching that crap.
💯💯💯💯 and is waste of money
I like the ketchup though
Yes, eat imported olive oil from Bertolli....😂
@@DG-hw8itfr. With today’s inflation, ppl are eating what they can afford. I’d rather eat that before starving or begging for food
Try a better one. Ketchup is easy to make too.@@timt6860
Kraft-Heinz’s story is similar to what happened to Boeing. Bring in MBA types, extract value with a zero budgeting strategy’, go goofy with 3G thinking, and destroy the product.
I think the worst part of 3G’s work was all the human talent they lost. I work at another consumer packaged foods company, and sit next to 4 people who left Kraft due to cuts made by 3G. These are Engineering / R&D technical folks who work on innovation. That was the real loss - the experienced talent needed to innovate at that scale. That sad / upsetting part of 3G was their ruthless pushing of their human capital.
I left another of their companies. I’ll never work for a 3G company again. All they know how to do is fire people.
To all these companies, all they see is a number that cost money. They dont understand or care how much one person is actually worth
It's surprising how all management involved in this deal didn't understand that the innovation (the next lunchables) was where the value was, not the name brands. They could have cost cut in production and left R+D alone.
@@ctgottapee9020 I bet they did, but private equity and investors do not care about that. Once they are your main shareholders, they fire people and cut everything. After they get their profits, they sell and leave. They do not care about long term viability, the workers, or anything beyond their span of ownership.
Think how many years of life this processed junk food has taken from people.
But it saves cooking time...
High fructose corn syrup in ketchup. Unbelievable. 😢
Not even an option in Europe! The US is disgusting with their food safety standards
You clowns still going on about corn syrup.
@@ms.b9093 Safety standards? Ketchup is not a European condiment. Corn syrup is not a safety concern.
@@Look_What_You_Did shut up
@@Look_What_You_Didall of your comments are so karen-ish 😂 lmao shut up
These products are not cheaper than local alternatives. I noticed the cost in sandwich meat because I eat it everyday for lunch. I went to my local deli (I live in Louisiana) and noticed that a pound of fresh meat sliced is cheaper than than Kraft processed. Same with cheese singles. I am not saying everything local is cheaper, but I noticed that this processed stuff and other Kraft products costs more than better quality ingredients. The only downside is that they don't last on shelf as long, but like I eat it all before it goes bad.
Eating processed dell meat everyday can lead to colon cancer! Today's cured meats are not the same as they were 40 years ago.
And who wants all those chemicals they use as “preservatives” in their body? If bacteria don’t want to eat, neither should you!
odds are most of the 'local' brands are just kraft heinz produced bulk buys with a private label
You also have to not sell foods geared towards kids and convenience without lead and other heavy metals, e.g. lunchables.
In the USA medical bills will be more expensive eating Kraft products than the money you save from buying Kraft foods.
So so so so true!!!
i had an aneurism reading this
When people are so poor they have no choice.
@@nicoctane1669VERY WELL SAID.
Anything Kraft touches turns to Krap.
It would seem Unilever dodged a bullet by strongly rejecting the merger.
Maybe if they stopped tinkering around with the ingredients the quality has changed , why do US customers have different ingredients to European ones if you compare Heinz Ketchup ? European version doesn't have corn syrup , tomato concentrate , or added flavourings 😬
Ketchup is still a good product in Europe, in the usa it's horrible.
Its because corporate consolidation leads to the enshittification of products and services in the name of higher profits each quarter.
It's time for all these brands to get healthy or be outlawed.
"Our people & our culture" If Kraft Heinz cared about either they'd pay their people more... their WORKERS, not execs and stock holders.
Best news in 100 years… ❤😂 I don’t think I saw anything that wasn’t processed food to make you sick and ill. The growth officer just talked none sense with endless transformation bling words. As for their plant based foods.. 🤮 I don’t think I have touched or eaten any of that junk in 15 years.✅
“Growth Officer”, almost like she asked an AI to generate some examples of soulless, meaningless corporate talk. Also, Kraft, don’t call your customers “consumers”; it does make them feel very generous with their shopping habits…
THEN SERVE HEALTHY FOOD
We need to stop combining companies and break up corporations, not make them bigger. They're the reason people are paying through the nose for food.
FALSE, government overspending and money printing are the only way to create inflation.
Food. You mean, "food". They aren't really "food". They are more like lab experiments called "manufactured edibles". 😂
That’s isn’t “food” , you don’t need it
Oh wow it’s almost like people don’t like poison anymore
It's the new corporate trend to slowly increase prices while finding a way to make the product cheaper for maximum profit, they realize that food is needed so they are in control of that.
Profit over quality, people are buying store brands to save money.
Private label like Kirkland Signature is often the superior choice. KHC is finished.
Or Aldi. Everything they offer is either made by the store brands or way better than the store brands for CHEAPER.
This is how you pump to dump a bad decision in a professional way.
Because they stopped making ketchup in Pittsburgh.
Well I do see a common point for multiple fail... 3G capital...
The 3G capital did the same thing here in Brazil with the americanas store. Fraud was visible. But they found a way to drop all the acusacion against them
What accusations did 3G have against them?
Arguably other than Heinz ketchup, there's better alternatives to all their offerings at the same price or better.
I can’t afford name brands
Prices for everything are ridiculous. Even generic brands are expensive.
Go to Aldi or Lidl
@@dontelindsey5846yep, I do most of my shopping at Meijer. The store brand used to actually be a deal, now they are the same price or more expensive than the name brands. The frozen fries I used to get were $1.50, now they're $5, in less than 4 years. Meanwhile the Checkers and Arby's fries are still $5, didn't go up at all so I get those now
Kraft finally came out with a plant-based Kraft Dinner (Mac and Cheese) in Canada. Its delicious and tastes like traditional KD. Its obviously not healthy but after not having KD in over 10 years, I am happy to be a customer again.
Josh, don't eat that sheit. planrt based means there are 20 ingredients that constitute whatever looks like plant. think about how long your body needs to locate actual nutrients and digest it. If its mac con cheese but has 20 ingredients listed then that AIN'T IT !
You just listed off some of the worst food a person could buy. If you want to be unhealthy, eat kraft products. I go out of my way to buy alternatives if available. And avoid 90% of their products.
The diabetes champion.
High CNBC, please make a video about Aldi and their aggressive expansion in the US
What makes you think Aldi's is being aggressive with their expansion?
@@stripedrajang3571kinda like Starbucks in the early 2000s … you see them pop up out of nowhere 😂
Buffet overvalued the few marquee brands these companies own and failed to realize that the majority of the business stems from selling lesser known branded products at a higher price point. Like if Im buying yellow plastic cheese for a bbq, i'm not gonna care whether or not theyre 'Kraft Singles' - i will literally buy whatevers cheapest. Like yes, coca cola tastes better than no name brand cola, but it gets to a point where you opt for the basics when these products become luxuries
Buffet thought selling food was a simple business. He didn’t know the managers are fiddling with the ingredients and quality to push profits. Like all big US companies, eventually the penny pinchers come in and profit off the reputation of what the company was before they came.
Both are these companies are synonymous with low quality to me. If anything I skip these brands over because I know the ingredient list is full of garbage.
What ketchup do you buy? Hunt's?
@@holycrapchris Store brand. Organic.
Except there's one problem: Kraft changed all of their recipes...for the worse. Kraft Mac & Cheese tastes like cardboard. Kraft Cheese Singles used to actually be cheese-like but now turns into a puddle of goo when doing a basic grilled cheese sandwich. And the flavor is off. I'm not alone in this assessment - it's universally recognized that Kraft and Heinz food is different in a bad way. Is it any wonder that no one wants to buy their food products when they've actively ruined them? Go back to the old formulations, stop using HFCS and corn syrup, stop charging through the nose for basic food supplies, and you'll get people interested again in the product line.
So agree!!!
Absolutely correct. Somehow they don't mention the pernicious effect of a private equity owning the company. They flush it down the toilet in order to make themselves a quick buck.
Kraft singles taste like plastic silly putty!
@@ms.b9093 yes, and those of us old enough remember when they didn't. And as a result we don't care anymore
If you are not in the financial market space right now, you are making a huge mistake. I understand that it could be due to ignorance, but if you want to make your money work for you... prevent inflation
Thanks for continuing updates I'd rather trade the crypto market as it's more profitable. I make a good amount of money per week even though I barely trade myself.
A lot of people still make massive profit from the crypto market, all you really need is a relevant information and some ‹professional advice. ‹it's totally inappropriate for investors to hang on while suffering from dip during significant
You trade also?, I
No I don't trade on my own anymore, I always required help and assistance
This sounds so good and I would like to be a party to this, I there any way I can speak with her?
I grew up on all this but never buy it for my kids. I’m not even that healthy of a guy. But my kids like Annies
As a Berkshire shareholder I wish he had cut his losses and sold it. Terrible company. Better choice would have P&G
Sooooooo, is now a good time to buy, sell or hold?
In heinzsight it wasn’t a good investment.
The opening says it all. With these companies you one have you have to advertise to keep the brand in the zeitgeist of the public and the consumer of all ages, two you have to offer value, three you have to offer new products. These are basic concepts that the leadership at both companies seem to have forgotten.
Considering how far and important humans will go to feed themselves, food stocks will forever be valuable going forward.
I grew in NYC when I younger I would that garage now the type of cheese I use is Sargento,I use Boars Head for the meats I still get craving for a NYC pizza pie
Junk fructose and corn syrup in ketsup. 😮 and what's even in hot dogs? Total junk food brands.
That's tomato sauce, not ketchup...🤔
Heinz Simply Ketchup uses regular sugar. It's all I use.
They do make Simply Heinz, which has no corn syrup, and it’s so much better. I refuse to have any other kind of ketchup
Heinz were amazing and pleasing shareholders over quality is what has hurt this brand.
Top brand name products have gotten to overrated. The increase price is not worth the quality you can get cheaper for.
Junk food. No wonder I have none of these brands.
You want to compete with private labels, bring back easily accessible coupons. 2 for 1, 3 for 2, that kind of stuff. You cant adjust your prices quick enough so give consumers a chance to even out the costs for their nostalgic brands. And stop getting rich people to study the habits of everyday consumers, it isn’t working
All they have to do is make things not as processed and maybe taste decent and people will buy it but they’re not gonna do that ever 😂😂😂😂
The cost cutting in the long run is going to cost both these companies dearly because we all notice the difference in taste and quality. No substitute for that
Ultra-processed foods, ewwww.
so shareholder with no knowldge of fiedl are sad for their investment not growing at unlimited rate
When someone says "successful" and "Burger King" in the same sentence I can't help but laugh. Burger King has been getting dunked on by other fast food chains for decades.
It's clear Kraft Heinz is facing some tough challenges, but their CEO's focus on pricing discipline and providing better value shows a commitment to adapting to changing consumer preferences. It'll be interesting to see how they innovate and evolve their iconic brands in response to these trends. 💡
While these products are still good, we need to do better in buying stuff Shop in bulk = weekly store visits can be for milk & produce?
The damage is already done. They fired thousands and thousands and thousands of tenured people, destroyed customer relationships, raised prices to cover unwarranted executive pay, and sold off the only natural things in the portfolio. Plant based is the biggest meme of all time at the grocery store, it doesn't sell, isn't BYND in bankruptcy? Private label will continue to grow, and retailers will just use branded to fund low margins on their PL lines with slotting fees or just margin up on branded to the point that no one will buy it.
3g ran a company I worked for into the ground. Raised prices WAY outside our competition and made a pay plan that decimated take home for installers and sales. So all the talent left.
Not to mention that every time Kraft acquires an existing brand, that product's quality decreases. Kraft Heinz would be wise to remember the most basic rule of producing food products: if it doesn't taste good, people won't buy it. I really miss the old taste of Lea & Perrins, Grey Poupon, etc. They are just over salted and under seasoned now that they're owned by Kraft.
Kraft cheese is bad cheese. Period.
American cheese product today is just oil with chemical flavoring, binders and preservatives! It closer to a synthetic polymer chemically than a natural food sources!
All JUNK RED 40
and its the worst of the worst
& lead 🎉
No, innovation is not something required for condiments. Ketchup should always just be ketchup.
This video is not about food industry. This video is about the obesity Industry.
You missed the Mondelez spin off....US/Europe! 😢
❌Ketchup vending machine is the stupidest idea in the history of ideas 😒UNLESS, it starts offering more sauces options to self-build & expands to fast foods & movies theaters 🤔
Like too many companies. They didn't invest in themselves. They just kept going with cost cutting until it was too much. If you don't slow down and reinvest you will cause business problems for yourself. Too many growing small business do the same thing.
That dynasty is over.
How much lead in all this stuff?
Jesus christ this stuff should not be put into your body...
Kev, literally NONE of it . every single item in the picture is toxicity in a bottle.
I’m disappointed that they didn’t name it Heinzkraft, inspired by Minecraft
Other than monopolistic market opportunities what was the point of this merger anyway?
They don't have a single product that is "the best" ketchup is the closest but mostly for nostalgia and consistency. It's not difficult to make a better tasting ketchup but heinz is what people picture when they want some.
“If it’s broke, don’t fix it.”
I despise the word consumer
If a company needs to appoint a Chief Growth Officer, I'm not confident as an investor in its growth prospects.
Turns out that when your country is dealing with an obesity epidemic, investing in a food manufacturer which is complicit in it, is not such a great idea.
I thought the worst bet Buffett made was Tesco back in 2006! 🙄
All I want is to quell my hungry stomach, but I gotta pay out the wazoo for an elevating food experience.
All sensible investing is value investing❤
Ozempic effect! Buffet did not realize it at the time, once he understands it, he will dump the stock completely
These brands aren't going any where. I actually am still eating my boxed Mac & Cheese since I have been old enough to. Thank you very much.
I don’t know about in the US, but here in the UK Heinz tinned food is probably their greatest downfall. As a kid I used to practically live off the cans of ravioli, spaghetti with sausages, hoops, and spaghetti bolognese. They all used to be 3 tins for £1… now you’re lucky if you can find 1 can of ravioli for less than £3. For what would’ve bought me 9 cans just a few years ago, you can only buy 1. No wonder their stock is losing value. They’re killing themselves. No one is forking out upto a 1/4 of their hourly wage for a can of freaking pasta in tomato sauce. Not in this economical climate.
canned spagetti?????????????????? what's wrong with western countries??????
Especially for highly processed food
You Brits are also weird and you have cheap groceries. Do you buy their baked beans? In my country besides ketchup that is seen as quality, not a lot of people buy from them in my uneducated evidence, a few buy Philadelphia,capri-sun
American ’food’. It’s great to see KraftHeinz fail as they’ve always profited from selling the unhealthiest junk you can imagine.
Buy stock now guys. They'll be profitable when they release their buggy bites product line.
Now we know there's lead in their food. This is on the scale of Jack In The Box and Chipotle.
Why would Sara Eisen feel the need to use lip plumpers?
Competing with Sarah Palin, the octopus with eight lipsticks multitasking simultaneously.
By beloved products you mean poisonous garbage right?