Kraft Heinz has halted its plans to split the company into one company that focuses on groceries and another that focuses on sauces and spreads, new CEO Steve Cahillane announced in an earnings call this week, the Wall Street Journal reported.
“Since joining the company, I have seen that the opportunity is larger than I expected and that many of our challenges are fixable,” said Cahillane, who took over leadership of the company January 1.
Kraft Heinz plans to invest $600 million to fuel a turnaround of its U.S. business. The company plans to spend the money on its marketing, sales and research and development, CNBC reported. The investment will also go toward “product superiority and select pricing,” according to Cahillane.
“The company needs to get better at delivering what consumers want, Cahillane said, and offer better value. He said innovation in particular has been stunted by underinvestment, and that the company’s strategy for launching new products and tweaking existing ones will focus on offering consumers healthier and more convenient options,” WSJ wrote.
Cahillane pointed to a new variety of Kraft mac and cheese, launching later this year, as an example. “PowerMac” will include 17 grams of protein and six grams of fiber. He also shared that a core problem has been too many price increases too rapidly, leaving consumers looking for lower cost options. “We busted through four or five levels of price points in a very accelerated fashion and the consumer was left very disappointed in that,” he said.
Other strategies the company will employ to build growth are hiring more sales and marketing employees, boosting marketing spending to about 5.5% of net sales and refining its strategy on prices, which could include running promotions with higher returns, introducing smaller packages with lower price tags and potentially reducing prices.
Prior to becoming CEO of Kraft Heinz, Cahillane led Kellogg through its own breakup and then headed Kellanova, itself a spinoff, until its sale to Mars, CNBC wrote.
Kraft Heinz originally announced its plans to split the company in September 2025, a decade after its merger in 2015.