The boards of both companies agreed to the merger of Kraft Foods and H.J. Heinz, with approval by shareholders and regulatory authorities in early 2015. The new Kraft Heinz Company became the world's fifth-largest food and beverage company and the third-largest in the United States. The Kraft Heinz co-headquarters are in Chicago at the
Aon Center and in Pittsburgh at
PPG Place, with other offices across the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The merger was completed on July 2, 2015. The merger in 2015 did not immediately affect the
naming rights to
Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, home of the
Pittsburgh Steelers. In July 2022 reports leaked that the company did not renew the rights, which Heinz initially acquired in 2001. On February 17, 2017, it was reported that Kraft Heinz Co. had made a $143 billion approach to take over the British-Dutch multinational
Unilever, a significantly larger competitor with 126,000 more employees and £24bn larger revenue than Kraft Heinz. Unilever declined the initial proposal. The takeover was subsequently abandoned on February 19 soon after UK Prime Minister
Theresa May had ordered regulators to examine the potential deal. On March 9, 2018, New Zealand's Commerce Commission approved the purchase, on the condition that it sell the licenses for Gregg's brand of sauces and the F. Whitlock Worcestershire sauce brand due to competition concerns. In May 2018, Kraft Heinz launched Springboard Brands, a business focused on growing organic, natural, and "super-premium" food brands. Later that year, it was announced Kraft Heinz would acquire the
Primal Kitchen brand as part of the company's Springboard Incubator. The $200 million deal was completed in early 2019 and was expected to generate $50 million in new annual revenue. On October 24, 2018, Kraft Heinz announced that it was selling its Indian nutritional beverage assets, including
Complan and energy drink Glucon-D to
Zydus Wellness. The sale was completed on January 30, 2019. In April 2019, it was announced
Miguel Patricio, former Chief Marketing Officer of
InBev would replace Bernardo Hees as CEO of Kraft Heinz. Patricio took position of CEO in late June 2019 and
Alex Behring remained chairman of the company. Later that year,
Paulo Basilio returned to his role at Chief Financial Officer and Corrado Azzarita assumed the position of Chief Information Officer. Todd Kaplan has been named chief marketing officer of North America at Kraft Heinz. In June 2019, Kraft Heinz reached a milestone in achieving a 100 percent
Corporate Equality Index score from the
Human Rights Campaign. The score recognized the company for its
LGBTQ inclusion efforts and becoming a leader in the area among
food CPG companies. On July 2, 2019, Kraft Heinz sold its Canadian natural cheese business, including the Cracker Barrel, P'tit Quebec, and aMOOza! brands to
Parmalat for C$1.62 billion. In September 2020, Kraft Heinz reached a deal to sell
part of its cheese business to French multinational
dairy product corporation
Lactalis for $3.2 billion. The sale included the Breakstone's, Knudsen,
Polly-O, Athenos,
Hoffman's, and
Cracker Barrel cheese brands for the United States, and
Cheez Whiz outside of North America. Kraft Heinz then partnered with Lactalis to manufacture Kraft and Velveeta cheeses. On November 10, 2021, the
U.S. Justice Department approved the acquisition on the condition that it divest the Athenos and Polly-O businesses. The sale was completed on November 29. The divestiture of Athenos to
Emmi Roth was completed on December 1, while the divestiture of Polly-O to
BelGioioso Cheese was completed on December 3. On September 15, 2020, Kraft Heinz announced its new Strategic Transformation Plan, including a new company purpose, "''Let's Make Life Delicious
" and an all-new vision, "To sustainably grow by delighting more consumers globally''." The next day Kraft Heinz also released its updated 2020 Environmental Social Governance (ESG) report with goals to make 100% of Kraft Heinz product packaging recyclable, reusable, or compostable by 2025 and plans to sustainably source 100 percent of
Heinz Ketchup tomatoes by 2025. On February 11, 2021, Kraft Heinz announced its Q4 2020 and full-year results, resulting in 6.2 percent increased sales and over $26 billion in revenue. The same day, Kraft Heinz announced its plans to sell its nuts business, including the
Planters brand to
Hormel for $3.35 billion. The transaction was completed on June 7. On March 9, 2021, Kraft Heinz announced an agreement with
The Hershey Company to sell refrigerated Colliders desserts under Hershey's respective brands. In September 2021, Kraft Heinz announced that Hemmer, a Brazilian company focused on condiments and sauces, was being acquired for an undisclosed amount. This acquisition followed the recent agreement to purchase Assan Foods – a Turkish company focused on sauces – belonging to Kibar Holding, for approximately $100 million. On January 19, 2022, Kraft Heinz announced that it had completed its acquisition of an 85% stake in Germany-based
Just Spices GmbH. Launched in 2014, Just Spices is a start-up with approximately €60 million annual sales. Its 170-plus product portfolio includes spice blends, salad dressings, easy-to-prepare "In Minutes" blends, and organic offerings for diverse meal occasions ranging from breakfast and light snacks to salads and baking, with a broad range of savory, sweet, classic, and exotic flavors. The proposed deal was first announced on December 10, 2021. On May 18, 2023, Kraft Heinz announced a new partnership with
IHOP to sell IHOP-branded coffee at grocery stores nationwide. That partnership was expanded on July 23, 2024, to include the sale of pancake syrups. In June 2025, Kraft Heinz announced it would eliminate artificial food, drug, and cosmetic colors from all U.S. products by the end of 2027, following increased pressure from health officials including HHS Secretary
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The company, which had already removed such dyes from many products, committed to using only natural colors in new items effective immediately. In July 2025, it was reported that Kraft Heinz was planning a breakup of the company into two smaller companies. One company will be global in nature and focus on sauces, spreads and seasonings; the other will focus on grocery staples in North America. At the time of the breakup, the CEO noted Kraft Heinz had nearly 200 brands across 55 categories and 150 countries, "making it difficult to fully invest in each of them".
Warren Buffet, who helped orchestrate the original merger in 2015 along with
3G Capital, and whose firm
Berkshire Hathaway still owns 27.5% of the company, was reportedly "disappointed" with the announcement of the split and the prospect of shareholders being unable to vote on the split. Kraft Heinz projected only $300 million in dis-synergies. ==Brands==