Spinoff of Kraft Foods Group from Kraft Foods Inc. In August 2011,
Kraft Foods Inc. announced plans to split into two publicly traded companies—a snack food company and a grocery company. On April 2, 2012, Kraft Foods Inc. announced that it had filed a Form 10 Registration Statement to the
SEC to split the company into two companies to serve the "North American grocery business". On October 1, 2012, Kraft Foods Inc. spun off its North American grocery business to a new company called
Kraft Foods Group, Inc. The remainder of Kraft Foods Inc. was renamed
Mondelēz International, Inc., and was refocused as an international snack and confection company. Burt P. Flickinger III of Strategic Resource Group said the strategy "worked for Mondelez, but not for Kraft". On November 19, 2013, an arbitration ruling ordered Starbucks to pay Kraft Foods Inc. $2.7 billion because of an early contract termination. The money would go to Mondelēz International, Inc. In October 2013, Kraft announced that it would remove artificial dyes from three macaroni and cheese varieties made in kid-friendly shapes, but not its plain elbow-shaped
Kraft Macaroni and Cheese product with "original flavor". This was in response to a petition by activist
Vani Hari and blogger Lisa Leake who delivered a petition to the company to remove controversial synthetic dyes
Yellow 5 (labeled as
Tartrazine) and
Yellow 6 from its signature macaroni and cheese products. In August 2014, Kraft announced an agreement with
McDonald's to sell its
McCafé brand of coffee in grocery stores starting in 2015.
Kraft and Heinz merger On March 25, 2015, Kraft Foods Group Inc. announced that it would merge with the
H.J. Heinz Company, owned by
3G Capital and
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Kraft's shares rose about 17 percent in premarket trading after the announcement of the deal, which will bring Heinz back to the public market following its takeover over two years prior. The companies completed the merger on July 2, 2015. In 2025, Kraft Heinz confirmed that they will be spending $3 billion on its U.S. manufacturing facilities, adding 3,500 employees to the Lunchables producer's workforce. ==Sponsorships and promotions==