Kraft Foods outlines growth plans for North American food & beverage firm

Kraft Foods is on its way to spin-off Kraft Foods Group, which will hold Kraft Foods' North American grocery business, on 1 October 2012.

Following the spin-off, Kraft Foods will be renamed Mondelez International.

Kraft Foods Group's portfolio includes various products in the beverages, cheese, convenient meals and grocery categories.

Kraft Foods North America president and Kraft Foods Group future CEO Tony Vernon said, "Our aim is to be North America's best food and beverage company, and we'll get there by continuing to offer products consumers love, creating a performance-based culture that motivates and excites employees and becoming the best investment in the industry."

To make its people its competitive edge, Kraft Foods Group plans to create a less-layered organization. The company intends to increase investment to acquire talent and create next generation of Kraft leaders at its newly created 'Kraft University'.

Kraft Foods Group will strategically allocate resources to best leverage the breadth of its portfolio, sales and warehouse distribution system.

The company has already roped in sales agency Acosta to expand in-store merchandising coverage and will realign incentives to focus on net revenue growth and profit.

To better reach out to customers, the company plans to deliver the right products at the right price points. It has already introduced MiO, which created an entirely new product category of liquid beverage enhancers.

The company said that it will deploy several tools such as Lean Six Sigma, supply chain simplification and strategic sourcing, with the goal of becoming the lowest cost producer in its categories.