Mondelez International

Kraft

Mondelez International is rooted in the National Dairy Products Corporation (National Dairy), which was founded on December 10, 1923, by Edward E. Rieck and Thomas H. McInnerney. The firm was initially set up to execute on a rollup strategy in the fragmented United States ice cream industry.

In 1924, Kraft Cheese Company was founded and was listed on the Chicago Stock Exchange.

In 1930, National Dairy acquired Kraft Phenix. After the acquisition, the combined company retained the National Dairy name and management, though the Kraft Phenix side of the company continued to operate largely independently. The company then changed its name to Kraftco Corporation in 1969, and was renamed again to Kraft Inc. in 1976. After its acquisition by Phillip Morris and the merger with General Foods Corporation in 1989, Kraft Inc. was renamed to Kraft Foods Inc. in 1995. Altria (the former Phillip Morris) sold its stake in 2007.

On September 7, 2009, Kraft made a hostile £10.2 billion takeover bid for the British confectionery group Cadbury, makers of Dairy Milk and Bournville chocolate. On November 9, the company's bid (then £9.8 billion) was rejected by Cadbury, which called it a "derisory" offer. Kraft upped its offer on December 4. It had significant political and public opposition in the United Kingdom and abroad, leading to a call for the government to implement economic protectionism in large-company takeovers. On January 19, 2010, Cadbury approved a revised offer from Kraft which valued the company at £11.5 billion ($19.5 billion). Some funds for the takeover were provided by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Cadbury sales were flat after Kraft's acquisition. Despite the Cadbury takeover helping to boost overall sales by 30 percent, Kraft's net profit for the fourth quarter fell 24 percent (to $540 million) due to costs associated with integrating the UK business after the acquisition. Kraft spent $1.3 billion on integration to achieve an estimated $675 million in annual savings by the end of 2012. Kraft increased prices to offset rising commodity costs for corn, sugar, and cocoa in North America and Europe. According to CEO Irene Rosenfeld, "We expect it will remain weak for the foreseeable future." Taking into account integration costs, the acquisition reduced Kraft's earnings per share by about 33% immediately after the Cadbury purchase.

Mondelez International

In August 2011, Kraft Foods announced plans to split into two publicly traded companies, an international snack-food company and a North American grocery company.

The snack-food company, called Mondelez International, would be the legal successor of the old Kraft Foods, while the grocery company would be a new company, Kraft Foods Group. The split was completed in October 2012. It was structured so that Kraft Foods changed its name to Mondelez International and spun off Kraft Foods Group as a new publicly traded company. Kraft Foods Group later merged with Heinz to become Kraft Heinz.

In 2014, the company announced a merger of its coffee business with the Dutch firm Douwe Egberts. The name of the newly merged company would be Jacobs Douwe Egberts (now JDE Peet's). The merger was confirmed on May 6, 2014, and completed on July 2, 2015.

Mondelez International brands (formerly Kraft Foods Inc.) includes brand-name products that are developed, owned, licensed, or distributed by Mondelez International. The company's core businesses are snack foods and confectionery. In certain international territories, Kraft-branded products have been made by Mondelez under license from Kraft Heinz Company since 2012, such as Jell-O in Mexico, Dream Whip in Saudi Arabia, Kraft Cheese in Indonesia, Miracle Whip in Germany, Cheesey Pasta in the UK, Calumet Baking Powder in the Philippines, and Cheez Whiz in Mexico and the Philippines. Mondelez also has licenses to also sell other products that were previously owned (but not made) by the Kraft Heinz Company in North America through licensing deals. Such brands include Log Cabin in Mexico from Conagra Brands, the majority of their gum brands outside North America and Europe (such as Stimorol, Trident, Dentyne and Bubbaloo) from Perfetti Van Melle, Lotus Biscoff in select countries from Lotus Bakeries, Pocky in Europe from Ezaki Glico under the name Glico Mikado, and Post Cereal in Korea from Post Holdings through a joint venture.

Controversies

Deforestation

In September 2017, an investigation conducted by NGO Mighty Earth found that a large amount of the cocoa used in chocolate produced by Mondelez and other major chocolate companies was grown illegally in national parks and other protected areas in Ivory Coast and Ghana. The countries are the world's two largest cocoa producers.

The report documents how in several national parks and other protected areas, 90% or more of the land mass has been converted to cocoa. Less than four percent of Ivory Coast remains densely forested, and the chocolate companies' laissez-faire approach to sourcing has driven extensive deforestation in Ghana as well. In Ivory Coast, deforestation has pushed chimpanzees into just a few small pockets, and reduced the country's elephant population from several hundred thousand to about 200–400.

In November 2018, an investigation by Greenpeace International found that 22 palm oil suppliers to Mondelez International cleared over 70,000 hectares (170,000 acres; 270 sq mi) of rainforest from 2015 to 2017. Mondelez received a 'yellow', the second of the four possible ratings on the 2022 Chocolate Scorecard for Agroforestry i.e. 'starting to implement good policies'.

Child slavery

In 2021, Mondelez International was named in a class action lawsuit filed by eight former child slaves from Mali (aided by International Rights Advocates) who allege that the company aided and abetted their enslavement on cocoa plantations in Ivory Coast. The suit accused Mondelez (along with Nestlé, Cargill, Mars, Olam International, The Hershey Company, and Barry Callebaut) of knowingly engaging in forced labor, and the plaintiffs sought damages for unjust enrichment, negligent supervision, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

As with deforestation, Mondelez is 'starting to implement good policies' according to the 2022 Chocolate Scorecard. Its Cocoa Life programme for sustainable cocoa aims to address the root causes of child labour with a holistic approach, collaborating with families, encouraging school attendance and monitoring child labour on farms. Cocoa Life farms accounted for 43% of Mondelez' cocoa needs by 2018 and the company planned to have 100% coverage with Cocoa Life by 2025.

An investigation in 2022 by Britain's Channel 4 Dispatches found children as young as ten working on farms in Ghana supplying the Cadbury's brand of Mondelēz International. The investigation went to an address on Mondelēz's Cocoa Life website in 2022 and discovered child laborers harvesting cocoa without protective clothing.