What it does: Kraft Heinz is an American multinational packaged food and drinks manufacturer, producing products such as cheese, sauce, meatless burgers, jelly, powdered drinks, and many more.
Mission statement: To sustainably grow by delighting more consumers globally.
Best known for: The brands in the company’s portfolio, such as Kraft cheese and Heinz ketchup.
Size & presence: 38,000 people working in offices worldwide.
The good bits: Kraft Heinz is the fourth biggest food and beverage company in the world, and its products are well-known not just in the Americas, but also across Asia, Australia, Africa, and Europe.
The not-so-good bits: There are some complaints of long hours from past and current employees, according to Glassdoor reviews, which translates to a bad work-life balance.
Kraft Heinz was born from the merger of two major American food corporations, Kraft Foods and Heinz, in 2015. Both companies have been around since the mid to late 19th century, with Heinz best known today for its ketchup products, and Kraft Foods for its processed cheeses.
Nowadays the company holds numerous other brands in its portfolio aside from its namesakes, including the following famous brands: Kool-Aid, Grey Poupon, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, Miracle Whip, Jell-O, Weight Watchers, Velveeta, Lunchables, as well as Lea & Perrins. Kraft Heinz still operates from the headquarters that both Kraft Foods and Heinz are known for: Chicago, IL, and Pittsburgh, PA.
Kraft Heinz highlights the following values in their company: diversity, inclusion, belonging, ownership, and meritocracy. In their own words, this is how they describe the company’s culture: “We're committed to creating an inclusive environment for our employees, our partners, our customers, and our consumers, knowing that diverse backgrounds and perspectives make us a stronger, more interesting and more innovative company.”
Kraft Heinz has a lot of employment opportunities for both university students and recent university or college graduates. These opportunities come in the shape of a management trainee program, an internship program, and an MBA program.
For the internship program, Kraft Heinz accepts students who are interested in becoming an intern in the following four departments: Sales & Marketing, Operations, Corporate, and R&D & Quality. The program lasts for ten weeks, and at the conclusion of the 10-week program, interns will present their project and results to the senior executive team. There is an opportunity to join Kraft Heinz as a trainee after graduation for high-performing interns.
As for the management trainee program, accepted applicants would be placed in a ten-month rotational program in the same four departments as the internship program. You’ll undergo the following steps as part of the program: company training, field training, first project rotation, leadership training, second project rotation, as well as graduation and final placement.
The recruitment process for both the internship and management trainee program is quite similar. First, you’ll need to submit an online application through Kraft Heinz’s career page.
Then, you’ll do an “on-demand video interview”. If you also pass that round, you’re going to have to do a set of game-based assessments. Afterwards, you might do an in-person or virtual interview with the team at Kraft Heinz. If you are hired, they’ll reach out to you with an offer.
An intern at Kraft Heinz can expect to make between $40,000 to $60,000 per year, while a management trainee can make between $60,000 to $100,000 per year. Aside from base pay, Kraft Heinz also offers the following employee benefits: health insurance, paid time-off, wellness benefits, life insurance, and bonuses based on performance.
Many of Kraft Heinz philanthropic initiatives are modeled on UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Some of these include reducing world hunger through donation, with a report in 2021 stating that the company is “on track to achieve our goal of delivering 1.5 billion
meals to people in need around the world by 2025—and delivered more than 200 million meals in 2020.”
They are also making strides in using recyclable, reusable, or compostable packaging, of which 82% of their packaging globally are already meeting said standards in 2020. Kraft Heinz is also focusing their efforts in engaging in more sustainable farming practices, including through supporting their suppliers to do the same.
In 2019, Kraft Heinz was subpoenaed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) due to its accounting and internal control policies. As a result of this investigation, the company’s dividends were reduced, and Kraft Heinz also wrote down the value of several brands under their portfolio. These changes led to more than a 20% drop in their stock value at the time.