H. J. Heinz Company

H. J. Heinz Company

Type	Public (NYSE: HNZ)
Industry	Food processing
Founded	Sharpsburg, PA, U.S. (1869)
Founder(s)	Henry John Heinz
Headquarters	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	William R. Johnson (Chairman, President & CEO)
Products	Ketchup Condiments Frozen food Soups Beans and pasta meals Infant food
Revenue	US$10.1 Billion (FY 2009)[1]
Operating income	US$1.56 Billion (FY 2009)[1]
Net income	US$923 Million (FY 2009)[1]
Total assets	US$9.66 Billion (FY 2009)[2]
Total equity	US$1.22 Billion (FY 2009)[2]
Employees	32,500 (2008)
Website	Heinz.com

H. J. Heinz Company (NYSE: HNZ), commonly known as Heinz and famous for its "57 Varieties" slogan and its ketchup, is an American food company with world headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Perhaps best known for its ketchup, the H.J. Heinz Company manufactures thousands of food products in plants on six continents and markets these products in more than 200 countries and territories. Heinz ranked first in ketchup in the United States with a market share in excess of 50 percent. Moreover, its Ore-Ida label held more than 50 percent of the frozen-potato sector. Overall, the company claims to have 150 number one or number two brands worldwide. Breaking the company's sales down by sector: ketchup, condiments, and sauces account for about 24 percent of overall sales; frozen foods (including Ore-Ida, Budget Gourmet, and Weight Watchers), 15 percent; pet products (9-Lives, Gravy Train, and Ken-L-Ration), 14 percent; soups, beans, and pasta meals, 12 percent; tuna, 12 percent; infant foods, 11 percent; and other, 12 percent. Geographically, about 55 percent of revenues are generated in North America, 26 percent in Europe, 11 percent in the Asia-Pacific region, and eight percent elsewhere.

Heinz products around the world

Australia

Heinz-Watties factory in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales.

In Australia, Heinz is best known for its tinned baked beans in tomato sauce (particularly due to the success of its "beanz meanz Heinz" advertising campaign), and spaghetti in a similar sauce. Heinz's canned soup lines are widely recognized in Australia. Heinz manufactures condensed soup, as well as "ready to eat" soups - these are offered in single serve packaging as well as the traditional sized cans.

Certainly their most iconic product is Heinz BIG RED Tomato Sauce, although the US style ketchup is also available. Next to the Tomato Ketchup, Heinz Australia also manufactures a number of flavored baked bean varieties, as well as canned meals. Not all products are produced in Australia, products such as Heinz ready to eat microwave bowl soups are imported into Australia. Heinz also markets the Watties brand of canned foods, which are made in New Zealand.

On October 6, Heinz announced plans to acquire all of Golden Circle's shares on issue for $1.65 per share, representing a premium of 313 per cent to the 40 cent closing price of Golden Circle on October 3. Established in 1947, Golden Circle manufactures more than 500 products, including canned fruit and vegetables, fruit juices, drinks, cordials and jams.^[3]

Philippines

In the Philippines, Heinz was a part of NutriAsia, which owns other bigger brands in the condiments industry, such as UFC (banana ketchup, tomato and spaghetti sauce), Datu Puti (vinegar, soy sauce and fish sauce), Mang Tomas (gravy, barbecue sauce, oyster sauce and all-purpose sauce), Jufran(chili sauce and banana ketchup) and Papa (banana ketchup). Heinz is most famous as a brand of tomato sauce and spaghetti sauce in the country rather than being a tomato ketchup brand, which is being dominated by Del Monte Pacific, also recently acquired by a consortium of NutriAsia and San Miguel Corporation.

The Heinz brand is the 3rd largest tomato sauce (behind Del Monte and Hunt's) and the 2nd largest spaghetti sauce brand (behind Del Monte) in the country.

As of March 2006, Heinz and NutriAsia have ended their joint-venture partnership and Heinz products are now distributed by Getz Bros.

Canada

Heinz was established in Canada in 1909 in a former tobacco factory in Leamington, Ontario (Tomato Capital of Canada). Most products shipped from Leamington have English and French labels for distribution throughout Canada but a substantial amount of product is sent to the United States. Ketchup is the main product produced there but the factory also produces Canada Fancy (Grade A) tomato juice, mustard, vinegar, pickles, baby food, BBQ sauces, canned pastas, beans, pasta sauces, gravies and soups. Heinz Canada is also the major supplier of single serving and flexible packaging condiments for most fast food chains in Canada. Leamington is the largest tomato processing region per acreage in the world. The Leamington plant usually processes more than 250,000 tons of tomatoes per year. With its unique combination of climate and rich soil, Leamington is one of the best areas for growing vegetables in the world. Heinz Canada also has operations in St. Marys, Ontario, Calgary, Alberta and Montreal, Quebec.

India

Heinz Ketchup is available in glass bottles in India with two varieties, one is the normal Heinz Ketchup, and one is an alternative which does not contain any traces of garlic or onion, two vital ingredients in the original ketchup. This is due to the large amount of Indians who refrain from eating garlic and onion for religious and cultural reasons.

Heinz has acquired the former foods division of Glaxo India and gained the Complan, Glucon D, Glucon C, Sampriti Ghee, and Nycil products and brands.

Netherlands

Heinz sells many products in the Netherlands, the Elst factory is the primary production facility for Heinz sauces for Western Europe. In 2006, production of HP Sauce and Daddies was transferred from Birmingham, UK to Elst as a result of the acquisition of HP Foods and the subsequent closure of the Aston factory.^[4] Subsequently, Heinz suffered severe supply issues for the ex-HP Foods brands as the Elst factory struggled to integrate production, resulting in significant negative coverage from UK retailers.^[5]. Heinz was forced to begin bottling sauce in Spain, having shipped ready-made sauce from Holland to get product back into supply.^[6]

United Kingdom

Heinz is the leading seller of baked beans in the UK, with its beans product lines referred to as Heinz Baked Beanz.

The UK headquarters is in Hayes, Middlesex. After opening its first overseas office in London in 1896, the company opened its first UK factory in Peckham, south London in 1905. This was followed by a second factory at Harlesden, north-west London in 1919. A factory at Wigan opened in 1959. Heinz also has an infant food factory in Kendal, Cumbria. The site specializes in baby milks, previously under the brand of Farley's, but now manufactures under the name Heinz Nurture. It currently has around 200 employees.

The 1970s television comedy series The Goodies spoofed the Heinz baked beans adverts. Tim Brooke-Taylor played the star of the advert, but was unable to get the poem used in the advert right.

In 2001, the Food Standards Agency of the Government of the United Kingdom found Heinz canned baked beans products to be contaminated with the hormone disruptor bisphenol.^[7]

In June 2009, a company PR stunt announced they had introduced the prototype of the world's smallest, portable microwave, the "Beanzawave". The microwave would be targeted at office workers and students and can be powered by a computer via a USB port. The size of the microwave is good for heating up coffee or tea or small items. It is also good for heating up Heinz's hot snack line, Snap Pots, for which it was created. The prototype was designed by microwave expert, Gordon Andrews and industrial designer, Stephen Frazer.^[8]

The Heinz Company has operated at this location in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, since 1890.

United States

A bottle of Heinz Tomato Ketchup.

Heinz is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the company has been located since 1890, and the company's "keystone" logo is based on that of Pennsylvania, the "keystone state". However, a majority of its ketchup is produced at a factory in Fremont, Ohio. Heinz Field, home to the Pittsburgh Steelers, was named after Heinz Ketchup in 2001. Heinz opened a pickle factory in Holland, Michigan, in 1897; it is the largest such facility in the world.

Brands

• Bagel Bites
• Daddies
• Greenseas
• HP Sauce
• Lea & Perrins
• Ore-Ida
• Wattie's
• Wyler's

2006 proxy battle

Billionaire Nelson Peltz initiated a proxy battle during 2006, culminating in a vote to place Peltz's nominees on the Board, which, depending on how many seats the dissident group received after the final vote tally, would displace some of the current board members. After the final vote, 2 out of the 5 nominees joined the Heinz Board. The new members of the board were Nelson Peltz and Matthew Craig Walsh.

2008 advertisement controversy

In June 2008, Heinz began an advertising campaign in the United Kingdom for their new New York Deli Mayo product range. The advertisement featured a family with the mother replaced by a stereotypical male New York deli worker. The advert ended with the father and the 'mother' kissing. This drew 200 complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority.^[9] On June 24, 2008 Heinz took the decision to withdraw the advertisement, which was initially supposed to run for five weeks. A spokesperson for Heinz stated that the reason for the withdrawal was recognition of the fact that some of its customers had concerns about the advertisement's content.^[10]

Withdrawing the advert caused further controversy with Heinz being accused of homophobia.^[11] The gay rights group Stonewall has called for a boycott of the company's products. Some have expressed surprise that Heinz has responded to what they view as a small number of complainants, relative to the United Kingdom's 3.6 million gay and lesbian consumers.^[12] MP Diane Abbott called the decision to withdraw the advert 'ill-considered' and 'likely to offend the gay community' in an Early Day Motion on June 25.^[13]

See also

• Heinz Tomato Ketchup

References

External links

• Heinz History
• Historic Pittsburgh - Electronic version of Heinz's biography pp. 147
• Cecil Adams' The Straight Dope
• Heinz BIG RED Tomato Sauce (Australian flagship product)
• Company Website ('Company Info' section of the site, briefly running through HJ Heinzs' history)
• Heinz French website
• Britain's Queen Mother Factory Visit 1959 at You Tube