USA: Kraft Foods Aligns Company Name in Europe

Kraft Foods International announced that it will change the name of its various companies in Europe, including Kraft Jacobs Suchard and Kraft Freia Marabou, to one common global name -- Kraft Foods. This decision is part of a broader internal program to establish a common vision and identity across all of the affiliates and regions of Kraft Foods International. "In Europe, our company developed over the past decade through a series of acquisitions, and our local company names incorporated the names of these acquired companies," said Roger Deromedi, President and Chief Executive Officer of Kraft Foods International. "Prominent among these were the acquisitions of the Jacobs Suchard coffee and confectionery business, the Freia Marabou confectionery company and a number of companies in Central and Eastern Europe. "Following a period of consolidation over the last few years, we have taken actions to create a 'one-company' organization designed to drive growth in the future. The name change in Europe to Kraft Foods is consistent with this new 'one-company' approach and also better aligns our overall worldwide identity with Kraft Foods North America." The change in name will be phased in gradually across all the European countries in which the company operates over the coming months. The company's businesses elsewhere in the world are already called Kraft Foods. Kraft Foods International, with businesses in Europe, the Middle East/Africa and Asia/Pacific, is a unit of Philip Morris Companies Inc., the world's largest producer and marketer of consumer packaged goods.