Kraft Heinz Plans $3 Billion in Capital Spending: Reuters Report
A Kraft Heinz executive told Reuters news service the company will spend $3 billion to upgrade its U.S. factories – he just didn’t say when. Nevertheless, the indication was that capital improvements are a priority for the merged company.
In an exclusive interview last week with the news service, Pedro Navio, Kraft Heinz's president of North America, said the outlay will be the company’s largest investment in its plants in a decade – “even as executives say consumer sentiment is at its second-lowest point in 70 years, and [Kraft Heinz] has cut sales and profit forecasts,” the Reuters report noted.
The upgrades will help lower costs by making the plants more efficient, which in turn may help offset President Donald Trump's tariffs, which factored into the company's decision to make the investment, Navio said.
The investment also should allow the packaged food maker to develop and market new products faster, he said.
Kraft Heinz has 30 plants across the U.S., some of them ancient. It has been spending on the order of $1 billion a year on capital expenditures, according to our recently published annual Capital Spending Outlook.
"It goes beyond just efficiencies or dealing with the current tariff challenges," he said, saying the investment allows Kraft Heinz to produce food for the long term.
Here is a link to the Reuters story - although it may require a subscription.
