Kraft Heinz holds off selling brands

Chicago-based Kraft Heinz is delaying selling its Breakstone’s sour cream and cottage cheese brands and baby food brand Plasmon after putting them up for sale earlier this year to help reduce its $3 billion corporate debt due by 2020.

According to CNBC, the company has instead decided to refocus its business tactics on brands like its Heinz ketchup, which remains a kitchen staple in pantries globally. Kraft Heinz is still trying to sell its Maxwell House unit, but has so far faced pushback from private equity buyers wary of the investment needed to reinvigorate the brand after years of being run by a cost-focused management team, anonymous sources familiar with the situation revealed to CNBC.

“Selling those brands was a short-term move. And while short-term-ism has driven Kraft Heinz’s stock and valuation over the past few years, that’s run its course. Now investors want to see real opportunity to drive the fundamentals and reinvigorate its business,” Wells Fargo Analyst John Baumgartner told CNBC.

To read the CNBC article, click here.