Business News

Kraft Foods Honored for Innovation Excellence

Tuesday 14. October 2008 - Wins 'Most Innovative Company' Award from Consumer Goods Technology Magazine

Consumer Goods Technology (CGT) magazine presented Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE:KFT) with the 2008 Most Innovative Company award at its Growth & Innovation Forum held Sept. 24-26 in Miami. Kraft was honored for innovation excellence by the magazine’s readership of more than 35,000 consumer goods executives as well as its editorial and research advisory boards staffed by top industry analysts and executives.

“This award recognizes Kraft’s successful investments in innovation to drive growth,” said Steve Goers, Vice President, Open Innovation and Investment. “This is an exciting time to be at Kraft — our Research, Development and Quality function is central to achieving Kraft’s plan to rebuild our brand equity, strengthen our portfolio and deliver improved financial results. We’re creating a pipeline of new product platforms like Cakesters and Deli Creations and reinventing iconic brands like Philadelphia, Oreo, Kool-Aid and Oscar Mayer.” Kraft’s Research, Development and Quality function has more than 2,000 scientists, chemists and engineers based on five continents.

Goers added, “With our Open Innovation strategy, we’re complementing our traditional R&D capabilities with open sourcing of innovation — actively searching for outside partners to strengthen our innovation capacity and capability to drive growth.”

Kraft recently refreshed its Open Innovation web site to attract potential innovation partners to help the company create new product platforms and improve existing products and brands.