After a decade of US share losses, Kraft Heinz is targeting price-pack architecture, product leadership and innovation to restore North American growth, with North America President Pedro Navio stepping down after eight years at the helm.
Kraft Heinz’s CEO Steve Cahillane, who was recently named CEO in January, laid out a detailed plan to “drive volume led sustainable and profitable growth” by ramping up investments across pricing, innovation, marketing and sales – with the bulk of attention being spent on repairing its underperforming US business during the Consumer Analyst Group of New York meeting on February 19.
The company’s strategy around building a “more balanced value equation” means it will no longer rely on nostalgia alone, said Cahillane.
“These brands are so iconic, so special, so well known, but unfortunately, for too long, we have been relying too much on only that,” he said.
Kraft Heinz’s legacy brands span across categories and include Lunchables, Capri Sun, Jell-O, Ritz and Maxwell House.
“We recognize that it is imperative to drive volume-led sustainable and profitable growth, and to do this while continuing to generate attractive, free cash flow,” Cahillane said.
To fund the turnaround, Kraft Heinz will make “a meaningful step up in investments this year, approximately $600 million in total,” Cahillane said, addressing areas “across marketing, sales, R&D, as well as price and product superiority.”
Organizational reset in North America
The renewed US focus comes amid leadership change. Pedro Navio, who has led Kraft Heinz North America, announced Feb. 18 in a LinkedIn post he is stepping down as president of the region after eight years with the company.
Navio described the role as one that involved “scale and complexity” and “the hard work of strengthening the foundations.”
The timing reflects management’s sharpened focus on performance in its largest market. In December, the company paused its previously announced separation to concentrate “100% on fixing the business,” as Cahillane put it.
“We have been more than lean the last 10 years ...If you don’t have the people and the capabilities, it’s really difficult to deliver, and we’ve been operating too lean. And we acknowledge that, and we’re going to fix it
Steve Cahillane, CEO, Kraft Heinz
Scaling what’s working: Canada, Europe and emerging markets
Cahillane repeatedly pointed to Canada, the UK and emerging markets as “tangible, repeatable blueprints” for rebuilding volume growth and market share.
In Canada, where operating complexity has weighed on performance, the company simplified its structure and focused resources on core brands and “a few big bets,” said Cahillane.
The result? Over the last couple of years, the company grew new sales in Canada at a 4% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) while core brands gained market share contributing “about 80% of that growth,” he said.
In the UK, the company reversed a decade of share declines for Heinz beans that experienced “a lack of investment, inferior product quality and packaging price points that were too high and insufficient media support,” explained Cahillane.
After improving the formulation, adjusting price-pack architecture and increasing marketing support by 30% for Heinz beans in the UK, “not only did we reverse course on 10 years of market share loss, we did so while preserving the brand’s very attractive margins,” he added.
Emerging markets, which make up 11% of the business, are another priority. The company delivered “an impressive organic net sales growth of 13% in 2025,” and distribution points increased by 13%, according to Cahillane. In China, specifically, the company homed in on marketing for home cooking occasions which drove “approximately 170 basis points of share improvement,” he added.
“We have proven that we can recover market share, whether it be by simplifying an operating model, improving our renovation and innovation, or leaning into sales and marketing,” Cahillane explained.
The next step is to “accelerate the momentum we are seeing outside of the US, as well as bring these insights and capabilities into the US business,” he said.
The challenging market: US share losses and underinvestment
While international markets show growth, Cahillane acknowledged that “it is in the US where the bulk of our issues exist today.” The US accounts for 67% of Kraft Heinz’s total business, yet “our US business has consistently lost share during the last 10 years, with trends further worsening in 2025,” he clarified.
Cahillane attributed the declines to “a complex operating model, underperforming innovation and a lack of necessary funding.”
The company has already seen early improvement in the fourth quarter of 2025 where “we generated a 20-basis point improvement relative to the full year,” Cahillane said.
By year-end, it improved trends in categories including mac and cheese, Lunchables, mayo and Capri Sun by refining product quality and communications on packaging and value offerings.
Still, Cahillane was clear that modest share stabilization alone could move the needle.
“By continuing on this path in returning to even just the historical but disappointing 10-year average, we can improve our North America top line performance by two percentage points,” Kaling said. “This is clearly very doable.”
Where the $600M is going: price, R&D, marketing and sales
The incremental $600 million will be deployed across price and pack architecture, promotions, R&D innovation and marketing, explained CFO Andre Maciel.
On price and pack architecture, the company intends to open “price points across categories to make widespread material price investments,” rather than broad price cuts so consumers can “drive trial and brand entry,” he said.
For its promotions strategy, Kraft Heinz plans to reallocate its spending toward higher-return activities in the second half of 2026.
R&D investments will gain a 20% boost with a focus on core and major innovations, like convenience, new occasions and nutrition.
Marketing spend around “our biggest growth opportunities” will increase to “approximately 5.5%” in 2026, an increase from 4.9% from 2025, Maciel said. The company also plans to grow both marketing and sales teams to close capability gaps.
“We have been more than lean the last 10 years,” Cahillane added. “If you don’t have the people and the capabilities, it’s really difficult to deliver, and we’ve been operating too lean. And we acknowledge that, and we’re going to fix it.”
Segment focus: defend, selectively win or double down
Maciel outlined a tiered investment approach by brand.
“For those brands what we want to hold like Oscar Mayer and Maxwell House, we will spend to defend market share,” he said.
Maciel continued: “We’re looking to win market share like Capri Sun and Lunchables, we will invest selectively and for those brands where you have the right to win big, like in our taste elevation brands such as Heinz and Philadelphia, we will distort more of our investments.”
Taste elevation categories, including ketchup, salad dressing, cream cheese and mustard, showed growth, with “over 70% of our taste elevation categories in the US” gaining share by the fourth quarter of 2025, he added.
“Our collective focus this year will be on replicating and scaling these blueprints to restore growth in our leading, iconic brands in the US,” Maciel said.
For Kraft Heinz, the near-term goal is centered around stabilizing share, rebuilding capabilities and delivering enough growth to lift North America’s top line by two percentage points – a strategy that Cahillane describes as a “realistic and meaningful first step,” before pursuing more ambitious growth.
