Kraft Heinz is Reaching New Heights in the Market Amid The Coronavirus Crisis - Financial Advisor Heroes (2024)

By Ami Ciccone April 13, 2020

The economic scene has been experiencing difficulties nowadays due to the public health crisis that is the COVID-19 outbreak. Different industries have been suffering because of the current situation. But luckily, some are performing better than others.

Packaged food brand Kraft Heinz is experiencing a rapid increase in sales. With the people stocking up on food and supplies for their homes during the coronavirus pandemic, the demand for the brand’s products has never been higher.

As of March 23, its shares have jumped by 32%, and sales are expected to go up by 3% in the first quarter of the year. Stocks have gone up about 20% the past two weeks, pushing the name of the brand even further.

This comes as great news considering the decline in performance for several brands nowadays due to the pandemic. Especially given the decrease in share prices and sales that the brand has been experiencing over the past years.

There is still billions in existing loans that the company is carrying ever since 2015 when the Kraft and Heinz merge occurred, an arrangement that did not fare too well in the market. Luckily, they did not stay too long in their bad state when it had gone under a new leader.

Things were starting to turn up for the brand in 2019 when Miguel Patricio took on the role of CEO, and he has since then led the company to achieve higher productivity. His capability to bring up the company was greatly admired since the brand was not in good shape when he took over.

Patricio has since then been focused on the company’s mission, emphasizing in a statement that the company recognizes its major role in providing food for the people, and is now more committed than ever to keep providing the service to the community especially during this crisis.

Although there has been a significant drop in the stock price in late February due to the effects of the coronavirus on the general market, and there is still some catching up to do, analysts are actively observing the performance of Kraft Heinz with Patricio’s executive team and several investment strategies in place.

But given the current state of the company, they might be able to pull it off. And all of this recent success is mostly owed to Kraft’s top product that has consumers sweeping them off the shelves: Kraft Mac & Cheese.