Stepped Up Innovation is Driving Business Momentum Globally at Kraft Foods

New products generated 10.5 percent of net revenue in 2011, up from just 7.4 percent in 2009. In fact, Kraft Foods has been stepping up its innovation investments for several years, which is helping drive business momentum.

6 Jun 2012 --- Companies are continually challenged to find new ways to meet and anticipate emerging consumer demands, create innovative quality products and win in a fiercely competitive marketplace. Kraft Foods has been meeting, and beating, those challenges.

As a result, more than two-thirds of Kraft Foods' products are preferred to the competition -- compared to about half in 2006. And product innovation has boosted top-line growth. New products generated 10.5 percent of net revenue in 2011, up from just 7.4 percent in 2009. In fact, Kraft Foods has been stepping up its innovation investments for several years, which is helping drive business momentum.

"Research and Development is the fuel for our growth engine," said Jean Spence, Executive Vice President, Research, Development & Quality. "We're blending sharp consumer insights with advanced technologies to develop dozens of innovative new products that people want. This is the recipe that delivered a higher rate of revenue from new products last year than at any time in recent memory."

Kraft Foods' increased investments in its R&D centers, its people and its ways of working have led to new products that better seize upon emerging consumer trends. The company's R&D team recently has created entirely new product categories with MiO Liquid Water Enhancer, Philadelphia Cooking Creme, Kraft MilkBite Milk & Granola Bars and Kenco Millicano Wholebean Instant Coffee.

R&D team members created belVita breakfast biscuits using a unique baking technology to better deliver sustained energy from its ingredients, Oscar Mayer Selects meats that use natural ingredients such as celery juice in place of artificial preservatives, and Cadbury Perk chocolates that affordably sell for 5 rupees in India. And employees have played an important role in boosting the popularity of Kraft Foods' products by adapting recipes to fit local consumers' tastes, and improving foods' nutritional profiles. For example, since 2010, advanced research has resulted in the removal of more than 6,125 metric tons (more than 13.5 million pounds) of salt from nearly 1,000 of its products in North America, without sacrificing taste, texture or product quality.

As Kraft Foods plans to divide into two independent public companies by the end of 2012, the company's R&D team has a robust development pipeline that's already delivered more than 70 new products in the past year. Kraft Foods' R&D team is institutionalizing its wealth of technical knowledge to ensure both companies will have world-class innovation organizations on day one after separation. Scientists, chemists and engineers are better directed by consumer insights than ever before. And they're attuned to the company's "glocal" approach to new product development by quickly adapting global technology platforms to local markets.