Heinz Is Expected to Increase Profit and Sales Forecasts†

EmergingMarkets,New Products Help; Real Pricing Power

Wall Street Journal, May 29, 2008 — H.J. Heinz Co is expected Thursday to raise its profit- and sales-growth forecasts as the company unveils its first two-year plan since a proxy fight with activist investor Nelson Peltz in 2006.

The Pittsburgh-based ketchup giant will report results for the fiscal year ended April 30 at an investor meeting in New York City, where it is also expected to increase its sales-growth outlook for the next two years to 6% or more from 4%, and its earnings-per-share growth forecast for the same period to between 8% and 11% from the previous projection of 7% to 9%.

People close to the company say the growth is expected to come from new products, higher prices for existing products and an accelerating push into emerging markets.

Heinz Researchers Cook Up New Food Items

With Focus on R&D, Heinz Concocts New Food Products for the World at Research Facility

Associated Press, January 14, 2008 — WARRENDALE, Pa. (AP) — At a sleek office building outside Pittsburgh, garlic and vegetable aromas mingle in the air. Chefs handle frying pans behind industrial stoves and lab-coated technicians scoop morsels of food into their mouths.

It's a clinical staging area for what H.J. Heinz Co. hopes will become household favorites — packaged foods and condiments designed to please palates and entice shoppers across the United States and around the globe.

Heinz Anticipates Another Success With Consumer Ads

MediaPost Publications, September 18, 2007 — HEINZ IS GOING BACK FOR more consumer-generated ketchup spots with Take Two of its "Top This!" TV Challenge. Viewers watching Sunday night's Emmy Awards show saw the round one winner from Andrew Dobson of Wheelersburg, Ohio, who runs a one-man production shop. The spot's tagline: "The Kissable Ketchup."

Dobson, 29, was the winner of the Heinz "Top This" TV Challenge, which invited consumers to produce homemade Heinz commercials and then upload them for voting onto YouTube for a chance to win $57,000 and national exposure.

The High Price of Creating Free Ads

New York Times, May 26, 2007 — From an advertiser’s perspective, it sounds so easy: invite the public to create commercials for your brand, hold a contest to pick the best one and sit back while average Americans do the creative work.

Heinz Pours It On for Self-Made Spots†

Brandweek, April 25, 2007 — In another example of consumers taking creative control of brands, Heinz is the second food marketer behind Doritos to enter the fray of consumer-created ads with a “Top This! TV Challenge” campaign for ketchup. The matrix of the campaign is TopThisTV.com, a Web site where visitors are invited now through August to upload their own commercials and view and vote for their favorites throughout the process.

The reinvention of Nelson Peltz

The former takeover titan is now a brand builder - and maybe even the shareholder's new best friend. Fortune's Shawn Tully reports

FORTUNE, March 16, 2007 — In March 2006 power investor Nelson Peltz invited Heinz CEO Bill Johnson to dinner at Morton's Steakhouse in West Palm Beach. After the two men sat down, Peltz stunned Johnson with an in-your-face barrage, announcing that "I'm going on your board!"