Finding Out There Really Was A Guy Named What?

Kraft.  The name's been around such a long time, one hardly even thinks about it.  It's just there.  And even with all the brands it owns, some of its products still bear that name.

It really is the perfect name for a food company.  Sounding so much like the word "craft", it carries a certain implied promise.  Type "craft food" into Google and, if it doesn't ask if you mean Kraft Foods, it returns sites on micro and home brewed beer, some amazing artistic deserts, and Tom Colicchio's growing number of Craft restaurants which emphasize, according to their website, single ingredients simply prepared.

The conspiracist might suspect that the name Kraft was chosen on purpose.

Well, not quite.  There really was a guy named Kraft.  And he was kind of a genius.

James Lewis Kraft was born in Ontario, Canada in 1874.  And that was his real name.  His parents were George and Minerva Kraft.  In 1903, he began selling cheese in Chicago from a horse-drawn wagon.  A few years later, four of his brothers (he was one of eleven children) joined him in forming, J.L. Kraft & Bothers Co.  By 1915, they were already supplying cheese nationally.

Not yet invented:  smiling.

Kraft was plagued by the same problem that all cheese-makers had.  Their products quickly dried out and became moldy.  He experimented with ways of making longer-lasting cheese that would survive the distribution process.  He succeeded.  In about 1914, he was one of the first to invent processed, pasteurized cheese.  In general, cheese is heated and blended with an emulsifier, an ingredient that helps bind oil and water.  The cooled product is uniform in taste and texture.  Because it's been heated, it has fewer bacteria and keeps much longer.  The addition of the emulsifier helps it melt smoothly, without becoming oily or stringy.

How big a deal was it to the industry?  In 1915, Kraft sold $5,000.00 worth of product to India and Asia.  The next year, they sold thirty times that much.  And then World War I started.  It turned out to be the perfect opening.  Kraft supplied over six million pounds of cheese to the soldiers of the US Army.  They came home with a taste for Kraft processed cheese.

The next ninety or so years of history is complicated.  It bought up dozens of other cheese and dairy companies.  In 1928, it merged with Phenix Cheese Company and then was acquired itself by its largest rival, National Dairy.  Like Kraft, National Dairy had built itself up by buying dozens of small dairy and ice cream companies.

Here is where the conspiracist can find some comfort.  In 1969, almost forty years after the merger, National Dairy changed its name to Kraftco.  The reason stated in their 1969 annual report was, "Expansion and innovation have taken us far afield from the regional milk and ice cream business we started with in 1923. Dollar sales of these original products have remained relatively static over the past ten years and, in 1969 accounted for approximately 25% of our sales."  One could be forgiven for thinking it was really because Kraft was such a good name.

Since 1970, Kraft has continued to purchase, be purchased, combine with and shed other companies.  In 1988, it was bought by Philip Morris.  The cigarette giant, now called Altria, merged Kraft with General Foods and again with Nabisco, before spinning the whole thing off as the current Kraft Foods in 2007.

Kraft has, in its lifetime, sold Duracell batteries, Tupperware, glass and even home appliances.  But, in general, it has never been as successful as when it goes back to doing what it does best - distribute long-lasting processed foods.


James L. Kraft died in 1953, after some 44 years as the president of Kraft.  He did have one last genius idea in him.  In 1947, he helped create the anthology series, Kraft Television Theater.  If you like TV, you can thank Kraft Television Theater.