![]() Rosenfeld this year even brought regular Philly to France, the epicentre of cheese snobbery. “Philadelphia has had some tremendous commercial successes this year,” says Caroline Roux, a global food analyst at researcher Mintel Group in London. Healthy or not, the Philly innovation has won over shoppers, and sales soared 20 percent in Europe last quarter. Kraft also claims it’s better for you than similar products, although one of those items is chocolate frosting. It’s off to a good start, hitting its annual sales goal after just one quarter this year. The result: a creamy spread sold first in Germany and now Italy that aims to topple market leader Nutella, made by Italy’s Ferrero. The biggest bang came in 2010 when Kirtley found just the right blend of Kraft’s Milka chocolate and Philly. Borrowing technology used to make ice cream, Englishman Nigel Kirtley’s R&D team developed Duo, an after-dinner hard table cheese sold in Italy and Spain with a soft Philly-based middle. Philly-laced grapefruit smoothies, for one, bombed in US taste tests. At quarterly brainstorming meetings, staffers mixed Philly with everything from curry sauce to Oreos to Kraft’s own Vegemite, Australia’s salty spread that’s a national institution. Meanwhile, Kraft’s own food formulators got into the act. In the UK, the share of Philly consumers who use it as an ingredient has nearly doubled, to 37 percent, since the effort started, Capizzi says. Kraft even persuaded British retailers including Tesco to sell Philly next to main-dish staples such as salmon to inspire recipe ideas. Websites soon hosted thousands of recipes submitted by consumers, including “Thai Spiced Philadelphia Prawns” and “Middle Eastern Lamb Pies.” Ten Philly fanatics were chosen to shoot an online video where they made their own cream cheese-infused dishes. “It gave us an idea to change our strategy.”Ĭapizzi launched a marketing campaign in Britain and Western Europe trumpeting how Philly could be added to everything from Spanish tapas to spaghetti carbonara. “That was quite an eye-opener for us,” says Piero Capizzi, president of Cheese & Grocery in Europe, where Philly generates more than a third of its sales. Philly’s resurgence began in 2008, when Kraft researchers learned that frequent buyers of cream cheese were using it as a cooking ingredient, not just as a spread. “We used to play not to lose,” says George Zoghbi, president of Kraft’s Cheese & Dairy business. They’ve doubled Philly’s annual growth rate, to about 15 percent in just one year. Lately, though, an international team of brand managers and research and development teams has expanded Philly’s target market, unveiling new variations that have spread cream cheese far beyond the bagel to everyday cooking and snacking. ![]() When Rosenfeld took over in 2006, the world’s second-largest food company (after Nestlé) was content just to maintain market share against rival cream cheese brands and private-label copycats. A similar concoction introduced in Europe blew past sales projections this year, prompting CEO Irene Rosenfeld to bring it to the US. Not content to rest on established laurels and see its market share eroded by competitors, Kraft has invested heavily in R&D and innovation to reinvent and revive its fortunes at home and abroad, and has just unveiled its newest creation: Philly Indulgence, a sweet-and-tangy blend of cream cheese and chocolate that can be spread on a pretzel/cracker or just devoured straight from the tub. Dating back to 1880, Philadelphia Cream Cheese is one of Kraft’s most valued brands at $1.7 billion in global sales.
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