Kraft Heinz
The Maxwell House factory in Jacksonville, Florida. Credit: Richmond96 (talk).

Kraft Heinz is said to have appointed investment bank Credit Suisse to review options for the sale of its Maxwell House coffee business.

Headquartered in Tarrytown, New York, Maxwell House produces around $400m in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA). If sold, it is claimed the business would be worth in the region of $3bn.

Kraft Heinz has recently been making a number of divestitures to restructure its business through private equity backer 3G Capital.

“We will look at divestitures where there is no clear path to competitive advantage.”

In 2013, 3G Capital and Berkshire Hathaway purchased H.J. Heinz and was later merged with Kraft.

Kraft Heinz spokesman told CNBC: “Kraft Heinz will not comment on rumours or speculation but we will look at divestitures where there is no clear path to competitive advantage. This, in turn, will improve our portfolio’s growth and margin trajectory.”

Kraft Heinz recently reported net sales of $6.89bn for Q4 2018, compared to $6.84bn for the same period last year.

As part of the company’s normal quarterly reporting procedures and planning processes, it concluded that the fair values of several goodwill and intangible assets were below their carrying amounts.

The company recorded non-cash impairment charges of $15.4bn to lower the carrying amount of goodwill in reporting units such as US Refrigerated and Canada Retail, as well as intangible assets such as the Kraft and Oscar Mayer trademarks.

The company said that the charges resulted in a net loss attributable to common shareholders of $12.6bn and diluted loss per share of $10.34.