A funny smell at Kraft Heinz

The HP Sauce maker will restate earnings for three years. The group has been struggling since the merger that created it in 2015. Alex Rankine reports.

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Kraft Heinz's empire is starting to wobble
(Image credit: Credit: OJO Images Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo)

"You can turn any investment into a bad deal by paying too much," lamented Warren Buffett of his Kraft Heinz holding during the recent Berkshire Hathaway shindig (see page 14). Berkshire took a $3bn impairment on its 26.7% stake in the consumer food group in February following its $15.4bn writedown to reflect the fall in the value of some of its top brands. Buffett insists that though he overpaid, Kraft is "still doing very well operationally". Yet this week's news that the US maker of Jell-O, Capri Sun and HP Sauce will restate earnings for almost three years because of "employee misconduct" casts new doubt on the Sage of Omaha's rosy assessment.

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Markets editor

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019. 

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere. 

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful. 

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.