In Europe's largest ketchup factory in Elst, Heinz Ketchup produces eight million bottles every week at a flow rate that is precisely measured.
The US group Kraft Heinz reported an annual loss of $5.85 billion in 2025 on sales of $24.94 billion - sales are expected to fall further in 2026.
The new CEO Cahillane initially stopped the planned break-up in February - mainly due to pressure from investor Berkshire Hathaway.
European boss Willem Brandt expects that users of weight loss injections will increasingly demand light variants and taste enhancements from Heinz products due to changing eating habits.
Elst/Netherlands. A foreman stands in front of the bottling plant in a white work suit and pours a blob of tomato ketchup into a measuring device every half hour. Here, in Europe's largest ketchup factory, nothing is left to chance. In ten seconds the mass should flow exactly ten to 10.5 centimeters - no more and no less. This should also be the flow rate of the ketchup from the bottle to the plate. Not too slow, not too fast.
“The batch can only be filled into our Heinz ketchup bottles if the flow rate is correct,” says plant manager Daan Schrijver as he leads a tour of the Heinz factory in Elst, the Netherlands.
Eight million bottles of Heinz Ketchup alone are produced here in the “tomato kitchens” every week – in three shifts around the clock. Exports are made to more than 80 countries, from Asia to Africa and also to Germany. Production is “just in time”: it takes eight hours for the delivered raw materials to leave the factory in bottles as the finished sauce.
Heinz Ketchup consists of just a few ingredients: tomatoes, brandy vinegar, sugar, salt and spices. A recipe that has made the brand world famous. No ketchup is as well known as Heinz, and no competitor comes close to Kraft Heinz's market share.
And yet the US company is struggling with sales losses and red numbers in the 150th anniversary year of ketchup. How does that fit together?
Rise to global market leader
"Heinz Ketchup is an iconic global brand - comparable to Coca-Cola. There are only a few of them," says industry expert Christoph fahrer, partner at the consultancy OC&C. In Germany, Heinz Ketchup has a market share of a good 42 percent, based on sales. Private labels are in second place with 33 percent, followed by the brands Werder and Born, according to data from market researcher Circana. In many countries, Heinz's market share is even more than 50 percent.
The brand has its origins in Pittsburgh/Pennsylvania. Henry John Heinz, son of German immigrants, began selling pickled horseradish and sauces in 1869. His father emigrated from Kallstadt in the Palatinate to the USA.
Heinz was considered a marketing genius: He filled his “Catsup” made from tomatoes, which soon became a bestseller, into transparent bottles. He wanted to make the purity of the ingredients visible.
This has been maintained to this day. The world market leader sells 650 million bottles of Heinz Ketchup every year. Since 1999, the brand has even been regularly consumed by astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS).
“Heinz Ketchup still conveys an American attitude to life today – a little like Levi’s and rock’n’roll,” says psychologist Johannes Dorn, partner at the brand strategy consultancy Rheingold Institute. The brand promises to make life more colorful, enjoyable and intense. Also in Germany, where tomato ketchup came to Germany with American fast food in the early 1970s. "For the Germans, this was an alternative to the rigid traditional table culture. Spills and mud are allowed with ketchup," says Dorn.
Heinz needs around 40 billion tomatoes per year for this. The company is now the world's largest buyer of processed tomatoes. The red fruits are harvested by cultivation partners and processed into tomato paste directly on site.
Here at the ketchup factory in the Netherlands, the tomato paste is delivered in huge aluminum packages. The concentrate is squeezed out with wide rollers and then mixed with water. The next step is to add the ingredients: dissolved sugar, vinegar and the top secret spice mix. Even plant manager Schrijver doesn't know the exact ingredients.
“The recipe has hardly changed and is secret since 1876,” says Willem Brandt, head of Kraft Heinz for Europe and important markets in Asia. “Only three people in the company have access to it, including our CEO.”
After heating and cooling, the red mass is pressed through fine nozzles at high pressure of 290 bar. This is how the typical consistency of Heinz Ketchup is created.
Germany is the third largest market for tomato ketchup in the world after the USA and China, data from Statista shows. "The Germans like to grill. With almost four kilos per person per year, they are among the world's largest consumers of cold sauces," says Brandt. In the summer, Heinz released a curry ketchup especially for German customers.
But Heinz Ketchup's smooth image has recently suffered scratches. The magazine “Ökotest” rated the 2023 market leader “unsatisfactory”. On the one hand, the high sugar content was criticized. On the other hand, significantly increased levels of the mold toxin Alternariol were found.
Moldy image?
European boss Brandt says: “The problem with mycotoxins is relatively new and is primarily caused by climate change.” When tomatoes are exposed to extreme heat and humidity, mold can form.
This particularly affected the 2023 and 2024 harvests. Heinz therefore analyzed everything from cultivation to harvest in detail and expanded quality tests. "We have identified a very short window for harvesting the tomatoes. Since the 2025 harvest, we have had virtually no problems with mold."
Because climate change is making growing tomatoes more difficult, Heinz is developing its own seeds. "Our tomatoes form roots deep into the ground. This means they can survive drought phases better," says Brandt. “Our agriculture department plans ten to 20 years ahead for various scenarios so that we can ensure the supply of tomatoes even in times of climate change.”
In 2021, Heinz even tried “unearthly” ketchup, called “Marz”, a play on words between Mars and Heinz. Because the tomatoes were grown under harsh conditions like those on the red planet.
But the high sugar content of ketchup also causes criticism. The typical half-liter bottle of Heinz contains 38 sugar cubes. To respond to the criticism, the company introduced Heinz Zero Ketchup five years ago - with sweetener instead of added sugar. According to Brandt, this already accounts for ten percent of Heinz Ketchup's business in Germany.
The problems of the parent company Kraft Heinz
“As a premium brand, Heinz Ketchup remains a stable category for the company,” says industry expert fahrer. But no matter how well things are going with ketchup, business is still difficult for the entire company. The numbers for the manufacturer Kraft Heinz were recently deep red.
In 2025, the annual loss was $5.85 billion and sales fell to $24.94 billion. According to the forecast, they will shrink further in 2026 – by 0.5 to 1.25 percent. This would mean business decline for the third year in a row. The stock has lost more than 70 percent of its value since its record high in February 2017.
“Kraft Heinz has too many B brands in its range, including a number of outdated ones,” says fahrer. There are more than 200 brands worldwide. The group had raised its prices sharply following cost increases. After that, according to fahrer, many customers switched from B brands to cheaper private labels, especially in the USA.
In addition, there has been years of tough austerity measures. "At Kraft Heinz, costs have been reduced everywhere in recent years, but important investments in innovations and marketing have been neglected. This is taking its toll," says fahrer.
In addition, Kraft Heinz overestimated the synergies of the 2015 merger, but underestimated the complexity of the portfolio afterwards, says fahrer. Because the various food categories, from cheese to sausage to sauces, would have to be managed and marketed differently.
Berkshire Hathaway, the company owned by investor legend Warren Buffett, bought Heinz in 2013 with financial investor 3G Capital - and merged the company with Kraft Foods two years later.
In Germany, an acquisition ruined Kraft Heinz's balance sheet. According to the last published figures for 2024, the annual loss rose from 7.8 to 30 million euros, although sales had grown to 207 million euros. The main reason was the assumption of losses of 13 million for the spice company Just Spices and a loan. Kraft Heinz took over 85 percent of the Düsseldorf start-up in 2022, and later completely - for a total of almost 250 million euros.
The Americans wanted to build Just Spices into a global brand. But the group failed to make the start-up brand profitable: sales figures fell and losses increased. Kraft Heinz had to write off the book value of its Just Spices subsidiary completely. A few months ago, the brand's online shop was even shut down.
“Apart from Just Spices' online business, we have had a few good years in Germany since 2021. The development is clearly pointing upwards,” says Brandt. “The Heinz brand is our solid source of revenue with a 60 percent share.” Mayonnaise and innovations such as remoulade sauce in cooperation with Nordsee also went well.
But overall, Kraft Heinz's business is declining. The management therefore decided in September 2025 to split up the group again - ten years after the merger. The global ketchup, sauces and spreads business is to be separated from North American brands. Steve Cahillane was brought in as CEO in January specifically for this purpose. He had already broken up Kellogg’s.
But investor Warren Buffett defends himself against this. Although he admits that “he paid too much back then”. His investment company Berkshire Hathaway - Kraft Heinz's largest shareholder with 27.5 percent - lost a total of $8.4 billion with Heinz. However, Buffett argues that breaking up Kraft Heinz cannot solve its problems.
The new CEO Cahillane stopped the planned break-up in February - mainly under pressure from Berkshire Hathaway. Instead, the Kraft Heinz boss is now investing heavily in innovation and marketing. "Our new CEO is boldly investing in our brands. They have been underinvested for a long time," says European boss Brandt.
Can Heinz benefit from the weight loss injection?
However, European boss Brandt doesn't see it as a negative thing at all. He even hopes for growth opportunities through Ozempic and Co. On the one hand, zero or light variants could increase as a result. On the other hand, users of weight loss injections consume fewer calories but significantly more protein. "Lean fish fillets or chicken taste like nothing. They need a taste upgrade - and our remoulades, sauces and new ketchup variants provide that," says Brandt. “Even a traditional brand like Heinz has to move with the times.”
