Kraft Foods names top execs for spinoff grocery, snack companies

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Food and beverage giant Kraft Foods Inc. named its current Chief Executive and Chairman Irene B. Rosenfeld to lead its planned spinoff snacks company.

Rosenfeld, 58, has been chairman of the Northfield, Ill.-based company since 2007 and its chief executive since 2006. The snacks arm, which will be publicly traded, will include brands such as Oreo cookies, Cadbury chocolates and Trident gum.

Besides the snacks segment, Kraft is also splitting off as a separate and public North American grocery firm.

Tony Vernon, another current Kraft administrator, will be chief executive of the grocery company, which will oversee labels such as Oscar Mayer meats, Philadelphia cream cheese, Maxwell House coffee and Miracle Whip.

Vernon, 55, has been president of Kraft Foods North America since 2009 and had previously spent two decades with Johnson & Johnson. John Cahill will become chairman of the grocery company after working with private equity firm Ripplewood Holdings and completing stints with PepsiCo and KFC.

Cahill, 54, will join Kraft in January. The company expects to complete the spinoffs by the end of 2012.

Last month, the packaged-foods leader said it pulled in $13.2 billion in revenue in the third quarter -- an 11.5% increase from the same period last year. Its net income was up 22% over the same period to $927 million.

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-- Tiffany Hsu