Heinz cooks up China strategy

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | Sunday, February 13, 2005 | Teresa F. Lindeman

[Willie Green]

Ketchup king hopes to use Olympic training restaurant bearing its name as an entree to sell more products

In China, the Heinz name means baby food. Between 5 and 8 million of the 20 million babies born annually in the populous country will down a spoonful of the company's cereals before they turn into preschoolers.

But the H.J. Heinz Co. wants to sell a lot more than just baby food to China, and the 2008 Olympics may serve as an entree. A year-old Heinz Western Restaurant at the Chinese government's Olympic sports training center in Beijing features Heinz ketchup bottles on the tables and uses other company products in meals served daily to medal-winning Olympic gymnasts, wrestlers and even badminton players.

Heinz does not run the restaurant or even control what is served there. But with its name on the cafeteria, a recognition of the company's investment in a five-year chef training program, Heinz is hoping for a bigger payoff -- the stamp of approval that comes from being associated with China's versions of gymnast Mary Lou Retton or perhaps swimmer Michael Phelps.

"If people know that Chinese athletes are eating these products, they're going to be more willing to try these products," explained Kerr Dow, a Heinz vice president and chief technical officer.

[BurbankKarl]

I am sure Momma T will be over there for the Olympics....maybe J F Kerry can drive a swiftboat up the Yangtzee

[nothingnew]

....maybe J F Kerry can drive a swiftboat up the Yangtzee

Sorry. He's busy delivering weapons to the Khmer Huns who are planning to storm the Great Wall in their neverending spread of peace and prosperity. He should be back by New Years Day, or by the Chinese calendar, the Year of the Demratbastidsge. (That's a loose translation, I don't speak Mindoaratspeek).

FMCDH(BITS)