cheese, for example $-$ were never going to be global. Indeed, Pleuhs acknowledged, "Even in $2004,80$ of the top $110$ people in the company did not have passports."

Rosenfeld set about clarifying Kraft's portfolio. She explained, $"$We looked at assets within the legacy Kraft portfolio and identified those that didn't have growth potential. Very early on$,$ it was clear that there were a number of assets in the portfolio that wouldn't necessarily travel well, while snacks were the most attractive asset within the portfolio." Some of the company's core brands were in need of further investment to grow; others were profitable or strategically instrumental$-$e$.$g$.,$ popular in a market where Kraft planned to make further inroads; brands that did not fit the portfolio or lacked growth potential were flagged for future divestment.

Building on Biscuits

In September $2006,$ Kraft bought certain operations from United Biscuits for $$1\mathrm{.}07$ billion, reclaiming the Nabisco brands in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa that had been sold earlier. ${?}^{39}$ In November $2007,$ Kraft further broadened its European biscuit business by purchasing the LU biscuit brands from Danone for $$7\mathrm{.}2$ billion. ${?}^{40}$ Based in France, LU had operations in $20$ countries, including Belgium, Russia, Poland, and China. ${?}^{41}$ Kraft's European operations were headquartered in Zurich, but the biscuit category remained near Paris, France, where Danone's brands were housed. $42$ "The two companies were culturally different. LU was very decentralized, everybody doing their own thing. Very French," said May. "The decision to keep the two companies apart sounds friendly, but it engenders walls and allows separate processes to take root."

With its North American brands and now LU$,$ Kraft became the world's largest biscuit company. "Kraft was a powerhouse in biscuits in the U$.$S$.,$ but LU$-$provided the scale to enter global markets and had a strong emerging markets presence," noted May. Using LU's distribution network in Asia, for example, Kraft introduced the Oreo brand to Asia. $"$We built distribution on the back of the existing portfolio from LU and introduced higher$-$margin premium biscuits into those markets," said Pleuhs.