Mondelēz International's brands are old, but the company is young. Nabisco dates to 1898 and introduced Oreo in 1912, Cadbury began in Birmingham in 1824, and Milka and Toblerone come from Swiss chocolate makers. For decades these brands sat inside Kraft Foods, which was itself owned by Philip Morris until 2007.
The 2012 Kraft split
Kraft CEO Irene Rosenfeld argued that the faster-growing global snacks business and the slower North American grocery business needed different strategies. On October 1, 2012, the grocery brands became Kraft Foods Group, later merged with Heinz, and the snacks business became Mondelēz International.
Cadbury and cost cuts
Kraft's $19.5 billion acquisition of Cadbury in 2010 gave Mondelez its chocolate scale in the UK, India and other markets. After the spin-off, activist investors Nelson Peltz and Bill Ackman pressed for higher margins, and Rosenfeld's team used zero-based budgeting and factory consolidation.
Van de Put and the core-category focus
Dirk Van de Put became CEO in November 2017 and refocused on chocolate, biscuits and baked snacks. Mondelez bought Chipita, Clif Bar and Ricolino in 2022 and sold its developed-market gum business in 2023. It reported $38.5 billion of 2025 net revenues, though net earnings fell to $2.45 billion as cocoa prices hit records. In Q2 2026 revenue rose 4.1% to $9.355 billion and the company raised its organic growth outlook.
