Kraft Heinz is bringing back the glass ketchup bottle as it leans on sauces for growth

Before you could squeeze Heinz ketchup from plastic vessels, its classic glass bottle was exactly the kind of American pantry staple that was iconic enough to end up in the Smithsonian and in works by Andy Warhol. Now, for the first time in around a decade, that eight-sided bottle is back on shelves at Walmart for a limited time.

While the release marks the condiment giant’s 157th anniversary, it also lands at a moment when Kraft Heinz is trying to squeeze more growth out of its biggest product category after years of sluggish sales and turnaround attempts.

Power sauces

Following the 2015 megamerger that combined Kraft’s US grocery staples with Heinz’s spreads, ketchup, and other sauces, Kraft Heinz has spent much of the past decade trying to prove the tie-up could justify the deal’s $45 billion price tag. Instead, annual sales have barely budged, hovering around the mid-$20 billion range — eventually pushing the company to explore separating its slower-growing grocery lines from the faster-growing condiments and sauces business.

Indeed, condiments, sauces, and spreads — including Heinz, Kraft peanut butter, and Grey Poupon — remain Kraft Heinz’s biggest product category, accounting for 45% of total sales last year, more than its ready-made meals, meats, and cheese businesses combined. That strength continued to show up in the latest quarter, when Kraft Heinz beat Wall Street’s sales expectations, with new CEO Steve Cahillane showing market share gains from its US sauces and condiments segment.

Earlier this year, Cahillane shelved the breakup plan, calling the challenges “fixable,” and instead committed $600 million to marketing, sales, and R&D to drive a turnaround.