FDBusiness.com

Kraft Foods’ high-growth global snacks business, which will be separated from its North American grocery business later in the year, will be called Modelez International. The North American grocery company will become Kraft Foods Group, retaining the Kraft brand for its corporate identity and as the brand for many of its consumer products. As a result, the global snacks company will require a new name when it launches later this year.

Mondelez is a newly coined word that means ‘delicious world’. It is a combination of the word monde, deriving from the Latin word for world, and delez, a fanciful expression of delicious. In addition, International captures the global nature of the business. Mondelez International will become a $35-billion business with 80% of its sales outside North Americawhen it comes into being before the end of 2012.

“The Kraft brand is a perfect fit for the North American grocery business and gives it a wonderful platform on which to build an exciting future,” said chairman and chief executive Irene Rosenfeld. “For the new global snacks company, we wanted to find a new name that could serve as an umbrella for our iconic brands, reinforce the truly global nature of this business and build on our higher purpose – to ‘make today delicious.’ Mondelez perfectly captures the idea of a ‘delicious world’ and will serve as a solid foundation for the strong relationships we want to create with our consumers, customers, employees and shareholders.”

Last year, Kraft Foods invited employees from around the world to suggest names for the new global snacks company. As part of this co-creation process, more than 1,000 employees participated, submitting more than 1,700 names for consideration. Mondelez International was inspired by separate suggestions from two employees, one in Europe and another in North America.