Is Maxwell House a subsidiary of Kraft Heinz?

Maxwell House is a wholly owned brand of Kraft Heinz Company, not a separately incorporated subsidiary. General Foods acquired the brand in 1928, and it became part of Kraft Heinz through the company's merger history.

Is Maxwell House publicly traded?

No. Maxwell House is a brand within Kraft Heinz Company, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker KHC. There is no separate Maxwell House stock.

When was Maxwell House founded?

Maxwell House coffee was introduced in 1892 by Joel Cheek in Nashville, Tennessee, named for the Maxwell House Hotel that served it. General Foods acquired the brand in 1928. The brand has been in continuous production for more than 130 years.

Who created Maxwell House coffee?

Joel Cheek, a Nashville coffee broker, developed the blend and named it for the Maxwell House Hotel. He built the business with grocer Roger Neal Smith as the Cheek-Neal Coffee Company before selling to the company that became General Foods.

What is Maxwell House's market position?

Maxwell House is a leading brand in the US mainstream ground coffee segment, positioned at the budget tier. It competes primarily with Folgers and store brands, and its canister products are among the lowest-priced national-brand coffees per serving.

Is Maxwell House coffee ethically sourced?

Maxwell House does not carry Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance, or organic certification on its core blends. Kraft Heinz publishes corporate responsible-sourcing standards for its coffee supply chain, but the brand offers no farm-level traceability program comparable to certified competitors.

Food & Beverage

Who Owns Maxwell House?

Maxwell House is wholly owned by Kraft Heinz Company (NYSE: KHC), a publicly traded American food corporation headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The brand was introduced in 1892 by coffee broker Joel Cheek in Nashville, Tennessee, and was America's best-selling coffee for most of the twentieth century. Maxwell House ground and instant coffee remains a leading US brand.

Parent Company

Kraft Heinz Company

Acquired

1928

Status

Publicly Traded

Headquarters

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Maxwell House Timeline

1892

Maxwell House

Founded by Joel Cheek

Founded

1928

Acquired by Kraft Heinz Company

Kraft Heinz Company acquired Maxwell House

Acquired

budgetmass marketUnited StatesOfficial Website

Who Owns Maxwell House?

Parent Company: Kraft Heinz Company
Ownership Type: Wholly owned
Acquisition Year: 1928
Company Type: Publicly Traded
Stock Ticker: NYSE: KHC

Brand	Parent Company	Ownership Type
Maxwell House	Kraft Heinz Company	Wholly owned

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Maxwell House on Amazon

History of Maxwell House

Founded: 1892
Founders: Joel Cheek
Acquired by Kraft Heinz Company: 1928

Joel Cheek, a coffee broker in Nashville, Tennessee, developed his blend in 1892 for the Maxwell House Hotel, the city's premier establishment, which agreed to serve it to guests. The coffee took the hotel's name, and Cheek partnered with grocer Roger Neal Smith to sell it wholesale under the Maxwell House name.

The brand's slogan arrived in 1907, according to company legend, when President Theodore Roosevelt drank a cup at the Maxwell House Hotel and declared it "good to the last drop." The story is unverified and variants credit other sources, but the slogan has been in continuous use for more than a century and is among the longest-running in American advertising.

General Foods, the predecessor of which had bought the Cheek-Neal Coffee Company in 1928, turned Maxwell House into the dominant national coffee through radio-era advertising, sponsoring programs that reached millions of households weekly. The brand held the top-selling position in US coffee for most of the twentieth century before Folgers overtook it in the 1990s.

A distinctive piece of brand history is the Maxwell House Haggadah: the company has published a Passover Haggadah since 1932, distributing tens of millions of copies to Jewish households and making it one of the most widely circulated religious texts in the United States.

Under Kraft and then Kraft Heinz, the brand faced sustained share loss as coffee consumption moved toward specialty coffee, single-serve pods, and café chains. Kraft Heinz repositioned the brand with a 2019 overhaul emphasizing its budget positioning and launched iced and ready-to-drink extensions, but the core business remains conventional ground coffee for the value segment.

About Kraft Heinz Company

Is Kraft Heinz publicly traded?
Yes, Kraft Heinz is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol KHC. The company moved its listing from NASDAQ to the NYSE on September 14, 2026. It has been publicly traded since the 2015 merger of Kraft Foods and H.J. Heinz. Major shareholders have included Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital, though Berkshire filed in January 2026 to divest its full 27% stake.

Who owns Kraft Heinz?
Kraft Heinz is owned by its public shareholders. Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett's conglomerate, has been the largest shareholder at roughly 27% of shares, though it filed in January 2026 to sell its entire position of about 325 million shares. 3G Capital, the Brazilian-American investment firm that engineered the 2015 merger, also maintains a significant ownership stake.

When was Kraft Heinz founded?
Kraft Heinz was founded on July 2, 2015, through the merger of Kraft Foods Group and H.J. Heinz Company. The merger was orchestrated by 3G Capital and Berkshire Hathaway. The constituent companies have much longer histories: Heinz was founded in 1869 and Kraft Foods traces its origins to 1903.

What is Kraft Heinz's revenue?
Kraft Heinz reported net sales of $24.9 billion for fiscal year 2025, the year ended December 27, 2025. This was a 3.5% decrease from the prior year. The company generated $3.7 billion in free cash flow and returned $2.3 billion to stockholders. In Q2 2026, net sales were $6.3 billion, down 1.4% year over year.

Who is the CEO of Kraft Heinz?
Steve Cahillane is the CEO of Kraft Heinz. He announced a strategic shift away from cost-cutting toward brand investment, committing $700 million across marketing, sales, R&D, and product superiority in 2026. Cahillane said the company's challenges are "fixable and within our control" and that the opportunity is "larger than expected."

What brands does Kraft Heinz own?
Kraft Heinz owns numerous iconic food brands including Heinz ketchup, Kraft macaroni and cheese, Oscar Mayer meats, Philadelphia cream cheese, Velveeta, Maxwell House coffee, Lunchables, Ore-Ida frozen potatoes, Jell-O, Kool-Aid, Classico pasta sauce, and Grey Poupon mustard.

Why did Kraft Heinz take impairment charges?
Kraft Heinz recorded $9.3 billion in non-cash impairment charges in fiscal 2025, reflecting the reduced value of brands and goodwill. This followed a $15.4 billion impairment in 2019. The charges reflect years of underinvestment in brand building under 3G Capital's cost-cutting model and changing consumer preferences away from processed foods.

Founded: 2015
Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Company Type: Publicly Traded
Stock: NYSE: KHC
Revenue: $24.9 billion (FY2025, year ended December 27, 2025)
Employees: Approximately 37,000

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Where Is Maxwell House Made / Based?

Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Manufacturing / Operations: United States

Maxwell House Categories & Tags

Coffee Ground Coffee Instant Coffee Beverages Kraft Heinz American Brand

Maxwell House Sustainability & Ethics

Maxwell House carries no independent sustainability certifications. Kraft Heinz sources coffee under supplier standards, but the brand is not certified Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance, or USDA Organic for its core blends, a gap relative to competitors that market certified sourcing.

The brand's ethical exposure is the conventional coffee supply chain: green coffee pricing, farm-level labor conditions, and climate pressure on producing regions. Kraft Heinz publishes corporate-level responsible sourcing commitments for its coffee purchases but no Maxwell House-specific traceability program.

Packaging includes metal canisters, plastic lids, and flexible bags covered under Kraft Heinz's recyclable-packaging commitment.

Maxwell House Recalls & Controversies

Maxwell House has had few product-safety incidents. Recalls have been limited to small lots for foreign-material or packaging issues, resolved without major injuries.

The brand's controversies are commercial rather than safety-related. Its decades-long share decline versus Folgers and specialty coffee is routinely cited in business coverage as an example of a legacy brand overtaken by consumer shifts. Kraft Heinz's repeated impairment charges also reduced the carrying value attributed to the coffee business.

Coffee pricing is a recurring friction point: green coffee cost spikes have forced multiple price increases on Maxwell House products, and volume losses followed. The 2024-2025 period of record robusta and arabica prices hit the value segment hardest, since its shoppers are the most price-sensitive.

Maxwell House Ownership: Pros & Cons

Advantages

+More than 130 years of brand equity and the iconic Good to the Last Drop slogan
+Leading position in the budget ground-coffee segment
+Large-scale US roasting infrastructure in Jacksonville and San Leandro
+Benefits from Kraft Heinz's 2026 pricing and marketing reinvestment
+Value positioning gains relevance as premium coffee prices rise

Considerations

-Decades of share loss to Folgers, pods, and specialty coffee
-Coffee was among the weakest Kraft Heinz categories in fiscal 2025 volumes
-Green coffee cost inflation squeezes a brand built on low prices
-No certified sourcing credentials in a market where certification sells
-An aging consumer base with weak penetration among younger coffee drinkers

Frequently Asked Questions About Maxwell House

Sources & Further Reading

Competitors to Maxwell House

These competing brands operate in the same categories and provide similar products or services. Compare key attributes to understand market positioning and competitive landscape.

Brand	Parent Company	Country	Founded	Market Position	Primary Market	Gender Target
Nescafé	Nestle	Switzerland	1938	Mass market	Global	All-ages
Kool-AidSister Brand	Kraft Heinz	USA	1927	Mass market	United states	All-ages
Dasani	Coca Cola Company	USA	1999	Mass market	Global	All Genders
Keurig	Keurig Dr Pepper	USA	1998	Mass market	United states	All Genders
McCafé	Mcdonalds	USA	1993	Mass market	Global	All-ages
Minute Maid	Coca Cola Company	USA	1945	Mass market	Global	All-consumers