A Message from Our Chairman, President and CEO

Chairman, President and CEO
William R. Johnson

 

“Heinz is committed, as always, to engaging our stakeholders and operating with the highest degree of integrity and transparency.”

As one of the best-performing global companies in the packaged foods industry, the H.J. Heinz Company is demonstrating our commitment to the sustainable health of people and the planet while delivering profitable growth for the benefit of our shareholders.

To fulfill our commitment, Heinz established a Global Sustainability Process that provides a structured approach to implementing and managing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives consistently and systematically across our businesses.

Our Global Sustainability Process is driving continuous improvement in four key environmental areas that are strategic priorities. As a result, Heinz is on track to achieve or surpass our goal of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, solid landfill waste, energy consumption and water consumption by at least 20% by Fiscal Year 2015.

By the end of Fiscal Year 2011, Heinz had achieved the following REDUCTIONS from the Fiscal Year 2005 baseline:

Reflecting the success of the Heinz Global Agriculture Program and our focus on working with our growers to adopt sustainable agricultural methods, such as drip irrigation, the Company’s tomato crop yield increased 9%, exceeding our goal of 5%. Our team of tomato experts travels the globe to teach farmers how to grow tomatoes more efficiently and sustainably. At the same time, our growers use natural HeinzSeed, which produces higher-yield tomato plants that are also more disease resistant, reducing the use of water and pesticides.

Long term, Heinz is committed to reducing packaging material and our use of fossil fuels in transportation while continuing to explore the use of renewable energy as it becomes more cost effective. We expect to report on our progress and targets for these areas in the next CSR report. For this report, we have included examples of our environmental initiatives in these three areas.

PlantBottle™ Packaging Partnership

A significant achievement in Fiscal Year 2011 was our formation of a partnership with The Coca-Cola Company in February 2011. This landmark partnership is enabling Heinz to produce fully recyclable ketchup bottles using innovative PlantBottle packaging technology from The Coca-Cola Company. Unlike traditional plastic bottles made from non-renewable fossil fuels, up to 30% of the PlantBottle material comes from a renewable source – plants.

Social Responsibility

I am also proud of our longstanding commitment to social responsibility, a tradition rooted in the vision and values of Henry John Heinz, an entrepreneur who gave back to the community and treated employees and people in the community with dignity and respect.

A notable success in the area of social responsibility is the expanding global reach of the Heinz Micronutrient Campaign. This non-profit program is addressing iron-deficiency anemia in infants and children in developing countries through micronutrient powders that provide essential vitamins and minerals when stirred into food. We have expanded the campaign to Africa and Haiti after providing assistance to millions of children in 15 developing nations.

In addition to the Heinz Micronutrient Campaign, the H.J. Heinz Company Foundation continues to fund charitable and non-profit programs that have a positive impact in the community, giving a total of $12.8 million over the last two fiscal years. Also, Heinz employees worldwide are volunteering their time, talent and resources for a multitude of community projects and organizations. We are implementing a new program called Heinz Cares that will, for the first time, measure and benchmark employee engagement and volunteerism across the Company.

Economic Performance

On the economic front, in Fiscal Year 2011, Heinz delivered record sales of $10.7 billion and record net income of $990 million, while earnings per share from continuing operations grew nearly 7% to $3.06 from $2.87 a year earlier. Importantly, Heinz increased the annualized common stock dividend by 14 cents over the last two fiscal years to $1.80 – a total increase of more than 8% – with an additional increase of 12 cents per share approved for Fiscal Year 2012.

I am proud of our Company’s environmental, social and economic performance and our track record of providing a safe workplace for our employees and safe, high-quality, great-tasting foods for consumers. Importantly, Heinz has expanded our focus on Health & Wellness by voluntarily reducing sodium by 15% across our retail ketchup line in the United States and by introducing many new food products that are tailored to healthy lifestyles.

Driving Sustainable Growth

Looking ahead, Heinz is focused on driving sustainable growth over the next two years despite the difficult economic environment in Developed Markets and rising commodity costs, trends that are impacting the packaged foods industry. Reflecting our long-term plan, Heinz has accelerated our growth in Emerging Markets over the last two fiscal years and we expect this growth to continue in Fiscal Years 2012 and 2013, driven by recent acquisitions in Brazil and China and continued organic growth.

Finally, Heinz is committed, as always, to engaging our stakeholders and operating with the highest degree of integrity and transparency as the Company strives to meet your expectations and deliver our economic, environmental and social responsibility goals.

In closing, I invite you to review this CSR report and to share your comments and feedback with us by contacting us via email at CSR@us.hjheinz.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

William R. Johnson