Foreign policy of the Heinz (as in John Kerry's wife) Companies

[MYSONSDAD]

Oh, and about the Heinz factories being located in other countries -- does it make sense to ship ripe tomatoes (for example) across the world in order to make ketchup? Of course not. Factories are located near the raw ingrediants for a reason.>

Your words not mine...

She may not be directly giving orders, but I bet her hand is in the kitty, none the same.

"No offense Kitty C!"

"Children learn what they live"

[MYSONSDAD]

A few years back, Walmart really pushed the Made in America slogan. Too bad they didn't stick to it.

Hard to find anything these days, but when possible, I buy American made.

"Children learn what they live"

[msme]

I got this a couple of weeks ago. Whenever I get something like this in my email, I always run it through //www.snopes.com  This is an "Urban Legend" web site. They generally have the right information on anything that is going around.

As much as I dislike Kerry, I won't send out junk. The following was cut & pasted from Snopes.

Claim:   Senator John Kerry's wife owns Heinz, a company that outsources much of its work abroad.

Status:   False.

Example:   [Collected on the Internet 2004]


Kerry does not like off shore companies: Oh Really? Just came across a bit of information regarding Kerry and his claim of the Bush administration sending jobs abroad. Well, it seems that the Heinz Corporation, owned by Kerry's wife, has 79 plants where it manufacturers products and 57 of the 79 are located in countries outside of the U.S. How many U.S. jobs are lost here?

Factories located at: Taipei, Taiwan (makes Heinz baby foods) Dublin, Ireland; Paris, France; Dovarmenez, France; Lisbon, Portugal; Madrid, Spain; Milan, Italy; Monguzzo, Italy; Athens, Greece; Warsaw, Poland; Pudliszki, Poland; Wodzislaw, Poland; Miedzychod, Poland; Moscow, Russia; Georgievisk, Russia; Cairo, Egypt; Tel Aviv, Israel; Haifa, Isreal; Elst, The Netherlands and 6 other plants there; Brussels, Belgium; Dusseldorf, Germany; Seesen, Germany; Turnhout, Belgium; Rovereto, Italy; Chateaurenand, France; North York, Ontario, Canada; Wheatley, Ontario, Canada; Caracas,Venezuela; San Jose, Costa Rica; Johannesburg, South Africa; Gaborone, Botswana; Harare, Zimbabwe; Cheguta, Zimbabwe; Wellington, South Africa; Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Republic of Singapore; Auckland, New Zealand; Tokyo, Japan; Guangzhov, People's Republic of China (makes infant cereal); Qingdao, People's Republic of China (makes infant foods, ketchup, mayonnaise & puree); Inchon, South Korea (makes Heinz products and StarKist); Bangkok, Thailand; Mumbai, India; Jakarta, Indonesia; Surabaya, Indonesia; Manila, Philippines; Wanchai, Hong Kong.

Also recently purchased from Bordens these products: Classico Pasta Sauce; Aunt Millies Pasta Sauce; Mrs. Grass Receipt Soups; Wylers Bouillons & Soups.

Think of the conflict of interest a President would have who's wife owns business interests in all of these countries and others. Pass it on!!!!
 

Origins:   In  
1995, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts wed Teresa Heinz, whom he first met at an Earth Day rally in 1990. Born  Teresa Simões-Ferreira in Mozambique to Portuguese parents, Mrs. Kerry was previously married for 25 years to Henry John Heinz III, who was a member of the founding family of the H.J. Heinz Company and represented Pennsylvania for twenty years in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate prior to his death in a plane crash in 1991. Mrs. Kerry inherited a Heinz family fortune estimated at over $500 million.

Although Senator Kerry has been critical of the Bush administration for rewarding "Benedict Arnold CEOs" who move "profits and jobs overseas," the above-quoted attempt to link Kerry (through his wife) with the very outsourcing he decries is flawed in two major ways. First off, Teresa Heinz Kerry does not "own the Heinz Corporation" — she has no involvement whatsoever with the management or operations of the H.J. Heinz Company, nor does she own anything close to a controlling interest of the company's stock. According to Heinz itself, the Heinz family trust which Mrs. Kerry inherited sold most of its shares of Heinz stock back in 1995 and currently holds less than a 4% interest in the company:

Neither Mrs. Heinz Kerry nor Senator Kerry nor any of the Heinz trusts or endowments — either individually or collectively — holds a significant percentage of shares of the H.J. Heinz Company. In 1995 the Heinz Endowments and family trusts sold a large percentage of Heinz shares in a secondary share offering to diversify their holdings. As a result, their current holdings are under 4 percent.

There is no connection between any philanthropic programs of the H.J. Heinz Company and its Foundation and the Heinz family interests (including the Howard Heinz Endowment, the Vira Heinz Endowment, and the Heinz Family Philanthropies).
(A 4% stake in a company as large as Heinz still represents a considerable amount of money, but it isn't nearly large enough a share to give the holder any significant control or influence over the company's business decisions.)

Moreover, the Heinz Company's operations are not an example of the type of outsourcing that is currently a hot political issue (i.e., sending out work to offshore companies to provide services which a company might otherwise have employed its own staff to perform). Heinz is a U.S.-based global business which sells its products in dozens of other countries, and like other food companies it has to localize some of its production at factories located in its foreign market areas. (It makes little sense from either an economic or a freshness standpoint to be shipping fruits and vegetables and/or finished food products halfway around the world rather than producing them locally.) One wouldn't expect, for example, every can and bottle of Coca-Cola sold anywhere in the world — whether it be Australia, China, or Portugal — to be produced by U.S. bottlers.)

As the H.J. Heinz Company notes, well over half its sales come from foreign markets, and it therefore operates overseas facilities to serve those markets:

Currently, 60% of the sales of the H.J. Heinz Company are outside the United States and to accommodate those customers by providing facilities closer to those markets, the company maintains a number of overseas facilities that provide products for consumers in those markets. This allows Heinz to pack the freshest ingredients, tailor its recipes to local tastes and deliver the finished products in a timely and efficient manner. In the United States, Heinz makes its flagship ketchup in factories in Fremont, Ohio; Muscatine, Iowa; and Stockton, California.
Last updated:   30 March 2004  
 
The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/politics/kerry/heinz.asp
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You never get a second chance to make a first impression!

[Peanutsdad]

>It's called INHERITANCE.  She did not personally make ANY
>decisions regarding the company.
>
>Oh, and about the Heinz factories being located in other
>countries  -- does it make sense to ship ripe tomatoes (for
>example) across the world in order to make ketchup?  Of course
>not.  Factories are located near the raw ingrediants for a
>reason.


I guess we dont grow tomatoes in the US. Tell me ,, who produces MOST of the worlds agriculture?

[Brent]

>Facts Regarding John Kerry's Wife-Scary

I don't care if she worships Satan and laughs while impaling newborns on metal spikes. The fact is that Bush has got to go. Period.

Don't think of it as electing Kerry- think of it as getting rid of George Bush.

I personally think both of them (Bush and Kerry) are hypocritical scumbags with too damn much money and power already. They both lie, cheat, and steal. They will both tell you whatever fantasy you want or need to hear in order to get your vote, so don't kid yourself.

The only difference is that Bush has already has his chance to do whatever damage he can to this country, and he's done a bang-up job of it too. Time for a new crooked politician to come in and destroy the county. Out with the old crooks, in with the new.

[smtotwo]

NM

[catherine]

I had read both spams (the original and this one) and these were the points I was trying to make but I did so with little grace.

[catherine]

.

[Kitty C.]

Yup, they do, PD.  That's why there's a Heinz plant about 40 miles from where I live, right near the fields where their tomatoes are grown. In fact, DH worked for a farmer in our area when he was much younger, on his tomato farm.  This man sold to Heinz, as that was the closest manufacturer and you cannot ship massive amounts of tomatoes far.

For those of you who live in CA or any other place where they grow tomatoes, those large hopper-bottom semis you see heaped full of tomatoes...those are going directly to a processing plant.  They are NOT the tomatoes that will be sold individually in a supermarket.  For those, they are packed and shipped almost directly from the farmer, so as to protect them during shipment.

As far as who produces the most, you have to be commodity-specific, PD.  As for beef and pork, I'd say the US, but in grains, it can be a toss-up on any given year, between us, Canada, Russia, and Argentina.

There's a farm equip. manufacturer not far from here (no, it's NOT John Deere) who makes the LARGEST wagons and implements in the world.  I've met the man who invented them, he's a farmer and a genius.  He makes 36 row planters and 700 bushel auger wagons.  BUT his biggest buyer is NOT the US, it's to foreign countries.

Having grown up an Iowa farmer's daughter, I've seen many changes in agriculture, the largest being the slow demise of the family farmer to the big corporations.  But right up there is the lack of continuous dominance by the US in the agriculture markets.  As a nation, we've done our job well in bringing prosperity to 2nd and 3rd world nations, as they are MUCH more self-supporting than there were just 20-30 years ago.

But the ONE huge difference between a company that is perishable produce based (as in tomatoes) and almost anyone else is that you HAVE to go where the product is.  It's almost impossible to transport those commodities long distances without adding huge costs to the comsumers.  So if they can grow tomatoes in many other places besides Muscatine, IA, they HAVE to manufacture there.  It only makes economic sense.

It's for the same reason why there are no large wineries here in Iowa, because this area is not conducive to growing grapes.  It has NOTHING to do with moving jobs elsewhere.

Thus ends your lesson in agriculture for today...........  ;-)

[cathy]

And it is not HER company.  She owns less than 4% I believe.

So, guess you think Heinz should manufacture ALL their products in the USA and just tell the people in other countries to buy them.  Gee - maybe they would be a little put out, ya think?