• Ad Age, Thursday, January 7, 2010 10:40 AM

The frozen-pizza lines that Kraft sold to Nestle to raise cash for its Cadbury bid have been cash cows, Emily Bryson York reports, leaving some observers to wonder why Kraft wanted to trade pizza pies for chocolate? One reason is locations, locations, locations.

"We're looking to focus on products where we can bring global scale," says Kraft spokesman Mike Mitchell. Because the market-leader DiGiorno -- along with sibling brands California Pizza Kitchen, Tombstone and Jack's -- are frozen, they would "difficult to leverage globally." Kraft has already jettisoned such freezer-case brands as Budget Gourmet, Bird's Eye and Breyer's.

Kraft's $1.2 billion in grocery sales for pizza are nearly twice those of closest-competitor Schwan's, with $732 million. Nestle, which sells frozen pizza through its Lean Cuisine and Stouffer's brands, currently ranks fourth in the category with $221 million in sales.

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