Jessica Mendoza

Kraft mac and cheese was marketed as a quick, tasty, and affordable meal for busy families.

And that's been the brand's message for decades.

As time went on, Kraft began marketing its mac and cheese to kids.

Kids loved it, and Kraft kept its hold on the mac and cheese market.

But as the 2000s became the 2010s, consumer priorities began to shift.

People were turning to other brands in the mac and cheese aisle, like Annie's, which promised an organic alternative.

In the face of these bigger shifts in the food industry, Kraft made a drastic move.

In 2015, the company merged with another huge name in packaged food, Heinz.

One of the architects of the merger was a private equity firm called 3G, which was known for its strategy of aggressive cost cutting.

Though profits were up, over time, sales declined.

In 2019, Kraft Heinz was forced to write down the value of its assets by $17 billion, in part because of some accounting errors.

At the time, Kraft Heinz executives said that the changes to the food industry had a stronger impact on the company's brands than they anticipated.

The pandemic brought some relief.

Consumers turned back to home cooking and nostalgic comfort food, including those beloved blue boxes.

In 2020, the president of U.S.

business at Kraft Heinz told investors that the company had online sales that totaled to nearly 90 million pounds of mac and cheese.

He said that was equivalent to 41 statues of liberty.

But even as Kraft mac and cheese was seeing a surge, new competitors were eyeing the market.

One of them was a former Kraft employee named Paul Earle.

And there, Earl had an idea.