Kraft Foods Headquarters, Illinois

Kraft, the large foods company, is headquartered here in Northfield, Illinois, in the northern suburbs of Chicago. It merged with Heinz in 2015 to become the fourth largest food company in the world, and the new Kraft Heinz  has a second headquarters with Heinz in Pittsburgh. Kraft was started by James Kraft, who figured out how to put cheese in a can, to increase its shelf life. In doing so, he invented a new product known as “embalmed cheese.” The company has diversified, and recently split off its snack foods business to a new company, Mondeles International, which includes the Nabisco brand, while a rebooted Kraft Foods is focusing more on its dairy and deli line. Kraft owns many brands, including Oscar Mayer, Jell-O, Velveeta, and the General Foods Company. Kraft operates an R&D center in nearby Glenview, where the company continues to engineer cheese into new dimensions.