Oprah Winfrey has another venture, and this one involves food. The television personality announced that she is going to sell ready-to-eat refrigerated meals and snacks through Kraft Heinz, America's third-largest food company. The joint venture is called Mealtime Stories, and its goal is to make nutritious food easily available nationwide. The pre-packaged foods will consist primarily of meat, fish, poultry, and vegetables.
Not a conflict of interest
Even though Oprah has 10 percent stake in Weight Watchers International Inc., it is not a conflict of interest because Weight Watchers doesn't sell prepared foods like some of the other weight loss programs do.
For instance, Jenny Craig's program requires customers to purchase food from the company.
While Weight Watchers has no connection to Mealtime Stories, surely the company will benefit from Oprah's new venture. Since the announcement on Wednesday, stocks in Kraft Heinz rose to $89.50, and Weight Watchers went up to $12.75. Investors are believing that Oprah's new venture will benefit Weight Watchers even more.
Kraft Heinz and Oprah will donate 10 percent of their profits to anti-hunger charities. More details about the charities will be made available to the public later after the venture gets underway.
Profits go to charities
Oprah is not the only celebrity to sell food and give profits to charities.
Paul Newman has being doing that since 1982. His food company, Newman's Own, has raised about $450 million for charities. The joint venture between Kraft Heinz and Oprah Winfrey would like to become as successful.
Fox Business Network anchor Trish Regan spoke out about Oprah's new project. She indicated that Oprah has her work cut out for her because it takes a lot of hard work to become successful in the ready-to-eat food market because of the quick turnaround. Regan further explained that there's not a long shelf life for refrigerated products. Surely, there will be more details about Oprah's ready-to-eat foods in the near future.
