<P> For nearly a century, Oscar Mayer remained an independent company owned primarily by descendants of the Mayer brothers who started it . In 1981, Oscar Mayer stockholders elected to sell the company to General Foods . Four years later, Philip Morris acquired General Foods, and in 1989 merged General Foods with the newly acquired Kraft Foods Inc . </P> <P> Shares of Kraft foods were first offered to the public via an initial public offering in 2001 . Altria Group (formerly Philip Morris) spun off remaining shares of Kraft Foods to Altria shareholders in 2007 . </P> <P> On November 4, 2015, owner Kraft Heinz announced it would move the Oscar Mayer headquarters and the company's U.S. meats business from Madison, Wisconsin, to Chicago . The company also announced plans to consolidate its production facilities during the two following years, resulting in the shutdown of seven North American manufacturing facilities: Fullerton, California; San Leandro, California; Federalsburg, Maryland; St. Marys, Ontario; Campbell, New York; Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania; and the one in Madison . </P> <P> In August 2017, Bloomberg Businessweek reported that the company planned to spend $10 million to reinvent the hot dog for a more health conscious consumer . According to company research, this new strategy could increase sales of their hot dog by six percent . </P>

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