Rachael Ray went from scraping together the rent as a candy counter girl to a multi-millionaire with her own talk show, cooking show(s), magazine, and books that have sold more than 4 million copies. She's also spawned a lingo all her own. (EVOO for Extra Virgin Olive Oil has entered the popular vernacular). All this in a little under ten years.
How cool is that?
Love her or hate her, Rachael Ray, she of the perky smile and Girl-next-door demeanor, gets major points for translating her love of cooking into a multi-million media empire. People can't seem to get enough of her "regular gal" persona. But her bubbly personality masks some serious business savvy.
Using her mentor Oprah Winfrey as a blueprint, Ray has expanded out of the kitchen this year into many other avenues. Her one-hour daytime talk show, The Rachel Ray Show, is patterned after the perennially popular Oprah Winfrey Show, and was the only syndicated daytime talk show launched in 2007 to be renewed. Her Food Network shows continue to be among the most popular on the channel.
She also cooked up some lucrative endorsement deals with name brands such as Dunkin Donuts and Nabisco -- now owned by Kraft Foods (NYSE: KFT). These media venues help feed her magazine (Every Day with Rachel Ray) and cookbook sales.
These are like the cherry on top of the $16 million Ray took home this year, according to Forbes magazine. By some estimates, Ray's net worth is touching $100 million, but that's hard to verify. One thing's for sure, this gal doesn't need to get out of the kitchen; she's proving that she can stand the heat.
Be sure to check out more Money Winners of 2007.
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Filed under: Starbucks (SBUX), Kraft Foods'A' (KFT)
With Starbucks Corporation (Nasdaq: SBUX) set to report earnings this afternoon, I can almost taste the latte grande with soy milk served in a sturdy, made-of-slightly-recycled-paper cup. BloggingStocks' Beth Gaston Moon had a good write up this morning on what to expect from Starbucks this afternoon. I think investors underappreciate the opportunity Starbucks has in China, but that's another story.With my mind on a big cup o' joe, I was excited to read a very interesting research piece published by Bernstein Research on Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT) entitled "Kraft: Tassimo Single-Serve Coffee has Scalded Performance in Recent Years, but Recovery is in Sight." An engaging piece, yes -- Bernstein is so all over Kraft and this piece is an amazing research work on the effort, money, and focus Kraft has poured into their coffee service, Tassimo.
This project, estimated to have used over $1.5 billion of corporate resources since 2001, is deemed to have starved the organization of resources that could have been better used in other areas of the firm. Bernstein writes, "We believe that Kraft's overall margins and top-line have been adversely affected as established products have been starved of R&D and marketing resources and capital expenditures."
This refocus of corporate resources and management brainspace is what's behind today's announcement that Kraft will be spinning/splitting off Post Cereals. It's also part of the reason why uberinvestors Peltz and Icahn are investing in the underperforming food company.
With a commitment to selling off poorly performing assets, rationalization of businesses that don't make sense in the Kraft strategy, and hopefully a pull-back in record-high cheese prices, Kraft looks primed to make some serious coffee beans for investors.
Zack Miller is the Managing Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund. Disclosure: Author's clients own Kraft.
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Filed under: Starbucks (SBUX), Ford Motor (F), Money and Finance Today, Merrill Lynch (MER), UAL Corp (UAUA), Kraft Foods'A' (KFT), Delta Air Lines (DAL)
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