at kraft food inc., freeing up cash has become a companywide imperative.
back in 2007-well before the current economic troubles his-Chief financial officer tim mclevish set a goal of improving kraft's
overall cash flow by US $1 billion .
Why so much? the world's second-largest food company was planing for future growth.
the higher the free cash flow, the better a company is able to again access to capital and investment markets with a lower rate of borrowing for capital expenditures, acquisitions, or share repurchasing explains philippe lambotte, kraft's senior vice president of customer logistics in north america.
while top-line and bottomline growth are important, the necessary condition for them to fund growth is that free cash flow is available