Oligopoly Watch (original) (raw)

Top 20 world food companies

Thanks to a 2004 survey by Food Engineering Magazine, here is a list of the world's top 20 food companies. I've separated out beverage companies from the original list, including soft drink firms (Coca-Cola), breweries (SAB Miller) and distilleries (Diageo). The only real overlap is in Pepsi, whose snack food operations might well get it into the bottom the list as a food company. Also, Danone sells water, so its actual revenue form food is somewhat lower.

Naturally, if we broke the food industry down into categories , we would find some of these firms dominating one or several segments. As we have noted often, most of these companies are in a constant churn, discarding non-core and unprofitable products and segments, and buying up core-related products where they are already leading players.

The list is dominated by a few diverse international powerhouses (Nestle, Kraft, Unilever), and a variety of mostly American meat and grain-product companies. These American companies already have become or are striving to become global in scope, something few European and Asian food firms are aiming at. In spite of a lowering dollar, US companies in this field are still overwhelmingly dominant.

10:12:21 PM