Chocolate, beer and soda: they’re three of our biggest vices. And they also happen to be the products powering the world’s largest food, beverage and tobacco companies.
According to the FORBES Global 2000 — our annual and comprehensive list of the world’s most powerful public companies as measured by a composite score of revenue, profit, assets and market value – Nestle , Anheuser-Busch InBevand Coca-Cola are the top three food and drink companies in the world.
Nestle , which is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, dropped three spots to #33 on the Global 2000 but once again sits at the top of the food industry thanks to the $92 billion in revenue and $9.4 billion in profit it recorded in the twelve months ending on April 22. Though the company is best known for its chocolate, it did not achieve its number-one standing with cocoa alone. In fact, recent sales of Lean Cuisine, Stouffer’s, Coffeemate and Nescafe – in other words, frozen food and coffee – have proven particularly accretive to the company’s top-line results.
(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Anheuser-Busch InBev moved up one spot to #56 on the Global 2000 and sits in second place within worldwide food and beverage companies. Anheuser is the world’s largest brewer and commands a 25% global market share – and is poised to grow even bigger. The Belgian-based company’s $100 billion-plus acquisition of SABMiller , which was first proposed in 2015, was approved by the European Commission on May 24. Once merged, the two companies will account for 30% of global beer sales.
Rounding out the top three food and beverage companies in the world is Coca-Cola , which moved up 10 spots to #83 on the Global 2000. The soda giant recorded $43.5 billion in revenue and $7.3 billion in profit in the twelve months ending on April 22. It’s worth noting that Coke’s profit is rather sugar laden: according to a recent Wall Street analysis, the soft-drink provider has more sugar per dollar of total EBIT than any of its competitors, hitting a whopping 2.6 pounds of sugar for every one dollar of EBIT. Should a national soda tax take effect, Coke would feel the pain in a profound way.
The biggest gainer in the category was neither food nor beverage-based: it was Reynolds American, the tobacco company behind Camel, Newport and Pall Mall cigarettes. Thanks in no small part to its $25 billion merger with Lorillard last year — a merger that put Newport, the number-two cigarette brand in the U.S., into Reynolds’ hands — Reynolds jumped an impressive 332 spots to #269 on the 2016 Global 2000. This puts it above the likes of Heineken, General Mills and even Kraft Heinz.
Food, Drink and Tobacco companies account for 77 companies on the Global 2000. To see the top 25, which have an aggregate $784 billion in revenue and $87 billion in profit, click through here:
A note for those expecting to see names like McDonalds, Starbucks and Yum! Brands on this list: it’s not that they didn’t make the Global 2000. They did, but are classified as restaurant companies and fall under a different category.
