The food and beverage industry is an essential part of the US economy, making up approximately 5% of the country’s GDP and 10% of its employment. There are almost 27,000 food and beverage organizations and businesses in the US employing 1.5 million people, making the market highly competitive. Vendors need to earn consumer trust and loyalty in order to successfully compete in this industry. Here’s BizVibe’s list of the top 10 food and beverage manufacturers in the US:
- Conagra Brands Inc.: Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Conagra Brands has a wide portfolio of food and beverage brands, including Orville Redenbacher’s, P.F. Chang’s Home Menu, Hebrew International, and Chef Boyardee. The company is worth approximately USD 8 billion and operates through five business segments, which are Grocery & Snacks, Refrigerated & Frozen, International, Foodservice, and Commercial. Conagra Brands was known as ConAgra Foods until November of 2016.
- PepsiCo Inc.: PepsiCo’s product mix is 53% foods and 47% beverages. Its current offerings consist of 22 different brands that annually generate more than USD 1 billion each in retail sales, including Pepsi, Miss Vickie’s, Mountain Dew, Aquafina, Aunt Jemima, Sabra, and Lay’s. PepsiCo is headquartered in Purchase, New York, and was first founded as the Pepsi-Cola Company in 1898.
- The Kellogg Company: Headquartered in Battle Creek, Michigan, the company produces cereal and convenience foods, including cookies and crackers, toaster pastries, fruit snacks, frozen waffles, health and wellness bars, beverages, and others. It primarily offers its food and beverage products under the brand names of Kellogg’s, Keebler, Cheez-It, Pringles, Murray, Austin, and Famous Amos. Kellogg’s acquired the Pringles brand from Procter & Gamble for USD 2.7 billion in 2012, a move that made it the second-largest snack food company in the world after PepsiCo.
- The Coca-Cola Company: The company primarily offers sparkling and still non-alcoholic beverages, including sodas, flavoured and enhanced waters, carbonated and non-carbonated energy drinks, sports drinks, and ready-to-drink teas and coffees. It sells its products primarily under the brand names of Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Light, Coca-Cola Zero, Minute Mait, Sprite, Georgia, Fanta, Powerade, Schweppes, Dasani, Simply, and Glaceau Vitaminwater.
- Campbell Soup Company: The company operates through three business segments, which are Americas Simple Meals and Beverages; Global Biscuits and Snacks; and Campbell Fresh. Its product portfolio includes Campbell’s soups, Pepperidge Farm cookies and crackers, V8 beverages, Plum baby food, Swanson broths, and Prego pasta sauces, amongst other products.
- The Kroger Co.: Also known simply as Kroger, the Kroger Co. was founded in 1883 and is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Kroger is a major manufacturer and retailer of food and beverage products with 2,796 retail food stores in the US. The company has also started selling prepared meal kits, allowing it to compete with Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, and similar companies. Kroger reported revenue of USD 115.3 billion in 2016.
- General Mills Inc.: General Mills is a manufacturer of branded consumer foods sold through retail stores, and is based in Golden Valley, Minnesota. Its brand portfolio consists of more than 100 brands, including Cheerios, Chex, Cascadian Farm, Haagen-Dazs, Nature Valley, Fiber One, Green Giant, and Yoplait.
- The Hershey Company: Hershey produces chocolate and non-chocolate confectionery products and is one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in North America. It offers its products primarily under the Hershey’s, Reese’s, Kisses, Jolly Rancher, Almond Joy, Brookside, Cadbury, Good & Plenty, Heath, Kit-Kat, Lancaster, Payday, Rolo, Twizzlers, Whoppers, York, Ice Breakers, Breathsavers, Bubble Yum, and Heath brand names. In 2016, Hershey acquired barkTHINS for USD 290 million.
- Starbucks Corporation: Starbucks was founded in Seattle, Washington in 1971. Its restaurant locations offer a variety of food and beverage products, including hot and cold drinks, whole-bean coffee, microground instant coffee, espresso, full- and loose-leaf Teavana teas, Evolution Fresh juices, pastries, sandwiches and wraps, and snack food items including chips, chocolate, and candy. It has approximately 11,100 locations in the US and a total of 20,000 stores in 62 countries around the world.
- The Kraft Heinz Company: The Kraft Heinz Company is the third largest food and beverage company in North America and the fifth largest in the world. It consists of a wide variety of brands, including Kraft, Heinz, ABC, Capri Sun, Classico, Jell-O, Kool-Aid, Lunchables, Maxwell House, Ore-Ida, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Planters, Plasmon, Quero, Weight Watchers Smart Ones and Velveeta.
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