Top 100 Consumer Goods Companies of 2019

It’s probably somewhat ironic that, during a year in which most consumer goods companies were striving to become more “natural and organic” in their corporate practices, few were able to substantially grow revenue without acquiring other businesses.

But there has been a decided lack of organic growth among the world’s largest consumer goods manufacturers recently, as dramatically changing consumer tastes have joined with a rapidly expanding (and easily entered) competitive landscape to make it harder for traditional brands to even maintain market share, let alone gain any more.

Granted, 73 of the companies on CGT’s list of the “Top 100 Consumer Goods Companies” for 2019 experienced positive growth in their most recent fiscal year. However, only 15 of them enjoyed double-digit gains – and to post that level of growth, nearly all needed to undertake significant acquisitions. In truth, a lot of the single-digit gainers on the list were also driven by acquisitions of smaller brands.

Such is life these days in the consumer goods world, for which we have been compiling this list of the 100 largest publicly traded companies for the last 17 years.

Arcelik A.S. (Growth: 29.1%)

Based in Turkey, the cosmopolitan Arcelik sells its white goods and household appliances in 145 countries. And the company continues taking steps to expand through other strategic global targets. In India, for example, Arcelik forged a joint venture with Voltas, that company’s largest air conditioning brand (owned by Tata Group). Dubbed “Voltbek,” the partnership has introduced branded products to India’s 1.3 billion consumers. Meanwhile, the company has increased market share in both Europe and the Middle East-North Africa regions (its biggest markets). A new operation in United Arab Emirates marked the 32nd country with an Arcelik sales and marketing office.

The company prides itself on being a leader in the R&D realm, where it focuses on areas like automation and data, digital transformation, next-generation retailing and voice-command smart television. The Arcelik Retail Academy (for sales training) celebrated its first class of graduates in 2018; the Arcelik R&D Consultancy consists of 12 academicians. The company also launched various educational programs to increase innovation and entrepreneurship, along with a coding training program for the daughters of employees. 

British American Tobacco PLC (Growth: 25.2%)

UK-based (as you may have guessed) BAT’s growth was set up in the second half of 2017, when the company completed its takeover of rival Reynolds American to create a stronger global tobacco operation with more resources to develop next-generation products (NGP). In the first half of 2018, BAT continued to grow its combustible business while investing in reduced-risk categories like tobacco heating products and vapor and oral alternatives. It also started to drive growth in Reynolds’ NGP portfolio and continued making launch plans to re-energize growth in heating products.  

The Reynolds merger generated a lot of movement within upper management, too. The company appointed a new CEO (Nicandro Durante) and chief marketing officer (Kingsley Wheaton), and promoted chief information officer Marina Bellini to director of digital and information, charging her with driving company-wide digital transformation to enhance the digital consumer experience. BAT also named Paul Lageweg to director, new categories (reporting to Wheaton to drive growth, innovation, brand building and consumer insights for reduced-risk products). In April 2019, Jack Bowles replaced Durante at the top; controversy over the future of vaping had BAT planning layoffs before the end of the year.

Coty Inc. (Growth: 22.8%)

Although chief executive officer Camillo Pane describes Coty’s substantial growth as “good” and “modest,” the cosmetics company certainly deserves stronger praise for its recent efforts on the technology front. After ending the transitional services agreement it struck after buying 43 beauty brands from Procter & Gamble in 2015, Coty began “building and streamlining back-office processes, upgrading systems, optimizing our manufacturing and logistics, and overall, simplifying our operations,” Pane said. “In parallel, we are investing in our brands and starting to transform our digital capabilities to fuel sustainable growth.” In October, Coty announced a strategic decision to focus on its fragrance, cosmetics and skin care businesses, which has the company exploring “strategic alternatives” for its professional beauty assets. 

Among consumer-facing tech investments, which are designed to assist the “full turnaround of the new Coty,” are a new skill for Amazon Echo, an augmented reality experience app, and a blended-reality beauty magic mirror powered by physical products. Such efforts have been bolstered by the launch of an internal digital accelerator start-up program. “Partnerships between Coty and emerging companies such as Beamly and Holition … is an indication of how we’d like to bring disruptive new approaches to the market,” said Fred Gerantabee, vice president of digital innovation.

Thai Beverage Public Co. (Growth: 20.9%)

ThaiBev has succeeding by following a strategic roadmap called Vision 2020 that seeks to act on five imperatives: achieve growth by solidifying the company’s position as the largest, most profitable beverage company in Southeast Asia; diversifying revenue streams beyond alcohol and outside of Thailand; streamlining brands into three product groups (spirits, beer and non-alcoholic beverages); extending reach by building on its business processes and supply chain to strengthen existing distribution networks and establish new ones (using third-party distributors when appropriate); and striving for professionalism by developing a diverse and high-performance workforce.

The 16-year-old conglomerate (formed through the consolidation of multiple adult-beverage businesses) has taken significant steps toward achieving this vision recently through the acquisitions of Saigon Beer and Grand Royal Group, extending its alcohol beverage interests in Vietnam and Myanmar, respectively. ThaiBev also doubled the scale of its food operations by acquiring the rights to more than 250 units of the KFC restaurant franchise in Thailand. It also has invested in cold chain logistics and distribution capabilities, which it hopes will prepare the company for additional expansion into food.

Post Holdings (Growth: 19.8%)

The legendary cereal company kicked off 2018 by completing its acquisition of Bob Evans Farms, which expanded the portfolio more into shelf-stable side dishes (especially potatoes). Post later integrated the Evans operations with its Michael Foods group to create distinct businesses focused on retail and foodservice; the supply chain, however, remained aligned (under senior vice president Steve Schonhoff), in part to optimize costs by improving manufacturing capabilities. Also notable was a new partnership with private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners that resulted in 8^th Avenue Food & Provisions, a separate business for Post’s private-label manufacturing endeavors.

As traditional retail channels continue to shift toward e-commerce (especially mobile), Post is working to transform its traditional strategies for supply chain execution, consumer marketing and product development into a new organizational design that will help it “separate the disruptors from the interrupters” and “ideally be disruptors” in the race to commercialize new ideas, according the company’s annual report. In the meantime, it continues to reap benefits from previous acquisitions including MOM Brands and Weetabix.