The leading food and grocery suppliers of 2008
After a number of changes between 2006 and 2007, the Nielsen Grocery Report Top 100 Suppliers list in 2008 saw few alterations to last year’s rankings. The leading five suppliers in Australia accounted for around 23.5% of packaged grocery sales (excl. private label) down from 24.1% in 2007, while the leading 100 accounted for about 90.6%.
There were a number of changes to the top 10 food suppliers, with George Weston (9) taking Fonterra’s (11) spot in the ten and Unilever, Mars and Arnott’s Campbell’s edging above The Coca-Cola Company. The top three – Nestlé, Cadbury Schweppes and National Foods – remained unchanged. In the non-food category there were no alterations to last year’s top 10, with tobacco companies continuing to hold down the top three positions.
Overall, the top 10 suppliers remained the same, although Nestle and British American Tobacco (BAT) switched places with BAT once again taking the lead as Australia’s number one grocery supplier and Nestle dropping back to second position. There was only one new entrant to the top 20 – Heinz Wattie’s – which jumped from 22 in 2007 up to 19 in 2008, pushing Kraft out of the top 20.
Of the top 10 best performing FMCG suppliers in 2008, there were only three additions from 2007 – Poseidon Tarama, Bundaberg Brewed Drinks and McCain Foods. Three of the top 10 fastest growing manufacturers were also new to the top 100 suppliers list this year, including Poseidon Tarama, Bundaberg Brewed Drinks and Harvey Fresh. The other new entrant to the top 100 was The Copperpot Pate, while Mildura, Novo, Capilano and Tetley were edged out.
“Reflecting broader trends in the industry, all of the top 10 fastest movers in 2008 were food and beverage companies, specifically those offering ‘cook-it-from-scratch’ meal solutions, in-home entertainment products or health and convenience offerings,” observed Rob Clark, Executive Director, Retail Client Service, The Nielsen Company.
Top Ten Food Suppliers for 2008 excl. private label/homebrands (last year’s position in brackets)
- Nestlé (1)
- Cadbury Schweppes (2)
- National Foods (3)
- Unilever (4)
- Mars (5)
- Arnott’s Campbell’s (6)
- The Coca-Cola Company (7)
- Goodman Fielder (8)
- George Weston Foods (9)
- Simplot (10)
Top 10 Non-Food suppliers of 2008
- British American Tobacco
- Philip Morris
- Imperial Tobacco
- Kimberly Clark
- Colgate-Palmolive
- Reckitt Benckiser
- Procter & Gamble
- SCA
- Johnson & Johnson
- Cussons
Top 20 Grocery Suppliers for 2008 by dollar value (last year’s ranking in brackets)
- BAT (2)
- Nestlé (1)
- Philip Morris (3)
- Cadbury Schweppes (4)
- National Foods (5)
- The Coca-Cola Company (including Coca-Cola Amatil) (6)
- Unilever (7)
- Mars (8)
- Arnott’s Campbell’s (9)
- Imperial Tobacco (10)
- Goodman Fielder
- Kimberly Clark
- George Weston Foods
- Colgate-Palmolive
- Simplot
- Fonterra
- Reckitt Benckiser
- Dairy Farmers
- Heinz Wattie’s
- Procter & Gamble
Top performing companies in leading 100 manufacturers (value growth as a %; position in top 100)
- Conga Foods (39.6%, 57)
- Frucor (36.3%, 78)
- Sunny Queen (27.2%, 87)
- Weight Watchers (23.4%, 63)
- Poseidon Tarama (16.9%, 93)
- Bundaberg Brewed Drinks (16.7%, 98)
- McCain Foods (16.5%, 26)
- Oriental Merchant (16.1%, 83)
- Harvey Fresh (15.9%, 92)
- Menora Foods (15.4%, 81)
Source: Nielsen