The thing worth noticing, when we talk about 11 Biggest Food Companies in the World, is the fact that food production and agriculture industry, which are closely linked with one another, employ around 1 billion people. This number represents one-third of the global employment. Here it is also important to bring into your notice that while the industry is pretty big itself the main control is in the hands of a few giant companies. That is actually the case in every industry. These giant food companies are so powerful that they somehow control the diets of everyone around the world through their rules, regulations and policies.
It is really amazing how the world’s population is dependent upon these companies for their own choices of food. These companies control everything from our food choices or varieties to supplier terms and availability of products.
What makes these companies the top 11 is not just a single factor but a combination. Figures of revenues, profits and assets of some of these companies are bound to surprise you. Do you know that the largest of these companies had a profit of $11 billion in 2013? Yes, you heard it right – it’s $11 billion. Another company on this list had a total workforce of around 333,000 people – that’s more than Microsoft, Apple and eBay combined.
Almost all of these companies spend huge amounts when it comes to advertising and marketing, which is the reason why they are pretty famous around the entire world. Unilever, one of the companies in this list, is also one of the biggest spenders in marketing. It is hard to believe but this giant food company, operating all around the world had spent more than $7 billion on advertising and marketing in 2012.
With such high scale of operation, the environmental impact these companies carry with them is also worth mentioning. However, these companies have not dealt with anything serious yet but issues like irregularities with suppliers and third party contractors, child labor and other such problems have always been on the table for them. If you’re reading this post you maybe also interested in a similar topic and want to check out our list of The Ten most Popular Fast Food Chains in America. For now, let’s quickly get down to our 11 biggest food companies in the world.
11. 2 Sisters Food Group
2 Sister Food Group is a UK food and drink company, which started as a provider of frozen foods. It soon gained popularity and now operates all over Europe. It has more than 23,000 employees.
10. Coca-Cola
For Coca-Cola, it would not be wrong to say that there is nothing like it. Apart from a couple of competitors, Coca-Cola enjoys complete supremacy in the market. It has around 130,000 employees working all around the world.
9. Associated British Foods
It is a UK based company, which has mainly gained popularity through acquisitions. This company makes yearly profit of around $700-800 millions roughly (an estimate).
8. Groupe Danone
Famous for providing bottled waters and food supplements for infants, Groupe Danone is a global giant but its main chunk of sales come from Russia, France, China, USA and Indonesia. It has more than 104,000 employees.
7. Kellogg Co
Kellogg might be the smallest in terms of revenue but in 2013 it made nearly $15 billion in sales. This along with its huge workforce of 30,000 employees makes it stand at number eight of our 11 Biggest Food Companies in the World.
6. General Mills
General Mills owns some of the America’s top food brands, including the likes of Pillsbury, Betty Crocker etc. The company has some regulatory issues in the past which are now being taken good care of. It spends $1.1 billion on advertising and employs more than 40,000 employees.
5. Mars
Mars is a privately owned company which has around 60,000 employees. What makes Mars such a huge success is its mouth watering chocolates and bubble gums.
4. Mondelez International
According to an estimate, in 2012 Mondelez has more than $72 billion in assets and more than 98,000 employees.
3. Nestle
According to many indicators Nestle is probably the largest food company in the world. It has 333,000 workers and spends a staggering $2 billion on advertising and marketing.
2. PepsiCo
Placed at number two is PepsiCo. The main competitor to Coca-Cola, Pepsi has 274,000 employees and invests around $2.5 billion each year for marketing purposes.
1. Unilever
Here comes the number one in our list of 11 Biggest Food Companies in the World. Unilever has comparatively less employees than Pepsi, but it generates way more profit than any other in the list. The idea of its profit and revenues can be made by its $7.4 billion budget for marketing.
