Editor’s Plate: Yesterday’s Products at Tomorrow’s Prices
“The consumer is still hungry, just not for yesterday’s brands at tomorrow’s prices.”
That great quote, from Ben Nobles, a principal with The New England Consulting Group, came up as we fleshed out this month's cover story, our annual Top 100 list and report. While the big chart (click here) is the star, we also use the occasion to assess the financial health of the food & beverage industry.
Ben's quote hints at a number of things wrong with the top companies in the food & beverage industry. On the surface, every processor is getting by, more or less, but there are a lot of "underlying health issues" – hence our theme for this year.
In addition to the sales figures in that chart, we do some additional math. One of my annual favorites is to add up the sales of all 101 companies (there was a three-way tie for last place this year). Their collective 2025 sales were $653.88 billion, a 2.4% increase from those same companies’ sales in 2024. Which, at first glance, makes me think "eh, not so bad." But if you look at inflation in the past year, food-at-home prices rose an identical 2.4%. So one can presume that, collectively, this group had zero volume growth – and I'm surprised they achieved even that. A lot of companies can't claim even flat volumes.
Sure, there were a lot of headwinds. None of these companies could control economic factors like inflation and tariffs. They can’t influence consumer trends. They couldn't control (but aided and abetted) growth by private label and entrepreneurial small companies. How? By making "yesterday's brands at tomorrow's prices," as Ben said.
Smarter minds than mine haven't been able to solve that conundrum. They're still working on it. I'm sure you all are. But it requires solution before more names disappear from our Top 100 list (like WK Kellogg Co, Kellanova, Hain Celestial and Hearthside Food Solutions) and it's populated by 100 new names.
Let me redirect you to our fabulous list. Click here and what you'll first see is the chart of the 101 companies, but if you click on any name, you'll get that company's profile, including headquarters location, executives, even brands, and in most cases plant locations. It's worth a visit, if not a bookmark:
About the Author
Dave Fusaro
Editor in Chief
Dave Fusaro has served as editor in chief of Food Processing magazine since 2003. Dave has 30 years experience in food & beverage industry journalism and has won several national ASBPE writing awards for his Food Processing stories. Dave has been interviewed on CNN, quoted in national newspapers and he authored a 200-page market research report on the milk industry. Formerly an award-winning newspaper reporter who specialized in business writing, he holds a BA in journalism from Marquette University. Prior to joining Food Processing, Dave was Editor-In-Chief of Dairy Foods and was Managing Editor of Prepared Foods.