Coca-Cola (No. 10), PepsiCo (No. 25), Nestle (34) and General Mills (47) were the food and beverage processors among the top 50 admired companies in Fortune magazine's annual list of the World's Most Admired Companies.
The magazine’s March 22 issue carried the list, created for Fortune by Hay Group, which starts with lists that include about 1,400 of the largest global companies. Hay Group sorts them into 55 industry categories and selects the 15 largest for each international industry and the 10 largest for each U.S. industry. A total of 667 companies from 33 countries were considered.
Actually there are two sets of lists. First, Hay asked executives, directors, and analysts to rate companies in their own industry on nine criteria, from investment value to social responsibility. The result is 55 top 10 lists.
For the overall Top 50 Most Admired Companies, Hay Group asked 4,170 executives, directors and securities analysts who responded to the industry surveys to select the 10 companies they admired most. They chose from a list made up of the companies that ranked in the top 25 percent in last year's surveys, plus those that finished in the top 20 percent in their industry lists. Anyone could vote for any company in any industry.
Because of the two sets of lists and differences in the voting processes, some results seem anomalous. For example, although PepsiCo scored higher on the overall list and Nestle was nine spots behind, Nestle beat out PepsiCo on the "consumer food products" list.
World’s Most Admired Companies
Top 50 Overall (select companies)
1. Apple
2. Google
3. Berkshire Hathaway
10. Coca-Cola
25. PepsiCo
34. Nestle
47. General Mills
Consumer Food Products
Rank, Overall score
1. Nestle, 7.63
2. PepsiCo, 6.88
3. General Mills, 6.68
4. Unilever, 6.52
5. Kellogg, 6.43
6. Danone, 6.26
7. Kraft Foods, 6.04
8. H.J. Heinz, 5.93
9. Cadbury, 5.65
10. ConAgra Foods, 5.36
11. Sara Lee, 4.85
12. Dean Foods 4.71
13. Ajinomoto 4.65
Beverages
Rank, Overall score
1. Coca-Cola, 6.98
2. Anheuser-Busch InBev, 6.88
3. SABMiller, 6.26
4. Pepsi Bottling Group, 6.17
5. Coca-Cola Enterprises, 5.58
6. Diageo, 5.40
7. FEMSA, 5.22
8. Heineken, 4.99
9. Kirin Brewery, 4.58
10. Asahi Breweries, 4.20
(Tie) Carlsberg A/S 4.20
Food Production
Rank, Overall score
1. Archer Daniels Midland, 7.20
2. Corn Products Intl., 6.58
3. Bunge, 6.55
4. Wilmar Intl., 6.46
5. Chiquita Brands Intl., 5.59
6. Smithfield Foods, 5.45
7. Tyson Foods, 5.39
8. Seaboard, 5.32
9. Sanderson Farms, 5.31
10. Pilgrim’s Pride, 4.18
