Brands from the Asia-Pacific region have emerged as major players in the global packaged food industry over the last decade, according to market research organisation Euromonitor International.
Euromonitor has released its 2014 list of the biggest “billionaire brands” in the food world. Charting the Top 50 packaged food brands, and comparing their performance against 10 years ago, Euromonitor presents a revealing snapshot of an industry driven by the emergence of key Asia-Pacific brands.
Lesser known brands on the rise
Euromonitor’s biggest billionaire brand list contains some of the most iconic food brands in the world. From long standing members such as Kellogg’s and Cadbury to some of the lesser known recent additions, Euromonitor said it found that some of the top 50 food brands had grown over the last decade and others had not.
In 2004, the first five places in the billionaire club were held by the brands Kellogg’s, Kraft, Lay’s, Wrigley’s and Cadbury. In 2014, by comparison, Lay’s emerged as the biggest brand in packaged food, followed by Kellogg’s, Yili, Mengniu and Wrigley’s. Kraft and Cadbury remained close to the top of the list, but just outside of the leading five positions, at sixth and seventh place respectively.
Asia-Pacific ‘major growth engine’
Euromonitor said the Asia-Pacific has been the major growth engine of the packaged food industry over the last decade by adding over US$180 billion to the global market. This figure represents 48 per cent of the growth generated by the entire industry.
Unsurprisingly, China has been the primary source of this and many of its home-grown brands, such as Yili and Mengniu, have risen up the global brands list rapidly.
Next step, expansion?
Despite many of the Asian food brands entering the billionaire club, Euromonitor found that most were actually entirely dependent on revenue from a single market. The next step for these brands could be regional expansion, according to Euromonitor.
Many iconic food brands ‘losing their way’
On the other side of things, Euromonitor found that many brands that might be considered iconic were starting to “lose their way”.
Eponymous brands such as Campbell’s and Barilla are being switched out for more targeted brand names that focus on core categories and demographic groups. The rise of the yoghurt-focused Activia brand at the expense of Danone is clear evidence of that trend, according to Euromonitor.
Euromonitor suggested that, looking to the next half of the decade, other eponymous brands such as Kellogg’s, Heinz and Nestlé could be set to fall off consumers’ radars.
