2 - Leading Firms – The Historical Legacy

Summary

Leading firms since 1960

I am looking at seventy-five firms, twenty-one from North America, seventeen from the United Kingdom, twenty-one from Continental Europe, six each from Asia and South America, three from Australia and New Zealand, and one from Africa. Several of these firms have ranked among the largest industrial enterprises in the world at different times. For instance, between 2001 and 2004, there were three alcoholic beverage multinationals – Allied Domecq (Allied), Diageo, and Anheuser-Busch – among the top eight multinationals in food and drinks industries, ranked according to total shareholders return.

Table 2.1 provides a list of the world's leading multinationals in alcoholic beverages by 2005, their predecessors, and the firms merged and acquired at six benchmark dates. In addition, it provides information about the dates of foundation or last merger of these firms, the year they were dissolved, merged, or acquired, their country of origin, and their sales volume stated in millions of U.S. dollars.

In 1960, 70 percent of the sales generated by the world's leading alcoholic beverages firms were from North America, 23 percent from the United Kingdom, and 7 percent from other parts of the world. As Figure 2.1 shows, however, over time there was a decline in the importance of North American firms and an increase in the importance of firms from the United Kingdom, continental Europe, and the rest of the world.