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Roundup: So Many Brands Owned By So Few
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This image was shared on Reddit this past week and it shows how many brands are owned by a small number of holding companies. If you were like me, you probably intuitively understood that many brands are owned by other companies but the extent that it happens is pretty stark. This covers only consumer goods and doesn’t even include several other large companies, like UK giant Reckitt Benkiser Group – they own French’s, Clearsil, Lysol, Trojan and many other huge names.
What’s fun is how the brands are organized, you can sort of go around in a circle and match up similar items. You start with all the P&G cleaning products, go counter clockwise towards Johnson and Johnson and Unilever for personal hygiene products. Move upwards towards food and candies with Mars, Kellogg’s and General Mills. Continue onward into beverages in Pepsi and Coca-Cola, and then Kraft and Nestle owned solid foods. Nestle helps us bridge the gap by also owning some makeup and personal hygiene products. Fun huh?
Onto this week’s gems:
- How do you invest when your portfolio has to last forever? Ask the folks who manage the Nobel Foundation, entrusted with a sum that they needed to keep alive while paying out awards each year.
- Finding missing money and forgotten stock usually results with slim returns, unless you’re this lucky man.
- A word of warning if you had any forgiven debt, including forgiven mortgage debt, you will likely be liable for that forgiveness on your taxes. Forgiven debt is taxed as ordinary income and reported on a Form 1099-C.
- Want to get out of your lease? Money Crashers shares a few ideas on how to get out of your lease agreement without penalty.
Have a fantastic weekend!
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 By Jim |
 Stumble It! Bookmark reddit.comTags: Apr 27, 2012 | Read more in Personal Finance |
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That is a great info graphic Jim. Like you said we all kinda know this is true but when you group it together like that its kind of shocking.
Hmm. Never knew Yum! was part of Pepsico. Interesting.
It’s not. According to the graphic, Yum! was spun off into it’s own company. This was probably 15 years ago, so its inclusion here is a little misleading.
Also, I think a lot of these brands have distribution relationships with the companies listed, rather than being owned by them.
And it seems that brands are shed and acquired by companies/holding companies all the time. So this graphic maybe true today, will it be in a year? 2 years?
In the early to mid ’80′s I worked as a Field Adjuster for a Company that Insured many of this Countries’ largest companies or handled their Self-Insured Claims. Often I would get product liability claims that were a result of a lawsuit and therefore 2-3 years old from the date of incident. Being that this was the period of our last Major Recession, had great fun tracking down ownerships and principals that had involvement, as many companies/brands had changed hands several times. Few months ago came across a box with some paperwork from some of the Holding Companies, a little Googling showed that the Holding Companies no longer exist or are just a mere shadow of themselves.
The Insurance Company I worked for at the time, which was one of the oldest and largest in the US and Internationally, no longer exists, having merged with another. And that Company spinned itself off to another.
I dont believe this graph! How is it that A&W is owned by KRAFT and PEPSI?
And Wrigleys isnt owned by Kellogs, Warren Buffet bought this division under Berkshire hathaway awhile ago.
Interesting graph. I think most people don’t realize how few companies actually manage most of the products and services we use.
At least we have Pepsi and Coke as major competitors because there’s not much else.
Looks like those are good companies to be investing in because they are well-diversified!
I work for LVMH and they own almost anything worth owning in the fashion/jewelry area.. even alcohol like Moet, Hennessey, Chopin Vodka and Belvedere Vodka…