Land of the giants

The fight for survival rages on in food & drink. And this year’s OC&C Top 150 reveals that the UK’s biggest manufacturers are standing tall.

Food and drink in 2010 was not a place for the faint-hearted. The high hopes for economic recovery faded as consumer confidence remained low and the banks held tightly on to their purse strings, lending far less than many said was needed to rekindle the good times. In the wake of the global recession the war for shoppers’ diminishing weekly grocery budgets raged on.

Yet for Britain’s 150 biggest food and drink suppliers, the fact that turnover grew by just 4.5% in 2010 – the lowest figure for seven years and a sharp fall from the 7.7% growth recorded the previous year – can in hindsight be seen as a time affording the industry some breathing space.