Britain's Most Admired By Sector: Food producers and processors
Unilever rises to third place overall with another win in this category.
1 Unilever 70.3
2 Cadbury* 63.6
3 Associated British Foods 58.8
4 Tate & Lyle 53.2
5 Greencore (UK) 49.9
It's the same three companies in the top positions this year, although overall, Unilever has leapt from 14th to third. CEO Patrick Cescau soon retires, to be replaced by former Nestle high-flier Paul Polman, the first CEO ever from outside the group. Unilever's challenges for 2009 are to halt the loss of market share to private labels in Europe and to keep growing sales in emerging markets. A big year, too, for Cadbury Schweppes, which demerged and dual-listed in New York. Associated British Foods jumps to reach 66th overall. Its discount clothing chain Primark is doing well out of cash-strapped shoppers with like-for-like sales up 4% and profit up 17%.
