Two-thousand eight was a successful year for leading consumer goods companies despite the world wide recession: They managed to achieve a sales growth of 13.3 percent, of which 6.7 percent was organic.

The economic crisis and global inflation of raw material prices, however, effected a fall in operating margin by 1.4 percentage points from 17.4 percent.
Results of OC&C’s annual review of the top 50 global FMCG companies reveal that winning companies have reacted to the crisis by implementing seven fundamental strategies:

• Lowering costs and tightening processes
• Reducing spend on marketing and advertising
• Reacting to the increased price sensitivity of the consumers
• Using the opportunity to expand the core business through purchases
• Continuing to operate internationally
• Innovating and capitalising on the mega trend of “health awareness“
• Taking advantage of new media and direct consumer communication

Especially interesting is the question of who can take advantage of this weak phase in order to expand market share and strategic strengths. Our industry analysis is designed to give new strategic perspectives and serve as a compass in the competitive environment.

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