Major packaged-food companies lost $4 billion in market share alone last year, as shoppers swerved to fresh and organic alternatives. Can the supermarket giants win you back?<\/p>\n
Try this simple test. Say the following out loud: Artificial colors and flavors. Pesticides. Preservatives. High-fructose corn syrup. Growth hormones. Antibiotics. Gluten. Genetically modified organisms.<\/p>\n
If any one of these terms raised a hair on the back of your neck, left a sour taste in your mouth, or made your lips purse with disdain, you are part of Big Food\u2019s multibillion-dollar problem. In fact, you may even belong to a growing consumer class that has some of the world\u2019s biggest and best-known companies scrambling to change their businesses.<\/p>\n
Lest you think this is hyperbole, consider the commentary in February at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York conference, the packaged-goods industry\u2019s premier annual gathering.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look at our business and say, \u2018How can we remake ourselves?\u2019 \u201d said Richard Smucker, CEO of his family\u2019s namesake jelly giant. A second exec\u2014this one at ConAgra, which owns 29 food brands that bring in $100 million in annual retail sales apiece\u2014bemoaned to Credit Suisse analyst Robert Moskow that \u201cbig\u201d had become \u201cbad.\u201d A third conveyed what her industry feared would be the largest casualty of the public\u2019s \u201cmounting distrust of Big Food\u201d\u2014that shoppers would turn away from them for good. \u201cWe understand that increasing numbers of consumers are seeking authentic, genuine food experiences,\u201d said Campbell Soup Co. CEO Denise Morrison, \u201cand we know that they are skeptical of the ability of large, long-established food companies to deliver them.\u201d<\/p>\n
And here\u2019s one number to capture that skepticism: An analysis by Moskow found that the top 25 U.S. food and beverage companies have lost an equivalent of $18 billion in market share since 2009. \u201cI would think of them like melting icebergs,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery year they become a little less relevant.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir existence is being challenged,\u201d says Edward Jones analyst Jack Russo of the major packaged-food companies. In some ways it\u2019s a strange turn of events. The idea of \u201cprocessing\u201d\u2014from ancient techniques of salting and curing to the modern arsenal of artificial preservatives\u2014arose to make sure the food we ate didn\u2019t make us sick. Today many fear that it\u2019s the processed food itself that\u2019s making us unhealthy. Indeed, nearly half of the respondents in a recent Bernstein survey say they distrust the food system. Shoppers still value the convenience that food processing offers, says Moskow, \u201cbut the pendulum has definitely shifted in their minds. They have more and more questions about why this bread lasts 25 days without going stale.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Major packaged-food companies lost $4 billion in market share alone last year, as shoppers swerved to fresh and organic alternatives. Can the supermarket giants win you back?<\/p>\n
Try this simple test. Say the following out loud: Artificial colors and flavors. Pesticides. Preservatives. High-fructose corn syrup. Growth hormones. Antibiotics. Gluten. Genetically modified organisms.<\/p>\n
If any one of these terms raised a hair on the back of your neck, left a sour taste in your mouth, or made your lips purse with disdain, you are part of Big Food\u2019s multibillion-dollar problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44242,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[6,8],"organicbytes":[],"countries":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n