Dive Brief:
- Forbes has published its annual list of America's largest privately held companies, and the food and beverage industry is well represented.
- Among the companies in the Top 20 are agribusiness giant Cargill; candy company Mars; beer-distribution powerhouse Reyes Holdings; supplier C&S Wholesale Grocers; and foodservice and catering giant US Foods.
- Rival foodservice company Aramark also made the 2013 list. But the company is returning to the public markets.
- A surprisingly large number of food retailers also make the list. There are three convenience store chains (Cumberland Farms, Pilot Flying J and Love's Travel Stops) and three giant retail chains (HEB, Meijer and Publix) in the top 20.
Dive Insight:
We enjoy the Forbes list as much as anyone. Perhaps more so. There's something strangely satisfying about looking through the names of the companies and noticing trends. This year, for example, we were surprised to note the three convenience store chains on the list. In fact, when we looked deeper at Forbes' numbers we noted there are 11 c-store chains among the 101 largest private companies. That would suggest a lot of people are eating, drinking and filling their cars with gasoline and groceries at those roadside shops these days -- all part of the red state, blue state split in food that we've noted before.