• by October 31, 2001

Only 43 consumer product brands ring up annual sales of more than $1 billion each and can be considered truly global, according to a study released today by ACNielsen, the consumer behavior and marketing information company.

The study's findings are based on ACNielsen data from 30 countries in North America, Europe-Middle East-Africa, Asia Pacific and Latin America. Together, the countries account for 90% of the world's Gross Domestic Product.

The category with the most billion-dollar brands was beverages, with 13 brands making the final list. The total Coca-Cola brand was number one among beverages at well over $15 billion in sales, with its two sub-brands, Coca-Cola and Diet Coke, being billion dollar brands in their own right. Pepsi Cola and its associated sub-brands, Pepsi and Diet Pepsi (including Pepsi Light, Pepsi Max and Pepsi One), ranked as the number two beverage.

There were three snack foods that registered over a billion dollars in global sales (Doritos, Lay's and Pringles) and four tobacco brands that had a significant global presence and met the billion-dollar criteria (Benson & Hedges, Camel, L&M and Marlboro).

In terms of sales growth, the annual average rate across the 43 brands was less than 10%, but 8 of the 43 brands experienced double-digit growth in the most recent year. Growth across categories showed little consistency.

There were 23 manufacturers of these 43 billion-dollar brands. Eight of the 23 companies had more than one brand on the list. Pepisco had the most brands with six. The Philip Morris Companies (including Kraft Foods) and Procter & Gamble each had five brands. The Coca-Cola Company came in at four, with Kimberly-Clark Corporation, The Gillette Company, Mars and Nestle with two brands each. The 43 brands reported in the study accounted for more than $125 billion in sales. Nearly three-quarters of these sales were attributable to the eight manufacturers with multiple brands on the list.