Deloitte recently unveiled its fourth annual global powers of the consumer products industry 2011 report.
It lists the top 250 consumer companies by global sales in 2009, which encompasses year-ends through 30 June 2010.
Companies from the Middle East and Africa are also included in the list.
The report said 60 percent of the companies suffered from falling sales in the most recent financial year.
As a group, the top 250 consumer products companies saw a composite sales decline of 1.2 percent in fiscal year 2009.
While the rate of decline slowed or even reversed for some companies in the fourth quarter, 149 companies in the Top 250 experienced negative sales growth for the year as a whole.
According to the report, companies headquartered in North America had the highest profit margin at 9.4 percent, followed by those in the Middle East and Africa (7.9 percent) and Europe (7.2 percent).
However, North American companies also suffered the sharpest drop in sales, reporting negative growth of -3.2 percent.
Latin America was the only region in which companies reported positive sales growth.
In this region, sales surged by 16.3 percent and the eight companies headquartered there had a net profit margin of 5 percent.
Firas Eid, consulting Partner at Deloitte in the Middle East, said: “While the operating environment for consumer products companies remained harsh throughout the last financial year and had a dramatic impact on top line sales, the Middle East region was resilient and companies tended to perform better than their counterparts in the developed world.”
With 70 million new consumers projected to enter the global middle class each year, a majority being from emerging markets including the Middle East, countries within the developing world represent the largest opportunity for growth but meeting the lifestyle needs of these new consumers will require radical innovation in delivering the right products at price points that are typically well below the equivalent products in the developed world.
