news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

On August 5, the 2024 Fortune Global 500 rankings were officially announced, with Walmart still at the top. After sorting out and interviewing, Yicai reporters learned that retail, food and catering companies have a place on the list, but the rankings of each company have risen and fallen. Although many companies have been on the list for many years, with the intensification of market competition, the business pressure is not small.

The total operating revenue of the Fortune Global 500 companies this year is about 41 trillion US dollars, equivalent to one-third of the global GDP, a slight increase of about 0.1% over last year. The total net profit of all listed companies increased by 2.3% year-on-year to about 2.97 trillion US dollars.

Membership stores become a bright spot for retailers

For many years, the ranking of retail giant Walmart has been very stable and has always been in the first place. In fiscal year 2024, Walmart's total revenue was US$648.125 billion, a year-on-year increase of 6%; net sales were US$642.637 billion, a year-on-year increase of 6.1%; net profit was US$15.511 billion, a year-on-year increase of 32.8%. Consolidated net sales in the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 are expected to increase by 4% to 5% year-on-year, and consolidated revenue is expected to increase by 3% to 4.5% year-on-year. Consolidated net sales for the full year of fiscal year 2025 are expected to increase by 3% to 4% year-on-year, and consolidated revenue is expected to increase by 4% to 6% year-on-year.

The First Financial reporter learned that Walmart's business performance in the Chinese market is good due to the implementation of relatively high-profit business formats such as membership stores. Although the overall hypermarket market has declined, the increase in membership stores has ensured Walmart's performance in China. Walmart is also actively deploying membership stores in the Chinese market, and has even converted some hypermarkets into membership stores to gain more profits.

In addition, COSTCO, Carrefour and TESCO ranked 20th, 122nd and 140th respectively. It is worth noting that COSTCO is a retailer that focuses on membership stores. Currently, the brand is also accelerating its expansion in the Chinese market. The gas station store opened in Nanjing not long ago attracted a wave of customers. Carrefour and TESCO have gradually faded out of the Chinese market for various reasons, but judging from their rankings, their business in other global markets is still active.

The ranking of top foreign-funded food and catering companies has risen

The reporter from China Business News noticed that although 2023 brought new challenges to most food and beverage companies, the rankings of leading companies such as Nestlé, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser continued to grow, but the rankings of domestic companies such as COFCO and New Hope Holdings declined.

In terms of ranking, Nestlé Group (US$103.51 billion) ranked 96th, up 10 places from 106th last year; PepsiCo (US$91.47 billion) ranked 123rd, up 12 places from last year; Anheuser-Busch InBev (US$59.38 billion) ranked 231st, up 10 places; Coca-Cola (US$45.75 billion) ranked 332nd, up 12 places; the fastest rising company was Mondelez International (US$36.02 billion), up 55 places from 487th last year to 422nd; Heineken (US$32.82 billion), which was newly listed, ranked 487th.

According to the list, coffee chain Starbucks ranks 424th, jumping 49 places from 2023. Starbucks' operating income in 2024 is US$35.976 billion, compared with US$32.250 billion in 2023; net profit also increased from US$3.281 billion in 2023 to US$4.124 billion in 2024.

Although Starbucks' ranking on the list has risen sharply, judging from the latest quarterly financial report, Starbucks faces considerable pressure in the global market. On July 31, Starbucks released its third-quarter performance report. In the third quarter, the company's net income fell 1% year-on-year to US$9.11 billion, and the net profit attributable to the company was US$1.055 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 7.6%. Fortunately, in the third quarter, Starbucks' store transaction volume, weekly sales and overall operating profit margins further increased month-on-month. Regarding the decline in net income, Starbucks stated in its financial report that this was mainly due to the decline in global same-store sales and unfavorable foreign exchange fluctuations.

In contrast, the rankings of domestic companies on the list have declined to varying degrees. COFCO Group (US$97.77 billion) ranked 106th, down 19 places from the previous year, and New Hope Holdings (US$39.99 billion) ranked 378th, down 15 places from the previous year. No other well-known domestic food and beverage companies are on the list.

The reporter noted that although international food and beverage brands have also faced the problem of more cautious consumers since 2023, the Chinese consumer goods market has entered a highly "involutionary" state since 2023, which has had a more obvious impact on domestic companies that mainly focus on the Chinese market. For example, the growth rates of consumer brands under COFCO Group, including Mengniu Dairy, Great Wall Wine, Fortune, Jiugui Liquor, and COFCO Cola, have all fallen to varying degrees compared with previous years.

Most international food companies are international companies, so they are relatively less affected. Take Nestlé Group as an example. In 2023, Nestlé achieved revenue of 93 billion Swiss francs, a year-on-year increase of 7.2%. In terms of revenue contribution, the Chinese market revenue was 50.4 Swiss francs, a year-on-year increase of 4.2%, accounting for about 5.4% of Nestlé's total revenue, while North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania, and Latin America accounted for 28%, 20.5%, 18.8% and 13.1% respectively.

Zhu Danpeng, vice president of the Guangdong Food Safety Promotion Association, told the First Financial News that most Chinese food and beverage companies focus on the Chinese market and neighboring countries, which is quite different from the global layout of international food and beverage giants. Therefore, when the domestic market encounters market fluctuations, the performance fluctuations of domestic food and beverage companies will be more obvious. In recent years, foreign-funded food and beverage companies have also been faster in innovation, upgrading and iteration based on an international perspective than domestic companies.

In Zhu Danpeng's view, the domestic food and beverage industry has a relatively short development history, and the domestic market capacity is huge. In addition, it has also faced a series of challenges in food safety supervision in the past few years, which has led to the slow progress of domestic food and beverage companies going overseas. At present, with the rapid development of domestic food and beverage brands and the growth of China's overseas influence, it has also brought new opportunities for Chinese brands to go overseas. For example, the progress of new tea drinks going overseas has exceeded market expectations, but most domestic food and beverage companies have just started to go overseas, and it will take time.

28Chinese energy and chemical companies were listed

According to statistics from the First Financial Daily, a total of 28 Chinese energy and chemical companies made the list this year. Among them, State Grid, Sinopec, and PetroChina ranked in the top ten of the Fortune 500 and the top three Chinese companies on the list with operating revenues of US$545.948 billion, US$429.7 billion, and US$421.714 billion respectively.

Yicai noted that this year's entry threshold (minimum sales revenue) increased from US$30.9 billion to US$32.1 billion. The total net profit of all listed companies increased by 2.3% year-on-year to approximately US$2.97 trillion. In addition to the total profit of the 500 companies being slightly lower than that of the companies on the list in the previous year (2022), other indicators such as total assets, total net assets, and total number of employees have reached the highest peak since the establishment of the Fortune Global 500 list.

In terms of electricity, State Grid ranked third for the third consecutive year, ranking first among Chinese companies; China Southern Power Grid ranked 78th, up 5 places from the previous year. Among the five major power generation groups, only State Power Investment Corporation rose in ranking, up 6 places from last year to 256th. China National Energy Group dropped 8 places to 84th, Huaneng Group dropped 29 places to 238th, Huadian Group dropped 13 places to 336th, and Datang Group dropped 20 places to 418th.

In terms of new energy, Tongwei Group moved up 9 places to 467th this year after making its debut on the list last year and becoming the world's first photovoltaic company on the Fortune Global 500.

At present, Tongwei Group's annual production capacity of high-purity silicon is 650,000 tons, and its production and sales volume ranks first in the world; its solar cell production capacity is 95GW, and it has ranked first in the world in cell shipments for seven consecutive years; its photovoltaic module production capacity is 75GW, and its shipments in 2023 will rank among the top five in the world.

In 2023, my country's new photovoltaic installed capacity will be about 216GW, a year-on-year increase of 147%; the output value of photovoltaic manufacturing will exceed 1.5 trillion yuan; and the exports of the "new three" products of electric vehicles, photovoltaic products, and lithium batteries will exceed the trillion yuan mark for the first time.