Coke is it -- it being the world's #1 soft-drink company. The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) owns four of the top five soft-drink brands (Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Fanta, and Sprite). Its other brands include Minute Maid, Powerade, and Dasani water. In North America it sells Groupe Danone's Evian; it also sells brands from Dr Pepper Snapple Group (Crush, Dr Pepper, and Schweppes) outside Australia, Europe, and North America. The firm makes or licenses more than 3,000 drinks under 500 brand names in some 200 nations. Although it does no bottling itself, Coke owns 34% of the world's #1 Coke bottler Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE); 32% of Mexico's bottler Coca-Cola FEMSA; and 23% of European bottler Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling.

A cooperative that controls 14 separate Italian wine companies, Gruppo Italiano Vini is a big player among the many venerable European wine makers. Its brand names include Folonari, and Melini; it also offers Bigi, Ca'Bianca, Calissano, Conti Serristori, Lamberti, Machiavelli, Santi, and Vino Negri wines. Gruppo Italiano Vini also distributes its wines in the US and France. In 2008 the company acquired the Bola and Fontana Candida wine operations from Brown-Forman. One of the most productive wine makers in Italy, Gruppo Italiano Vini actually makes almost 70% of its revenue outside the country. Germany contributes the largest chunk of revenue (19%), followed by England and the US (both about 13%).

French champagne producer Laurent-Perrier toasts its place as one of the world's largest champagne producers. The company's middle market to high-end bubbly, incuding lables such as Laurent-Perrier, Champagne de Castellane, Salon, Delamotte, Jeanmaire, Oudinot, and Beaumet, is distributed primarily by controlled company channels in more than 120 countries through direct sales to restaurants, retailers, bars, and hotels. The company concentrates on sales in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, the UK, and the US. Founded in 1812, Laurent-Perrier went public in 1999 by selling a little more than one-quarter of the company's shares. The de Nonancourt family controls the company.

Fleury Michon provides a full menu. The company offers processed meats, ready-made meals, and other convenience food products for the supermarket and the foodservice sectors. In addition to hams, poultry, roasts, and charcuterie (deli meats), it also makes surimi (imitation crab). Fleury operates the Graine d'App�tit chain of restaurants and vending kiosks. France accounts for most of the company's sales but it also sells ready-meals in Canada, Italy, Spain, and the US. Star chef and company culinary advisor, Jo�l Robuchon, develops many Fleury Michon recipes. While publicly traded since 2000, the majority of Fleury Michon stock is held by chairman Yves Gonnord.

World Variety Produce was founded in 1984 by president Joe Hernandez. World Variety Produce, which does business under the brand Melissa's/World Variety Produce, is a leading importer and distributor of specialty produce from around the world that offers more than 800 varieties of exotic fresh and dried fruits and vegetables. It supplies produce to grocers, supermarkets, and other retailers, as well as foodservice operators. World Variety Produce also sells products to consumers through its Web site. In addition to fresh produce, the company markets condiments, sauces, soy products, and specialty ingredients used in Latin and Asian cooking.

All those University of Wisconsin sports fans have a place to buy meat. Badgerland Meat and Provisions stores, wholesales, and distributes beef, pork, and poultry products in its home state, as well as parts of Illinois and Michigan. It sells to grocery chains, meat markets, restaurants and warehouses stores. The company gets its meat from producers such as American Foods, Excel, Farmland Foods, Gold Kist, and Iowa Turkey. Badgerland also operates a case-ready business for which the company cuts, packs, and distributes more than 300,000 pounds of pre-packaged and pre-priced pork products every week.

Marlow Foods will sell you a fungus-based protein deftly seasoned to taste like chicken, or any other meat your taste buds might enjoy. Marlow Foods has given our brave new world Quorn, a meat substitute that is made not with the usual suspects (soy or grain), but from a mycoprotein similar to mushrooms. Frozen Quorn-brand products include nuggets, patties, cutlets, entrees, and even "Quorn dogs." Marlow Foods company manufactures its products at two facilities in the UK. Quorn is a top-selling meat substitute in the UK and Europe, and it's a leading poultry-alternative in the US, where it is sold through natural-food retailers and mass market grocers. Marlow Foods is a subsidiary of Premier Foods.

Fresh Del Monte Produce expects to be squeezed and sniffed. Sniff and squeeze away -- the success of the company's Del Monte Gold Extra Sweet-branded pineapples have made it one of the world's largest fresh pineapple producers and marketers; it is also one of the world's top banana producers, and offers a full array of vegetables and other fruits. Fresh Del Monte's brand names include Del Monte, Rosy, and UTC. Its prepared and fresh-cut foods include potato salad, cole slaw, bagged sliced products, and fruit juices and fruit drinks; it also makes industrial fruit products (purees, pulps, and concentrates) for food manufacturing companies. Fresh Del Monte sells its fruit and vegetables in more than 90 countries.

JBS Five Rivers Ranch Cattle Feeding hopes to milk a profit from fattening up cows for market. One of the largest cattle feeding businesses in the US, the company operates with a capacity to feed more than 800,000 head of cattle. Five Rivers operates approximately about 10 feedlots located in Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. The company, which takes care of the health and nutrition of the steer, also offers feed financing and marketing services for its customers. Five Rivers is owned by the giant Brazilian beef processor, JBS.

Mention "Sara Lee" and everyone thinks cheesecake, but the North American Retail segment of Sara Lee Corporation can fill your tummy in other ways too. In addition to its frozen cakes, pies, and cheesecakes, the subsidiary manufactures packaged deli meats and cheeses and frozen baked goods. It has a plate full of sausage brands (Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farms) and a string of hot dog and lunch meat brands (Ball Park, State Fair), making it a major US meat processor. Its bakery brands include its famous frozen cheesecake. Sara Lee North American Retail also offers the one-cup, at-home brewing system, Senseo.

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