The food manufacturing sector experienced mixed growth while online shopping businesses zoomed up the rankings, according to IBISWorld's Australia’s Top 1000 companies list for 2018.
The overview of Australia’s corporate landscape highlights the largest firms as well as growing and declining sectors and new businesses to watch in 2019.
While mining and retail companies took the top spots, the industry research company noted online shopping companies, as well as major tech companies, such as Facebook and Amazon, were among the notable entrants on the 2018 list.
The food product manufacturing sector experienced mixed growth in 2017-18, according to IBISWorld, with stronger performances coming from local dairy companies.
“a2 Milk Company benefitted from growing sales of a2 Platinum infant formula in Australia and China," IBISWorld senior industry analyst James Thomson said. "This has been a result of a rising health consciousness and growing incomes in the Asia region, which contributed to revenue growth of 68.1 per cent on the previous year.
“Bega delivered a strong result driven by an increase in the volume of milk processed," Thomson said. “Bega’s purchase of the Mondelez grocery business in 2016-17, which included the Vegemite brand, also supported the company’s performance in 2018.”
Several of Australia’s agricultural industries are expected to decline in 2017-18 as a result of harsh weather conditions, according to IBISWorld, with the grain, sugar and beef cattle farmers among the hardest hit.
“Following the harsh drought conditions, Australia’s crop growing industries recorded significant reductions in production volumes in 2017-18,” Thomson said.
“For example, grain and sugar crop production volumes have been heavily affected by drought conditions and this will negatively affect farmers in these industries. Lower production volumes have also had a negative impact on operators along the supply chain.”
Overall, the companies on IBISWorld’s 2018 Top 1000 list account for $2.22 trillion in revenue with over 75 per cent of the companies reporting higher revenue for the year.
