Boston Consulting/IRI Study: TalkingRain Tops Small Companies in 2012

A new study by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Information Resources, Inc, (IRI) lists TalkingRain as the top performer among small companies ($100 million to $1 billion in retail sales) in 2012. The study, which analyzed 400 CPG manufacturers with annual revenues of at least $100 million, compared public and private CPG companies through dollar sales growth, volume sales growth and market share gains.

TalkingRain, which produces the fast-growing Sparkling ICE line and jumped from $10 million in sales to $100 million in fewer than 18 months, led all small companies in 2012, regardless of the industry, with a 283.3 percent dollar sales change and a 255.8 percent volume sales change. The growth resulted in a +0.9 share point change and contributed to one of the most striking findings of the study: since 2009, approximately $10 billion in industry sales has shifted away from larger companies to smaller players like TalkingRain.

“Small and midsize manufacturers are in a unique position to strengthen relationships with their retail customers as they drive growth in many categories,” Dr. Krishnakumar Davey, managing director at IRI Consulting, said in a release. “They are expected to garner greater attention from retailers through increased shelf space and merchandising activity.”

The Coca-Cola Company, which announced last November its five-year investment of $1.3 billion in Chile from 2012 to 2016, was noted as the fourth-best performing large company (more than $5 billion in retail sales), and the best performer in the beverage industry, logging a 1.4 percent increase in dollar sales, a 0.3 percent increase in volume sales and a +0.1 share point change.

Starbucks, which recently acquired Teavana Holdings, Inc. for approximately $620 million, placed third among midsize companies ($1 billion to $5 billion in retail sales) from all industries and first in the beverage industry by logging a 46 percent increase in dollar sales, a 25.4 percent increase in volume sales and +1.9 share point change.

Monster followed Starbucks with a 20.7 percent increase in dollar sales, a 21.2 percent increase in volume sales and a +1.8 share point change. Behind Monster was Red Bull, which successfully executed Felix Baumgartner’s jump from the stratosphere toward Earth. Red Bull placed fifth among all midsize companies with a 15.9 percent increase of dollar sales, a 16.6 percent increase of volumes sales and a +0.5 share point change.

“Companies are winning in various ways—through superior execution of their base businesses, innovation, and better management of price-volume tradeoffs,” Jeff Gell, a Chicago-based senior partner of BCG, said in a release.