The Kellogg Company, doing business as Kellogg’s, is an American multinational food manufacturing company headquartered in Battle Creek, Michigan, United States. Kellogg’s produces cereal and convenience foods, including crackers and toaster pastries and markets their products by several well known brands including Corn Flakes, Frosted Flakes, Pringles, Eggo, and Cheez-It. Kellogg’s mission statement is “Nourishing families so they can flourish and thrive.”[2] Kellogg’s products are manufactured and marketed in over 180 countries.[3] Kellogg’s largest factory is at Trafford Park in Trafford, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom, which is also the location of its European headquarters.[4] Other corporate office locations outside of Battle Creek include Chicago, Dublin, Shanghai, and Querétaro City.[5] Kellogg’s holds a Royal Warrant from Queen Elizabeth II and the Prince of Wales.

Land O’Lakes, Inc. is a member-owned agricultural cooperative based in the Minneapolis-St. Paul suburb of Arden Hills, Minnesota, United States,[2] focusing on the dairy industry. The cooperative has 1,959 direct producer-members, 751 member-cooperatives, and about 10,000 employees who process and distribute products for about 300,000 agricultural producers;[3] handling 12 billion pounds of milk annually.[4] It is ranked third on the National Cooperative Bank Co-op 100 list of mutuals and cooperatives.[5] The co-op is one of the largest producers of butter and cheese in the United States through its dairy foods business; serves producers, animal owners and their families through more than 4,700 local cooperatives, independent dealers and other large retailers through its Purina Animal Nutrition business; and delivers seed, crop protection products, agricultural services and agronomic insights to 1,300 locally owned and operated cooperative and independent agricultural retailers and their grower customers through its WinField United business.

Mondel?z International, Inc. (/?mo?nd??li?z/),[3] is an American multinational confectionery, food, and beverage holding company based in Illinois which employs approximately 83,000 individuals around the world. It consists of the global snack and food brands of Kraft Foods Inc. after the October 2012 spin-off of its North American grocery-foods products. The Mondelez name, adopted in 2012, is a nonsense word that was suggested by Kraft Foods employees and is derived from the Latin word mundus (“world”) and delez, a fanciful modification of the word “delicious”.[4][5] The company, headquartered near Chicago, manufactures chocolate, cookies, biscuits, gum, confectionery, and powdered beverages. Mondelez International’s portfolio includes several billion-dollar brands such as Belvita, Chips Ahoy!, Nabisco, Oreo, Ritz, TUC, Triscuit, LU, Club Social, Barny and Peek Freans (cookies and crackers); Milka, Côte d’Or, Toblerone, Cadbury, Green & Black’s, Freia, Marabou, Fry’s, Lacta (chocolate), Trident, Dentyne, Chiclets, Halls, Stride (gum and cough drops), Tate’s Bake Shop and Tang (powdered beverages). The company has an annual revenue of about $26 billion and operates in approximately 160 countries.[6] The company ranked No. 117 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.[7] Mondelez Canada holds the rights to Christie Brown and Company, which consists of brands such as Mr. Christie and Dad’s Cookies. Its head office is in Mississauga, Ontario, with operations in Toronto, Hamilton, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec.

Panera Bread Company is an American chain store of bakery-café fast casual restaurants with over 2,000 locations, all of which are in the United States and Canada. Its headquarters are in Sunset Hills, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. The company operates as Saint Louis Bread Company in Greater St. Louis, where it has over 100 locations. Offerings include bakery items, pasta, salads, sandwiches, soups, and specialty drinks. The company, which also owns Au Bon Pain, is owned by JAB Holding Company, which is in turn owned by the Reimann family of Germany. Panera offers a wide array of pastries and baked goods, such as bagels, brownies, cookies, croissants, muffins, and scones. These, along with Panera’s artisan breads, are typically baked before dawn by an on-staff baker. Aside from the bakery section, Panera has a regular menu for dine-in or takeout including: flatbreads, panini, Panera Kids, pastas, salads, sandwiches, side choices, and soups, as well as coffee, espresso drinks, frozen drinks, fruit smoothies, hot chocolate, iced drinks, lattes, lemonade, and tea. During its final 20 years as a public company, from 1997 to 2017, it was the best performing restaurant stock, delivering an 86-fold return to shareholders. Panera was once the largest provider of free Wi-Fi hotspots in the United States. Many locations restrict the duration of free Wi-Fi to 30 or 60 minutes during peak hours.

Performance Food Group Company (PFG) (NASDAQ: PFGC) is an American company that was founded in 1885 in Richmond, Virginia by food peddler James Capers.[1] Headquartered in Goochland County, Virginia (just outside Richmond), the company distributes a range of food products, and has more than 14,000 employees.[2] It has three divisions, each catering to specific market segments: Performance Foodservice, Vistar, and PFG Customized.

Starbucks Corporation is an American coffee company and coffeehouse chain. Starbucks was founded in Seattle, Washington in 1971. As of early 2019, the company operates over 30,000[5] locations worldwide. Starbucks has been described as the main representative of “second wave coffee,” a retrospectively termed movement that popularized artisanal coffee, particularly darkly roasted coffee.[6][7] Since the 2000s, third wave coffee makers have targeted quality-minded coffee drinkers with hand-made coffee based on lighter roasts, while Starbucks nowadays uses automated espresso machines for efficiency and safety reasons.[6][8] Starbucks locations serve hot and cold drinks, whole-bean coffee, microground instant coffee known as VIA, espresso, caffe latte, full- and loose-leaf teas including Teavana tea products,[9] Evolution Fresh juices, Frappuccino beverages, La Boulange pastries, and snacks including items such as chips and crackers; some offerings (including their annual fall launch of the Pumpkin Spice Latte) are seasonal or specific to the locality of the store. Many stores sell pre-packaged food items, hot and cold sandwiches, and drinkware including mugs and tumblers; select “Starbucks Evenings” locations offer beer, wine, and appetizers.[10] Starbucks-brand coffee, ice cream, and bottled cold coffee drinks are also sold at grocery stores. Starbucks first became profitable in Seattle in the early 1980s.[11] Despite an initial economic downturn with its expansion into the Midwest and British Columbia in the late 1980s,[12] the company experienced revitalized prosperity with its entry into California in the early 1990s.[13] The first Starbucks location outside North America opened in Tokyo in 1996; overseas properties now constitute almost one-third of its stores.[14] The company opened an average of two new locations daily between 1987 and 2007.[15] On December 1, 2016, Howard Schultz announced he would resign as CEO effective April 2017 and would be replaced by Kevin Johnson. Johnson assumed the role of CEO on April 3, 2017,[16] and Howard Schultz retired to become Chairman Emeritus effective June 26, 2018.

Sysco Corporation (an acronym for Systems and Services Company) is an American multinational corporation involved in marketing and distributing food products, smallwares, kitchen equipment and tabletop items to restaurants, healthcare and educational facilities, hospitality businesses like hotels and inns, and wholesale to other companies that provide foodservice (like Aramark and Sodexo). The company is headquartered in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas.[2] Sysco, an acronym for Systems and Services Company, is the world’s largest broadline food distributor; it has more than 600,000 clients in a wide array of fields. Management consulting is also an integral part of their services. The company operates approximately 330 distribution facilities worldwide; providing service to over 90 countries. The company was founded by Herbert Irving, John F. Baugh and Harry Rosenthal in 1969.[3] The company became public on March 3, 1970. On July 20, 2009, Fortune magazine ranked Sysco No. 204 in the annual Fortune 500 companies in world based on sales volume. On May 3, 2010, Fortune ranked Sysco as the 7th largest Fortune 500 Company in Texas and 55th largest in the U.S. by total revenue.[4] Sysco is also the largest non-oil related company in Houston and the third largest non-tech related company in Texas (behind AT&T and Dell).[4] The company ranked No. 54 in the 2018 Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.[5] In December 2013, Sysco announced an $8.2 billion planned acquisition of its next-largest food distribution rival, US Foods.[6] The Federal Trade Commission challenged the acquisition as a violation of the Clayton Antitrust Act that would substantially lessen competition. The court ruled that the combined company would likely reduce competition because it would control 75% of the U.S. food service industry, Sysco terminated its merger with US Foods.

TreeHouse Foods Inc. — located in Oak Brook, IL—is a multinational food processing company specializing in producing private label packaged foods.[2][3][4] Created in 2005[5] and consisting entirely of acquisitions,[5] in 2010 the company had sales of $2 billion[5] and employed over 4,000 people at 20 facilities.[5] Food Processing magazine named them their 2010 Processor of the Year,[5] calling them “the biggest company you never heard of.”[5][6] The company is a component of the S&P 400[7] and in 2015 was the 37th-largest food and beverage company in North America.[8] In 2018, TreeHouse Foods was ranked #446 on the Fortune 500 list.

US Foods (formerly known as U.S. Foodservice) is an American foodservice distributor. With approximately $24 billion in annual revenue,[4] US Foods was the 10th largest private company in America until its IPO. Many of the entities that make up US Foods were founded in the 19th century, including one that sold provisions to travelers heading west during the 1850s gold rush. The company used the name U.S. Foodservice until 1993. US Foods offers more than 350,000 national brand products and its own “exclusive brand” items, ranging from fresh meats and produce to prepackaged and frozen foods. The company employs approximately 25,200 people in more than 60 locations nationwide, and provides food and related products to more than 250,000 customers, including independent and multi-unit restaurants, healthcare and hospitality entities, government and educational institutions. The company is headquartered in Rosemont, Illinois, and is a publicly held company trading under the ticker symbol USFD on the New York Stock Exchange.[5] On 9th December, 2013, Sysco Corp announced it would buy US Foods for $8.2 billion ($3.5 billion plus $4.7 billion of debt),[6] but in June 24, 2015, US Federal Judge Amit Mehta ruled that the combined Sysco-US Foods would control 75% of the U.S. foodservice industry and that will stifle competition. On June 29, 2015, Sysco terminated its merger with US Foods.

Yum China Holdings Inc. (Chinese: ????) is an American Fortune 500 fast-food restaurant company incorporated in the United States and is headquartered in Shanghai, China. With US $6.8 billion of revenue in 2016 and over 7,600 restaurants, it is one of the largest restaurant companies in China. Spun off from Yum! Brands in 2016, it became an independent, publicly traded company on November 1, 2016. It operates 8,484 restaurants in over 1,100 cities and towns located in every province and autonomous region in Mainland China, and has a workforce of 450,000 employees.