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Clorox is Most Competitive Consumer Goods Company and Publix is Most Competitive Retailer in 2008, According to wRatings Annual Study Sponsored by SAP
Coach, Family Dollar and Staples among the Most Competitive Retailers; Coca-Cola and Wrigley among the Most Competitive CG Companies. Companies overall are better meeting consumer expectations in 2008 than in 2007, yet pricing power is difficult to find.
HERNDON, Va., Jul 15, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The wRatings Corporation, an independent competitive research
firm, announced today the results of the annual Most Competitive
Retail & Consumer Goods Study, which was sponsored by SAP AG
(NYSE:SAP), the world's leading provider of business software*. In the
report, Clorox (NYSE:CLX) rises from #14 in 2007 to #1 in 2008 with a
W Score(TM) of 96.1. Publix, an employee-owned company, is the #1
retailer with a W Score of 92.0. A W Score of 100 means the business
built the highest consumer and economic advantages when compared with
the 540+ companies in the wRatings national coverage.
Being strong on both the consumer and financial fronts, highly
competitive companies are most likely to withstand the economic
downturn. For example, Clorox so far has successfully passed on rising
commodity costs to consumers because consumers value their stability
and usability over rival products. At Publix, consumers prefer
shopping at the grocery store because of their superior customer
service, something supercenters and warehouse clubs typically lack. No
doubt that an employee-owned company helps motivate Publix staff.
"The good news is that across every category in Retail & Consumer
Goods, companies are better meeting consumer expectations in 2008 than
in 2007," said Gary A. Williams, CEO & founder of wRatings. "But the
economic slowdown has impacted consumer's willingness to pay more for
those improvements. The bright spot is a return to 'small indulgences'
where consumers will pay for premium coffee, high-grade cosmetics and
affordable, quality apparel. Today's consumer still wants to feel good
and look good, even though they can't spend like before."
In addition, companies with the greatest competitive strengths in
2008 and beyond are flexing their muscles well beyond their
boundaries. "In today's highly competitive market, we are seeing
consumer products and retail companies collaborating much more
strategically with each other to deeply understand end consumers,"
said Amit Sinha, vice president of Portfolio Marketing at SAP. "We
believe that IT can help companies collaborate on consumer insights
for faster innovation and coordinate their business processes for
maximum efficiency. As shown by this report, industry leaders are
leveraging their business networks for competitive advantage through
faster innovation and more responsive demand and supply chains."
The Most Competitive report series from wRatings identifies the
best performing companies through a patented method that blends
financial and consumer data. To arrive at the rankings, wRatings ask
consumers how well companies meet their expectations every quarter.
The 2008 Retail & Consumer Goods ratings are based on Q1-2008 data.
Specifically, wRatings measures a company's ability to generate
sustainable economic profit through competitive moats, or barriers to
entry, as rated by consumers. Each W Score blends a company's
historical economic profit with its forward-looking ability to meet
consumer expectations.
Stock guru Warren Buffett doesn't invest in a company without a
moat to protect its profits. The wRatings approach identifies nine
moats that create a durable advantage and measures them in a
consistent way across every industry. Just as investors compare key
financials between companies, W Scores allow anyone to compare
consumer advantages between sectors, industries and companies. The
rankings paint a clear picture of those companies projected to perform
the best financially and meet their forecasts.
Top 20 Most Competitive Retailers
With consumers easing back on their 2008 spending, retailers
strong in non-discretionary spending (e.g. Grocery, Babies),
discounting and pure play online are certain to be found in the top 20
Most Competitive Retailers. Yet, 10 of the 20 retailers that fall
outside of the traditional "economic downturn" box are bucking the
trend. Many of these reported stronger than expected Q1-2008 financial
results already, such as Coach, Gap, J. Crew and Staples, although
some have provided cautious guidance for the remainder of 2008.
2008 RANK 2007 RANK RETAILER PARENT COMPANY W
SCORE(TM)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1 1 Publix Publix Super Markets 92.0
(3PUSH)
2 15 Coach Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) 88.6
3 64 Family Dollar Family Dollar Stores 87.6
(NYSE: FDO)
4 9 Claire's Stores Claires Stores Inc. 84.6
(NYSE: CLE)
5 10 Staples Staples Inc. (NASD: 84.4
SPLS)
6 49 NY & Company New York & Company 83.3
(NYSE: NWY)
7 46 Gap Gap Inc. (NYSE: GPS) 80.4
8 8 Michael's Stores Michaels Stores Inc. 79.3
9 5 Williams-Sonoma Williams-Sonoma Inc. 79.2
(NYSE: WSM)
10 11 Petco Petco Animal Supplies 78.5
(NASD: PETC)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
11 3 Ross Stores Ross Stores Inc. (NASD: 76.7
ROST)
12 51 Neiman Marcus Neiman-Marcus Group 76.4
(NYSE: NMG.A)
13 21 American Eagle American Eagle (NYSE: 75.0
AEO)
14 52 J.Crew J Crew Group (NYSE: 74.7
JCG)
15 6 Gymboree Gymboree Corp. (NASD: 74.6
GYMB)
16 25 Nordstrom Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE: 74.2
JWN)
17 20 NIKETOWN Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) 74.0
18 58 Amazon Amazon.Com Inc. (NASD: 73.4
AMZN)
19 27 PetSmart Petsmart Inc. (NASD: 72.7
PETM)
20 17 Kroger Kroger Co (NYSE: KR) 72.4
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Top 20 Most Competitive Consumer Goods Companies
The Consumer Goods industry remains one of the most competitive in
our coverage over the past decade, primarily due to their strong
predictability. Yet, CG companies today must do more than tweak their
products and marketing to stay competitive. The key is to reach beyond
the traditional boundaries of your industry and extend into new
territory. For example, Marvel has branched out into movies,
animation, direct-to-DVD and online comics to raise visibility and
demand for Marvel-branded products.
2008 RANK 2007 RANK CONSUMER GOODS PARENT COMPANY W
SCORE(TM)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1 14 Clorox Products Clorox Co. (NYSE: 96.1
CLX)
2 22 Hershey Candy Hershey Co (NYSE: 94.3
HSY)
3 5 Scotch Tape 3M Company (NYSE: 93.8
MMM)
4 1 Coke/Diet Coke Coca-Cola Co (NYSE: 92.1
KO)
5 17 Wrigley Gum Wrigley (Wm) Jr 91.6
(NYSE: WWY)
6 6 Campbell Soup Campbell Soup (NYSE: 91.1
CPB)
7 10 Sam Adams/SA Light Boston Beer 90.7
Inc.(NYSE: SAM)
8 2 Under Armour Under Armour 90.2
Inc.(NYSE: UA)
9 34 Estee Lauder Lauder Estee Cos 86.7
(NYSE: EL)
10 8 Colgate Toothpaste Colgate-Palmolive 86.0
(NYSE: CL)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
11 16 Heinz Ketchup Heinz (H J) Co (NYSE: 85.9
HNZ)
12 18 Avon Avon Products (NYSE: 84.5
AVP)
13 3 Mountain Dew/Diet PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: 84.4
MD PEP)
14 7 SoBe Adrenaline PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: 83.9
Rush PEP)
15 29 Starbucks Coffee Starbucks Corp (NASD: 82.0
SBUX)
16 38 Revlon Cosmetics Revlon Inc. (NYSE: 80.4
REV)
17 33 Kellogg Cereals Kellogg Co (NYSE: K) 80.2
18 15 Marvel-branded Marvel Ent. (NYSE: 80.2
Products MVL)
19 9 Pepsi/Diet Pepsi PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE: 79.5
PEP)
20 13 Corona / Corona Grupo Modelo 79.1
Light
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The 2008 edition of Most Competitive Retail & Consumer Goods
companies shows a breakdown of the top 20 in each industry, unveils
critical trends in consumer expectations and pricing power, and
spotlights several companies in the top 20. SAP is offering a
complimentary version of the report for a limited time here:
http://www.sap.com/usa/industries/consumer/index.epx.
Basic subscriptions to the wRatings data are complimentary,
including access to the Top 40 Most Competitive Companies since 2002,
which is available at https://www.wratings.com/reports.php?s=5.
Premium subscriptions to detailed wRatings research are available to
investors, corporations, marketers and consultants. Individual company
reports can also be purchased at the website. To learn about your
subscription options or purchase reports, visit www.wratings.com.
About the Most Competitive Reports
The W Report(TM) series identifies companies projected to "win"
more customers and generate economic profit by utilizing patented
methods (US Patent 6,658,391) from wRatings. The consumer decision
method was profiled in the May 2002 cover article of Harvard Business
Review. Rankings use an algorithmic formula originally developed in
1999 and then refined in February 2004. The W Score(TM) is a
percentile ranking of companies using a sliding scale of historical
economic profit (2003-2007) and current year's (Q1-2008) total moat
score. Economic profit is a company's return on invested capital in
excess of weighted average cost of capital. Total moats are from a
quantitative consumer interview database and are the sum score of nine
areas of competitive advantage. The more moats and higher total moat
score indicate a greater likelihood of sustaining a competitive
advantage. To be considered in the rankings, companies must have
either a dominant market share or wide recognition among the general
U.S. population and have publicly available financial data. Industries
covered include Automotive, Consumer Goods, Electronics, Financials,
Health Care, Home, Media, Restaurants, Retail, Telecom, Travel and
Utilities & Gas. The W Report, W Score and wRatings logo are
trademarks of wRatings Corporation.
About wRatings Corporation
The wRatings Corporation is an independent competitive research
firm based in metro Washington DC. Gary A. Williams, CEO & Founder,
and his team have been conducting primary research on an original set
of leading indicators that measure competitive advantage since 1999.
Gary and his team continually analyze market leading companies to
predict their future performance based on 35+ million data points
collected using his common framework. For more information, visit
www.wratings.com.
(*) SAP defines business software as comprising enterprise
resource planning and related applications such as supply chain
management, customer relationship management, product life-cycle
management and supplier relationship management.
SAP and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of
SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries.
All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks
of their respective companies.
SAP Forward-looking Statement
Any statements contained in this document that are not historical
facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate,"
"believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan,"
"project," "predict," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as
they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking
statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise
any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are
subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to differ materially from expectations The factors that could
affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in
SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed
with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on
these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.
SOURCE: wRatings Corporation
wRatings Corporation Beth Green, 703-788-6532 beth.green@wratings.com
Copyright Business Wire 2008
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