Revenue vs. earnings: Sector revenue rose 3.14% year over year while earnings fell 32.5%.
- Category leader: PepsiCo repeated as the top performer, with revenue up 2.25% to $93.93 billion and net income down 13.97% to $8.24 billion.
- Top-10 change: Hormel Foods entered the top 10 after Kellanova's acquisition by Mars and NYSE delisting; nine of the top 10 carried over from 2025.
- New arrivals: Freshpet, Inc. (No. 460), John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc. (No. 458), and Westrock Coffee Company (No. 447) joined the list, while 22 of 34 companies posted net income decreases.
The 2026 IndustryWeek U.S. 500 is out, and the food and beverage sector tells a story of diverging top and bottom lines. Revenue is up. Profits are down — sharply.
34 food & beverage companies made the 2026 IndustryWeek U.S. 500 list of the largest U.S. public manufacturers.
Total revenue for the sector was up 3.14% year over year, but earnings dropped sharply, down 32.5%.
That split — modest sales growth against a near one-third collapse in earnings — is the defining feature of this year's list, per IndustryWeek's reporting.
PepsiCo Leads, Again
The top performer in the food & beverage category is PepsiCo, unchanged from last year.
PepsiCo sits at No. 11 on the overall 500. The numbers behind the ranking:
The company saw a 2.25% revenue increase to $93.93 billion and a -13.97% net income decrease to $8.24 billion.
Even the category leader couldn't escape the earnings squeeze that hit the sector broadly.
A Stable Top 10 — With One New Face
Continuity defined the upper tier:
Nine of the top 10 food & beverage companies also made the top 10 in 2025.
The exception came by way of consolidation:
Hormel Foods moved into the top 10 following Kellanova's acquisition by Mars and subsequent delisting from the NYSE.
Hormel Foods Corporation lands at No. 113 on this year's list.
Fewer Companies, New Entrants
The sector's footprint on the 500 is shrinking:
Just 34 food & beverage companies made this year's list, down from 40 in 2025.
Still, the door opened for three newcomers:
Several companies made it onto this year's 500 list after not making the cut last year, including Freshpet, Inc. (No. 460), John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc. (No. 458) and Westrock Coffee Company (No. 447).
The Bottom Line
The breadth of the earnings decline is striking:
Seven of the 34 companies recorded revenue decreases.
22 of the 34 companies recorded net income decreases.
In other words, nearly two-thirds of food and beverage manufacturers on the list saw profits fall even as the sector's aggregate revenue climbed 3.14%. For manufacturing professionals tracking margin pressure across the industry, the 2026 list offers a clear signal: growth is still available, but converting it to earnings has gotten much harder.
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