In few industries has the urge to consolidate been as strong as among food and beverage makers. You could say they are acting in self-defense, since their primary retail outlets, like the supermarket chains, themselves are now usually king-size: The top ten such chains had 52% of the market in 2000, nearly double 1970's share.rnNo wonder, then, that the top three American brewers produce 88% of the domestic beer sold in the U.S., almost double their 1970 share. But even that is unlikely to end the fight foV shelf space. The suds sector is hopping with talk that MillerrnrnBrewing Co. and Adolph Coors Co., numbers two and three, respectively, at $4.3 billion and $2.4 billion in annual sales, must become one, both to compete with market leader Anheuser-Busch and to get delivery efficiencies and leverage at the retail end.
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