A compelling illustration by a graphic design enthusiast has revealed the sheer concentration of ownership of popular brands found in Australian supermarkets.
Strolling through the aisles of a Woolworths or Coles, shoppers might take in the hundreds of individual products on offer and assume there’s a healthy level of competition at play.
But analysis of exactly who owns the food for sale shows several major corporations dominate, each owning the vast majority of brands in key categories.
Reddit user QuantumFluxations13 visited his local Woolies recently, took images of the vast shelves stocked full of multiple products, and overlaid the photo with corporate ownership of each.
The results, which he gave news.com.au permission to republish, are stark.
In the chocolate aisle, global giants and arch rivals Mondelez and Mars each dominated, accounting for about half of the shelf space each.
The average consumer might not be aware that a dozen popular and beloved confectionary brands are owned by a single corporate entity.
Take Mars, which counts among its stable of products Maltesers, M&Ms, Snickers, Skittles, Mars, Milky Way, Pods, Twix, Celebrations and assortment pack Celebrations.
It also has the lion’s s...
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