Business Opportunities Weblog

December 15, 2008 by Rich Whittle | 0 Comments

USA TODAY:

While many businesses struggle during the recession, a handful of U.S. and global companies — from health care giant Abbott Laboratories to retail king Wal-Mart — are riding out the financial storm in good shape.

McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner says the hamburger giant is “recession-resistant.” Hermann Waldemer, chief financial officer at Philip Morris International, calls the tobacco industry “very recession-resilient.” Carter Keithley, president of the Toy Industry Association, also says toy products are “recession-resistant.”

There’s no such creature as a “recession-proof” company or sector. But some businesses appear to be recession-hardy, warding off the downturn with strong balance sheets, long-range planning and rising global sales of products and services that people want — even in scary economic times.

Cash-short consumers may hold off buying big-ticket retail items. But they still need food, clothes and medicine. And they can’t seem to do without guilty pleasures such as alcohol, cigarettes and fancy foods including gourmet chocolate — the so-called sin stocks.

Research firm Mintel International predicts that the U.S. cigarette-and-tobacco market will grow 28% to $132 billion from this year to 2011.

“Even though we’re hurting for money, we want to make our lives a little better with indulgences,” says Marcia Mogelonsky, a Mintel senior analyst.

Keithley of the Toy Industry Association, which represents 500 toy manufacturers in the USA and abroad, says the industry has proved to be “recession-resistant” through the years.

Why? Because downturn or not, consumers will buy $19.95 toys to make their kids happy. What’s more, Keithley says, toymakers are nimble manufacturers, adapting quickly to economic cycles and bringing new products to stores.

Photo by KidStrong.

In Economy, Recession, Success | 0 Comments