Consolidation was the story of the 1990s in the dairy business, and throughout the food industry-small and medium players gobbled up by a broad vision and a fat check book.
The frenzy was either driven by or in anticipation of a similar pattern in retail. Regional grocery chains went on a buying binge. They had to, what with Wal-Mart selling everything from padlocks to ham hocks. A handful of companies now run most of America's supermarkets in coast-to-coast integrated networks of efficiency. And the food manufacturers who supply them are bigger than ever.