Gartner claims the goal of the Supply Chain Top 25 research initiative is to raise awareness of the supply chain discipline and how it impacts the business.
"Last year, we noted that companies were starting to invest in resources and assets again, reflecting a newly recovering economy," said Debra Hofman, managing vice president at Gartner.
"This year, that trend continues even more strongly, with many companies investing for growth. The global economic recovery has been uneven and halting in some cases, but, on balance, the result has been expansionary for companies’ bottom lines and outlooks."
Apple remains in first place, for the fifth year in a row, followed by Amazon. Dell, Intel and Cisco come in at 4th, 7th and 8th respectively. Samsung, RIM and HP were the only other tech companies in the top 25, sitting at 13th, 19th and 24th respectively.
The average annual revenue growth of the companies in the study increased 29% over the previous year.
"Maintaining its record in the No. 1 slot was Apple, delivering total solutions to its customers through tightly integrated design of hardware components, firmware, a proprietary operating system and an ecosystem of applications that run on top of that platform," the report stated.
The company has produced phenomenal financials.
Its has combined "operational and innovation excellence, a zealous focus on starting with the consumer experience and working back through the design of its supply network, and mastery in orchestrating its end-to-end value network," says Gartner.
Gartner’s 2012 Supply Chain Top 25
Rank Company
1 Apple
2 Amazon
3 McDonald’s
4 Dell
5 P&G
6 The Coca-Cola Company
7 Intel
8 Cisco Systems
9 Wal-Mart Stores
10 Unilever
11 Colgate-Palmolive
12 PepsiCo
13 Samsung
14 Nike
15 Inditex
16 Starbucks
17 H&M
18 Nestle
19 Research In Motion (RIM)
20 Caterpillar
21 3M
22 Johnson & Johnson
23 Cummins
24 HP
25 Kimberly-Clark
