The U.S. retail snack industry is currently valued at nearly $40 billion, accounting for sales of salty snacks like chips, popcorn, pretzels, puffed/extruded snacks and tortilla chips, as well as crackers, frozen grain-based snacks and appetizers like pizza rolls, and snack mixes and nuts.

Bakery is even bigger. U.S. retail bakery sales of items like snack bars, bread and rolls, bagels, English muffins, frozen breakfast foods like waffles, cookies, desserts like cakes and pies, pizza, snack cakes, sweet goods like pastries and doughnuts, and tortillas annually account for nearly $54 billion. Factor in bakery sales to foodservice, and that number quickly surpasses $100 billion.

As the U.S. population continually grows, so does the grain-centric snack and bakery industry. Diversification into gluten-free, better-for-you, artisan, gourmet, ethnic and other segments has brought new devoted snack and bakery consumers into the fold. As niches have grown into bona fide segments, companies from multinational corporations to mom-and-pop upstarts have seen success.

Competition remains fierce, with the future success of new and historic brands alike progressively decided upon by shopper proclivities toward repeat purchase—whether in traditional brick-and-mortar stores or via the growing field of online product sales. New brands emerge, mergers and acquisitions ensue, strategies unfurl, success spreads, fortunes are made, and some companies and brands inevitably fold. Meanwhile, change continually factors into the ever-emerging details of today’s snack and bakery market.The “Top 50 Snack & Bakery Companies” in the U.S. all have a focus on snack foods and baked goods for the U.S. market (listed revenue comprises total company sales for the noted year, globally where applicable, in U.S. dollars).

Click the buttons directly below to view the Top 50 list. Don't forget to check out the "learn more" links for the top 5 companies to view detailed coverage on each one.

Recent company highlights factoring into the 2017 “Top 50 Snack & Bakery Companies” list include:

• Kraft Heinz moved from No. 4 to No. 3 due to imposed efficiencies in the wake of its 2015 merger
• Conagra Brands dropped from No. 6 to No. 8 as it went through divestment of select assets, but since Sean Connolly took over as CEO in 2015, the company has seen a strong snack focus emerge through acquisitions of Frontera Foods, Thanasi Foods, BIGS Seeds and Angie’s Artisan Treats, among others
• Post Holdings moved from No. 14 to No. 12 thanks to strength from its Active Nutrition business unit, which includes the PowerBar brand
• Acquisitions of Dave’s Killer Bread and Alpine Valley Bread at Flowers Foods helped drive roughly 4 percent growth over fiscal 2015
• TreeHouse Foods saw significant increases from 2015 to 2016 due to the acquisition of the private label operations of Conagra combined with competitive pricing, climbing from No. 18 to No. 11
• Snyder’s-Lance saw notable growth, with Carl E. Lee, Jr., president and CEO, crediting a focus on better-for-you snacking, which represented 33 percent of company sales by the end of fiscal 2016
• Hostess Brands saw over 17 percent growth over 2015, credited by Bill Toler, president and CEO, to increased distribution and product innovation, plus continued market share increases for core products—also the May 2016 acquisition of Superior Cake Products contributed $26.7 million through the balance of fiscal 2016
• Amplify Snack Brands, owner of Skinny Pop, Paqui, Oatmega and Tyrrell’s, made its debut on the Top 50 list with strong growth from 2015 to 2016