Unilever Co.

Each year, CGT's editorial staff calls attention to more than 20 additional solution and service providers that are poised to make a substantial impact on the consumer goods market with innovative yet necessary tools.

New this year, CGT's readers rank the top five technology companies that provide software/services for managing and monitoring internal and external social media communications/engagement.

It's perhaps the sales growth in emerging markets that propelled Unilever's share price to hit an all-time high on Wednesday, January 22, 2013.

Unilever will sell its global Skippy business to Hormel Foods for a total cash consideration of approximately $700 million.

Havas EHS is expected to enable Unilever brands to harness the power of consumer data to improve engagement with the right audience at the right time.

Accenture will provide Unilever with HR business process outsourcing services that benefit more than 130,000 Unilever employees in more than 100 countries and introduce a series of service improvements focused on enhancing the user experience.

For the first time in a long time, this year's listing of the top 100 public consumer goods companies tells more good news than bad. The majority of companies realized modest revenue growth despite ongoing economic challenges; and some categories, like Food and Apparel, posted sales gains across the board. Read on to find out how your company, your partners and/or your competitors performed by comparison.

No. 1 player P&G made progress toward its purpose-inspired growth strategy, while Unilever reported gains in its transformation to a sustainable growth company. Most of the companies on this list followed their lead with modest sales gains in 2011.