ADM

"In 1976, the French magazine L’Expansion called Louis Dreyfus ‘a commercial empire of which one knows nothing’. Pierre Louis-Dreyfus, the company’s president, invited Dan Morgan to lunch in his private dining room. The fish with cream sauce was apparently superb, as was the wine, but the journalist left without learning anything of interest about the company. Georges André, president of André & Cie – and the original ‘A’ of the ABCD group of trading companies – invited Dan Morgan to ‘an excellent lunch of brook trout in a village restaurant’, but all he got out of it was historical data. Although Dan Morgan wrote little about ADM – the new ‘A’ in the ABCD group after André exited the business – the company was no more open. When Dwayne Andreas became CEO in 1974, one of the first things he did was to eliminate a 27-person public relations department. He once famously said, ‘Getting information from me is like frisking a seal’. (2)"

"ABCD group of companies, with ABCD standing for ADM, Bunge, Cargill and Dreyfus. The acronym, though, ignores the other three giants of the food supply: Glencore, COFCO International and Wilmar."

"the A.B.C.D.+ (ADM, Bunge, Cargill, Dreyfus, Glencore, Wilmar and COFCO International)"

"Publicly listed ADM is the second biggest of the seven, with annual revenues in excess of $60 billion, a market capitalisation of more than $20 billion and profits that touched nearly $2 billion in 2018. Founded in 1902, and NYSE listed since 1924, today the company has 40,000 employees, processes as much as 60 million tonnes of agricultural commodities each year, and sells into nearly 200 countries."