2025 CAGNY conference highlights

Spend while saving

In 2025, some CPG companies may be looking to pull off two seemingly contradictory things simultaneously. They appear to be investing more money to maintain relevancy and engagement with increasingly value-seeking and diverse groups of consumers while simultaneously finding ways to improve efficiency and free up money so they can fund those investments.

In the spending column, presenting companies said they are leaning heavily on product innovation and more precise and efficient demand generation. As to saving, they said they are continuing their digitization and automation journeys for productivity and tightening the belt where they can to fund the “flywheel of reinvestment.”

The spend-while-saving narrative is apparent in our trends analysis. Several top-level topics look familiar, though many specifics underneath them have changed. Other topics have risen to new heights in the CAGNY conversation, like the discussion around supply chains and operational excellence and this year’s special emphasis on health and wellness.

Please continue reading for insights gathered from 29 presenting CPG companies on their pursuit of profitable growth in what could be another year of surprises. And download our year-over-year comparative analysis chart for the top trending topics discussed at CAGNY 2025.

References

¹This statistic and all survey results herein are from the 2025 Consumer Products Industry Outlook, Deloitte Insights, January 6, 2025
²UBS Global Research and Evidence Lab, September 4, 2024.