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Why it matters
Food, drink, household staples and the discounters. This group spans defensive demand, consumer behaviour, rates exposure and innovation, so business-model quality matters more than the label.
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Consumer Defensives
Food, drink, household staples and the discounters.
Consumer staples are what people keep buying when budgets tighten — food, drink, household goods and the grocers that sell them — which historically makes them steadier through a downturn than the wider market. This collection gathers the sector above $2bn, ranked by market cap. Note that the two largest holdings are now premium-rated retailers rather than cheap defensives.
What to check next
Compare pricing power, repeat demand, margins, regulatory risk and the sensitivity of each company to interest rates or consumer weakness.
Main risk
A theme can hide very different risk profiles: biotech, insurers, online retail and property all respond to different drivers.
Showing the 40 largest of 259 — sort or filter to explore the rest.
- RewardRiskYield0.9%
- RewardRiskYield0.0%
- RewardRiskYield2.4%
- RewardRiskYield3.0%
- RewardRiskYield3.1%
- RewardRiskYield2.9%
- RewardRiskYield1.5%
- RewardRiskYield1.7%
- RewardRiskYield4.6%
- RewardRiskYield1.8%
- RewardRiskYield4.2%
- RewardRiskYield6.3%
- RewardRiskYield6.3%
- RewardRisk
- RewardRiskYield3.5%
- RewardRiskYield11.9%
- RewardRiskYield2.9%
- RewardRiskYield4.0%
- RewardRiskYield2.5%
- RewardRiskYield12.4%
- RewardRiskYield0.0%
- RewardRiskYield0.0%
- RewardRiskYield13.3%
- RewardRiskYield2.7%
- RewardRiskYield2.0%
- RewardRiskYield3.1%
- RewardRiskYield5.3%
- RewardRiskYield2.7%
- RewardRiskYield2.4%
- RewardRiskYield2.6%
- RewardRiskYield0.0%
- RewardRiskYield3.0%
- RewardRiskYield8.2%
- RewardRiskYield9.3%
- RewardRiskYield2.1%
- RewardRisk
- RewardRiskYield0.3%
- RewardRiskYield2.6%
- RewardRiskYield3.0%
- RewardRiskYield2.8%
Related collections
Frequently asked questions
What is the Consumer Defensives collection?
Food, drink, household staples and the discounters. It currently holds 259 stocks, each rated by Openbook's Reward and Risk scores. Consumer staples are what people keep buying when budgets tighten — food, drink, household goods and the grocers that sell them — which historically makes them steadier through a downturn than the wider market.
How are Consumer Defensives stocks selected?
Constituents are chosen by a rules-based screen over the full UK and US common-stock universe, then ranked by market capitalisation.
How often is the Consumer Defensives list updated?
It is rebuilt from live market data, so the constituents and their rankings update as prices and company fundamentals change — there is no fixed, hand-edited list.
How should I use the Reward and Risk ratings?
Openbook's Reward rating combines a stock's growth, momentum, profitability and valuation into a single 0–100 score, and the Risk rating scores financial strength, volatility and size. Use them to compare names within this theme — broadly, a higher Reward alongside a lower Risk is more attractive. They are quantitative research signals, not investment advice.
Openbook Reward and Risk ratings and factor scores are quantitative signals for research, not investment advice. Data may be delayed. Some US-listed names carry partial factor coverage.