TSI’s Scott Clayton has uncovered seven standout consumer-product companies with dependable dividend track records and proven staying power, even when discretionary spending slows. As featured in our Globe & Mail exclusive, we applied our comprehensive 12‑point Dividend Sustainability Rating System to identify companies at the heart of defensive investing: consistent and growing payouts, strong balance sheets, and steady earnings from essential everyday products.
These enduring businesses cover everything Canadians rely on: grocery chains and pharmacies as well as global makers of household goods and packaged foods. Whether it’s a Brampton-based supermarket leader, a Montreal grocer with its own pharmacy network, or a U.S. household‑goods giant with brands found in kitchens and laundry rooms across the country, each company reflects marketplace dominance built on habitual demand and decades of dividend dependability.
Our research began with a broad list of dividend-paying consumer companies, then narrowed to the most defensive names - those whose sales hold up through inflation, slower growth, or tighter consumer budgets. Recent results highlight their resilience even when household spending remains cautious.
TSI’s Dividend Sustainability Rating System scores each company on key measures: dividend longevity and growth, management’s commitment to payouts, performance across economic cycles, limited exposure to foreign currency or political risk, and a solid balance sheet backed by consistent earnings and cash flow. We award extra points to industry leaders whose trusted brands and market position help secure the most sustainable dividends in any environment.
Excerpt from theglobeandmail.com, January 8, 2026
Makers and sellers of consumer products that offer sustainable dividends regardless of any continuing pullback in discretionary spending.
Most defensive stocks are in the Consumer sector, meaning they benefit from continuous, habitual use and the steady sales that come from it. That’s especially true for those offering consumer staples, anything from soap and soup to paper towel and diapers.
Their wares help even out the ups and downs of the economic cycle for these companies. That includes during periods of lingering inflation and muted consumer spending on anything beyond the basics.
(Consumer stocks bring a level of stability to an investor’s portfolio. Still, as our analysts at The Successful Investor point out, it still pays to diversify your holdings across all five economic sectors – Manufacturing & Industry, Resources & Commodities, Consumer, Finance and Utilities. That means resisting the urge to tinker based on predictions about inflation, recession and so on. No one has ever consistently predicted either one, either in timing or degree.)
For this search, we started with an extensive list of dividend-paying stocks, before singling out providers of consumer staples well placed to add defensive characteristics to your portfolio. Our system awards points to a stock based on key factors:
- One point for five years of continuous dividend payments
- Two points for more than five
- Two points if it has raised the payment in the past five years
- One point for management’s commitment to dividends
- One point for operating in non-cyclical industries
- One point for limited exposure to foreign currency rates and freedom from political interference
- Two points for a strong balance sheet, including manageable debt and adequate cash
- Two points for a long-term record of positive earnings and cash flow sufficient to cover dividend payments
- One point for an industry leader
Companies with 10 to 12 points have the most secure dividends, or the highest sustainability. Those with seven to nine points have above average sustainability; average sustainability, four to six points; and below average sustainability, one to three points.
7 consumer product payout champions
Brampton, Ontario’s Loblaw Cos. Ltd. (with a 0.9% yield), with its Shoppers Drug Mart chain, plus Montreal’s Metro Inc. (1.5%), with its Jean Coutu pharmacies, continue to sell essential food, drugs and more to Canadians.
Chicago-based Conagra Brands Inc. (8.7%) makes a variety of popular foods, including Chef Boyardee canned pasta, Hunt’s tomato sauce, Orville Redenbacher popcorn and Reddi-wip whipped cream. Mondelez International Inc. (3.9%), also headquartered in Chicago, is a world leader in chocolate, biscuits, gum, candy, coffee, powdered beverages and more. General Mills Inc. (5.7%), based in Minnesota, has popular brands including Cheerios, Yoplait, Haagen-Dazs and Progresso.
New York City-headquartered Colgate-Palmolive Co. (2.7%) is a maker of toiletries and other household products. Its major brands include Ajax, Fab, Murphy, Palmolive cleansers; Colgate toothpaste; Irish Spring, Palmolive, Sanex, Softsoap soaps; Mennen shave cream; and Hill’s pet food brands.
Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, Procter & Gamble Co. (3.0%) is one of the world’s largest makers of household and personal-care goods. Here, major brands include Tide (laundry detergent), Pampers (diapers), Gillette (razors), Crest (toothpaste) and Vicks (cold remedies).
Scott Clayton, MBA, is senior analyst for TSI Network and associate editor of TSI Dividend Advisor.
