Universal Corporation, a business-to-business agriproducts company, provides leaf tobacco and plant-based ingredients to food and beverage end markets worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Tobacco Operations and Ingredients Operations. The Tobacco Operations segment is involved in procuring, processing, packing, storing, and shipping of flue-cured, burley, dark air-cured, and oriental leaf tobacco for consumer product manufacturers, as well as provision …
Full UVV analysis →
Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
Margins Stable Across CyclesOperating margin volatility is low (stability score 0.91), demonstrating pricing resilience across cycles.
Where UVV ranks in Consumer Defensive: Staples & Essential Services
Universal Corporation ranks #119 of 265
scored companies in Consumer Defensive: Staples & Essential Services by moat score — the top 45%.
The widest moat in the group is Brown Forman Inc (BF-A)
at 93/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near UVV in Consumer Defensive: Staples & Essential Services
Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.
Cost Advantage
Score 76
· 15% of the moat score
A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.
Customer Stickiness
Score 54
· 15% of the moat score
Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.
Capital Efficiency
Score 46
· 18% of the moat score
Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.
Resilience
Score 53
· 17% of the moat score
Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.
Scale & Market Position
Score 48
· 15% of the moat score
Scale matters only when it converts into economics.
Universal Corporation (UVV) scores 57 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #119 of 265 scored companies in Consumer Defensive: Staples & Essential Services, the top 45%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 264 companies in Consumer Defensive: Staples & Essential Services. Its strongest defense is Cost Advantage (76/100) and its weakest is Capital Efficiency (46/100).
How does Universal Corporation compare with other Consumer Defensive: Staples & Essential Services companies?
Universal Corporation ranks #119 of 265 scored companies in Consumer Defensive: Staples & Essential Services by moat score. The widest moat in Consumer Defensive: Staples & Essential Services is Brown Forman Inc (BF-A) at 93/100. The companies ranked closest are Graham Holdings Company (GHC) at 57 just above it and Compania Cervecerias Unidas, S. (CCU) at 55 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 264 companies in Consumer Defensive: Staples & Essential Services. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is Universal Corporation scored with the Corporate Default template?
Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.
Which competitive defenses are measured for Universal Corporation?
The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and UVV scores: Pricing Power (64), Cost Advantage (76), Customer Stickiness (54), Capital Efficiency (46), Resilience (53), Scale & Market Position (48). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.
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