Celsius Holdings (NASDAQ: CELH) set more company records as the business almost triples in revenue, but will that continue in 2022? The current set-up looks great, but it won’t be without marketplace challenges and competition breathing down on Celsius Holdings from all directions. This includes the important female energy drink buyer for Celsius, as upstart brand Alani Nu is growing at 600%+ YoY with annualized run rate revenue that close to $200 million. Celsius Holdings will need to continue ...
Mar 02, 2022•12 min
With Russia invading Ukraine this past week, what effects could it have on the functional CPG industry? I think the easiest way to understand this topic would be for me to provide a zoomed out CPG industry view, before zooming back into the functional food, functional beverage, and nutritional supplement CPG categories. Many might not be aware that Ukraine is nicknamed the breadbasket of Europe. The Ukraine and Russia conflict is further exacerbating a run-up in prices for food commodities, whic...
Mar 01, 2022•7 min
The Vitamin Shoppe grew topline revenue to its almost matching the company's history peak in 2014-2015. This is along with achieving operating profit growth of over 1800% YoY. Yet, I would guess that most still haven’t fully grasped the results of massive multi-year turnaround plan at The Vitamin Shoppe. I know I probably sound like a broken record at this point, but it’s time to wake up people. Since The Vitamin Shoppe is shielded in the public markets by the Franchise Group ownership, the supp...
Feb 24, 2022•11 min
Unilever might have been lacking direction over the last few years, but a recent strategic transformation decision now has the European CPG conglomerate positioned squarely inside my wheelhouse. According to comments made during the latest Unilever earnings call, CEO Alan Jope stated, “after months of careful review, we have concluded that accelerating the shift of Unilever's portfolio into consumer health and well-being would position the company for faster growth in the coming decades.” I agre...
Feb 22, 2022•10 min
Are several converging consumer trends finally putting enough pressure towards getting a public health tax policy approved that’s more than a decade in the making? Public health? Taxes? I know what you’re thinking, but I assure you that how these topics relate to the supplement industry is quite important. It revolves around reclassifying certain meal replacement products and dietary supplements, that do have FDA approved health claims, to be permissible medical care expenditures for reimburseme...
Feb 18, 2022•17 min
As in-person trade shows come roaring back in 2022, it’s the perfect time to talk about how you can make impact at these events without spending tons of money being an exhibitor. For a lot of you that work at or own functional CPG brands, being involved at trade shows (B2B or B2C) or heck even just having the opportunity to live sample at events/retailers is very important. B2B events like Natural Products Expo West or Fancy Foods Show are the perfect place to meet with dozens or hundreds of pot...
Feb 17, 2022•13 min
Have you heard the joke about the time a baseball card, pack of chewing gum, and a piece of sports apparel walked into a retail store? No? It’s OK…there probably isn’t a joke in the entire historical catalog of jokes that combine those things. That being said, all those consumer products categories do have a commonality and that’s because it was announced in early January that Fanatics would acquire The Topps Company for $500 million. You might be thinking…that’s great, but what the heck does th...
Feb 11, 2022•12 min
If you’ve been online for even a short period of time during the past few weeks, you’ve probably encountered social media posts made up of green and yellow blocks. My thesis when I started to research Wordle was that it’s just another pandemic-era viral phenomenon. Things go viral on the internet for no good reason all the time, but that fact seems to have become more random during the last two years. After digging into Wordle a bit more, I found it was quite a intriguing case of virality that w...
Feb 09, 2022•10 min
Have you noticed the rocket ship that is the Dymatize Nutrition brand? If you are a hardcore sports nutrition consumer, I would guess you haven't and that's by design with the strategic shift that made a few years ago. In this latest episode, I'll utilize the recent BellRing Brands (NYSE: BRBR) earnings report, earnings call, and publicly disclosed news as the backdrop to discuss what it could mean to the overall active nutrition market in the liquids, powders, and bars formats. BellRing Brands ...
Feb 04, 2022•13 min
You often hear me say “a great product is only the entry fee to compete in today’s CPG market”, but what’s at the heart of that statement? The hard truth is that there have never been as many CPG brands and products as there are today. If you didn't realize that, the easiest way to experience this reality is to do a non-branded search on Amazon within some sizable CPG category. I guarantee you will be overwhelmed at the endless shelf of interchangeable substitutes. Regardless of the current “COV...
Feb 03, 2022•9 min
I’ve always believed that Hip Hop and CPG entrepreneurship are linked together. Firstly, Hip Hop is seen as counterculture to other music genres, which is similar to CPG entrepreneurship in today’s “technology” filled founder landscape. Additionally, Hip Hop and CPG entrepreneurship are both centered around being salesmanship and the ability to hustle. Moreover, Hip Hop music is rooted in remixing (or sampling) previous music, and this iterative innovation process is also core to the CPG industr...
Jan 31, 2022•12 min
Would you like to play a game [in my best John Kramer aka Jigsaw from the SAW movie franchise voice]? So, what’s this game exactly that I’m wanting to play? It’s inspired by a random Twitter post I made in November 2021. It’s really a fool’s game to be honest. One that I seem to enjoy playing a lot in my content creation. It’s where I try to put my oracle hat on and see if I can predict the future events of market convergence. Simply put, I'm going to explain ten massive M&A moves that make ...
Jan 27, 2022•13 min
How did I think Sharon Leite, CEO of The Vitamin Shoppe, did on her episode of Undercover Boss? I’ll be honest, I was super excited when The Vitamin Shoppe shared the news a month or two ago that they would be featured on the wildly successful CBS reality show. Firstly, because as many of my community knows I’m a big fan of Sharon Leite and the job she was doing at The Vitamin Shoppe. Secondly, because I’ve been a longtime fan of Undercover Boss. Finally, how cool is it that the functional CPG i...
Jan 25, 2022•12 min
The metaverse is coming, but is your CPG brand ready for it? Do you hear the words web3, crypto, blockchain, NFTs, and/or metaverse and instantly think how far behind you are? Don’t worry, I’m right with you at times. I hear people are getting married in the metaverse. I hear people are holding business meetings in the metaverse. I hear people are spending millions to acquire virtual real estate in the metaverse. I hear people are collecting digital art to I guess hang on the walls of their virt...
Jan 20, 2022•13 min
Based on the popularity of this event prediction video from the last three years, I decided to again put my reputation on the line and try and predict the five Sports Nutrition Industry events that could happen in 2022. My one big rule for these annual trend prediction lists is that I don’t allow carryover from previous years. Additionally, since these are outlandish predictions, I try and take Happy Gilmore level swings. That makes it more entertaining for both myself to compile and you guys to...
Jan 18, 2022•10 min
Monster Beverage Corporation, maker of Monster Energy drinks, is purchasing CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective, a portfolio of craft beer and hard seltzer brands, for $330 million in cash. What? Why? OK. This shouldn’t be that big of a surprise for those of you that consume my content regularly. The deal gives Monster Beverage Corporation a foothold in the alcohol market through a nationwide network of breweries and distribution connections. This has been a goal the energy drink company has teleg...
Jan 16, 2022•10 min
Based on the popularity of this trend prediction video from the last three years, I decided to again put my reputation on the line and try and predict the Top 5 Retail Industry Trends or Event Predictions in 2022. My one big rule for these annual trend prediction lists is that I don’t allow carryover from previous years. This makes it more challenging, but also a little odd since trends are multiyear in nature with the strongest ones lasting a decade or more. That makes my previous predictions v...
Jan 14, 2022•12 min
If you haven’t heard yet, Starbucks and Amazon recently entered into a retail partnership. This new store concept is called the Starbucks Pickup with Amazon Go Experience. My gut reaction to hearing this news leak a few months ago was one of exuberance. Now that the first official location in midtown Manhattan NYC is open, it’s easy to see that these pickup-only Starbucks stores paired with Amazon Go are going to be a fucking work of business partnership art. While long-term plans for this partn...
Jan 12, 2022•9 min
Based on the popularity of this trend prediction content from the last three years, I decided to again put my reputation on the line and try and predict the Top 5 Sports & Active Nutrition Industry Trends in 2022. My one big rule for these annual trend prediction lists is that I don’t allow carryover from previous years. This makes it more challenging, but also a little odd since trends are multiyear in nature with the strongest ones lasting a decade or more. That makes my previous predictio...
Jan 11, 2022•12 min
Have you noticed that Quest Nutrition is impressively executing on a very difficult CPG strategy, yet The Simply Good Foods Company isn’t getting enough credit for it? In this latest episode, I'll utilize the 2022 Q1 Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ: SMPL) earnings report, earnings call, and supplemental presentations that were filed on 1/5/2022 as the backdrop to provide broad health and fitness snacking market insights. In Q1 of fiscal 2022, both brands had strong retail takeaway growth, with...
Jan 06, 2022•9 min
How did J. Schall Consulting do in 2021? For those that only know me as a “content creator” shame on you, well I guess shame on me for not better explaining who I am and what I actually do for a living. I certainly don’t make money creating content, on the contrary, it costs me a shit ton of money in opportunity costs annually but don’t worry I’m not quitting anytime soon. The variety of business strategy content does serve as a great content marketing tool for my consulting company J. Schall Co...
Jan 05, 2022•11 min
Based on the popularity of this trend prediction content from the previous three years, I decided to again put my reputation on the line and try and predict the Top 5 Functional Food and Beverage Product Trends in 2022. My one big rule for these annual trend prediction lists is that I don’t allow carryover from previous years. This makes it more challenging, but also a little odd since trends are multiyear in nature with the strongest ones lasting a decade or more. That makes my previous predict...
Jan 04, 2022•11 min
Welcome to the 2021 J. Schall Consulting Awards. This is the third annual year-end awards show that focuses on better for you CPG product categories, along with the grocery, brick and mortar, and internet retailers. This is the pinnacle of award shows that are light on tradition, peppered with randomness, and heavy handed with personal bias. While the awards categories were selected at random, the winners were thoughtfully considered and I provide my accompanying logic to make the content more i...
Dec 30, 2021•15 min
Remember all those low barriers of entry that disrupted the functional CPG industry…well let’s just say things are becoming just a tad bit different now. The functional CPG space is incredibly competitive and very low switching costs at the consumer-level. That makes being a success story in the functional CPG market tough enough, but I do have some additional bad news. The way entrepreneurs historically did business pre-pandemic is over. Stop trying to hang on to the past, especially when you c...
Dec 29, 2021•12 min
Most times corporate marketing is extremely boring, but sometimes…it's different! Corporate marketing is a type of marketing that promotes the company as a whole, as opposed to individual products. Ultimately, the main goal of corporate marketing is to improve brand image, while strengthening relationships with your customers so they become brand advocates. When corporate marketing is working correctly, it should keep the flywheel spinning by attracting new customers, while engaging leads, and d...
Dec 28, 2021•14 min
Around 80% of executives at big CPG companies believe mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deal-making activity will continue increasing after the lows during the pandemic year of 2020. This makes a lot of sense if you think about it in the simplest manner; (1) the CPG industry has had an amazing two-year run (2) CPG companies would have likely been more aggressive in 2020 if it weren't for the high levels of uncertainty across the economic landscape. With 2021 providing more clarity (M&A has ...
Dec 27, 2021•17 min
There’s this classic rule in business that you shouldn’t talk about your competition, but is that still applicable today? The most typical way that business leaders think about competition can be summed up by business icon Jack Welch that once said, "Number one, cash is king; number two, communicate; number three, buy or bury the competition." For many, competition is a central driver in business that’s usually seen through the “winner takes all” or “zero sum” lens. Most businesses do not talk a...
Dec 20, 2021•8 min
We are coming to the end of 2021, so it’s that time of year again where I create numerous content pieces that either recap some aspect of the current year or put my reputation on the line as a forward-leaning strategist and make predictions about the upcoming year. In this first year-end list podcast episode of the season, I cover the top 5 biggest sports nutrition brand winners of 2021. GHOST Lifestyle Alani Nu MyProtein REDCON1 1st Phorm Honorable Mentions - Gorilla Mind, RYSE, Glaxon, Bare Pe...
Dec 15, 2021•21 min
TreeHouse Foods, the nation’s leading manufacturer and distributor of private label packaged foods and beverages, is exploring strategic options for its business. Over the past several years, it has closed several plants, reduced SKUs, cut jobs and abandoned business units to become a more focused, nimble company. Despite those efforts, the changes have done little to excite investors with the stock price hovering around the same price as when the CEO change happened in early 2018. With activist...
Dec 09, 2021•14 min
If you haven’t looked deeply into Herbalife Nutrition recently, it might give you the “new company who dis” vibes. Almost all businesses were forced to transform themselves to some level after the “COVID-19 Effect” severely interrupted normal business operations. For Herbalife Nutrition (and other MLM companies), it's business model was severely impacted because the MLM operational structure relies a great deal on a distribution strategy that brings value through frequent personal interactions w...
Dec 07, 2021•15 min
