Even with the gut health revolution in full swing across the CPG industry, most consumers still have a knowledge gap, but that might actually end up creating a double-edged sword effect on categorical growth. Gut health has become such a well-known trend within the food, beverage, and supplement CPG categories…bringing with it tons of new market growth and product development. (Note: I’ll cover some of that trending gut health CPG product and brand development later in the content.) But it’s nat...
Oct 28, 2022•22 min
I figured out the secret behind Quest Nutrition’s product innovation strategy and let’s just say they could easily be a headlining DJ at some of the biggest music festivals in the world. In this latest episode, I'll utilize the 2022 Q4 Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ: SMPL) earnings report, earnings call, and supplemental presentations that were filed on 10/21/2022 as the backdrop to provide broad nutritional snacking market insights. In Q4 of fiscal 2022, both brands had outperformed their av...
Oct 24, 2022•13 min
Pivotal is an interview-style segment that tackles topics in consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) from the business leaders that live it EVERY DAY! Many of you might know that I worked at MusclePharm in the early 2010s. This was during a time when that sports nutrition brand had literally caught lightning in a bottle. Either you had that big obnoxiously bright lime green MP in your kitchen cabinet, or you weren’t cool…it was as simple as that. More than a decade la...
Oct 17, 2022•53 min
Bang Energy just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy…which likely makes you feel a certain type of way, but I’m here to sidestep any of that emotional BS and explain what’s really going on at the empire that Jack Owoc built. So, my assumption is that the Bang Energy bankruptcy is causing such an outcry of commentary because of the combination of either (1) you like/dislike Bang Energy CEO Jack Owoc (2) you like/dislike the Bang Energy energy drink or brand (3) misunderstanding of bankruptcy. Well…I ...
Oct 12, 2022•19 min
We all know that the energy drinks market has been crazy these last few years. What if I told you though that I’ve got some mega merger speculation, that if it comes to fruition, would take things up a million notches on the craziness scale? What business highlights in the energy drink market have made things crazy? While the Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) announcement that it had entered a strategic partnership with Red Bull to distribute the energy drink in the Mexican market is important, it's someth...
Oct 11, 2022•10 min
This week, I attended the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) Show 2022 in Las Vegas. While my main purpose was to meet with old and new CPG industry friends, I did notice a handful of convenience store CPG trends that I wanted to share with you. These trends include: (1) technology and electrification of vehicles is disrupting convenience retailing (2) energy drinks passing of the guard (3) "energy everything" is thriving (4) alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage is converging fast...
Oct 07, 2022•7 min
After three years of basically nothing…can I get 'Things that Baffle Me' for $1000 Alex? I know any event before 2020 feels like a generation ago so maybe you forget that The Hershey Company acquired ONE Brands (maker of the ONE bar) in August 2019 for $397 million. To get yourself back in that late-summer of 2019 blissful mindset even deeper, just a week earlier than the Hershey and ONE Brands news, it was also announced that The Simply Good Foods Company acquired Quest Nutrition for one billio...
Sep 29, 2022•12 min
Remember the good ole’ days when health experts predicting an upcoming bad cold and flu season was the biggest worry to our immune health? Because of recency bias, it’s likely hard for most of us to detach the rise in consciousness around immune health from the last 2.5 years. Surprisingly though, if you look back to consumer health surveys from late-2019, immune system support was still a top priority. The cold, flu, and immunity market became arguably the most important topic of interest in 20...
Sep 26, 2022•13 min
I proclaimed something about MyProtein last year, but will overlooking a core brand positioning element end up making me look wrong? On September 15, 2022, THG (formerly known as The Hut Group) updated the public markets by releasing its 2022 first half earnings report. I’ll be utilizing that financial information, along with the earnings call commentary and any relevant publicly disclosed information to obviously update you on the recent performance of THG and specifically the THG Nutrition div...
Sep 16, 2022•15 min
The fourth-largest beverage brand in the U.S. market, Gatorade, is launching an energy drink, which is cool, but I’m more interested in what the Fast Twitch product announcement means to entire sports nutrition portfolio strategy at the beverage CPG giant PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP). That being said, I do run through all the Gatorade Fast Twitch product details (e.g. formula and packaging), along with where the energy drink will be merchandised in large retailers. With it's lack of carbonation, Gatora...
Sep 05, 2022•16 min
Sleep matters A LOT. Sleep is truly an interdisciplinary aspect of our health. Yet, if I was tasked to describe in one word the current state of sleep in America, I would use lackluster. Why? A recent Gallup poll showed that around 84 million Americans would describe their sleep the previous night as “fair” or “poor” but also 55% report that getting good sleep is a “major priority.” This is partly the reason why the demand for sleep support supplements has been exploding, but is the functional C...
Aug 31, 2022•12 min
What the heck is going on at Laird Superfood (NYSE: LSF)? At one point in February 2021, the company had a market capitalization of almost a half a billion dollars but is now getting takeover offers at 95% less. At it's core, Laird Superfood is still perfectly positioned inside the CPG triangle of better for you, plant-based, and functional. That being said, category competitiveness was always going to catch up to Laird Superfood. Along with the absurdly poor stock performance, Laird Superfood h...
Aug 28, 2022•16 min
Am I the only one that thinks the music is about to stop again during the energy drinks version of the musical chairs game? Last week, you might have seen a pair of Bloomberg article headlines that said Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) was in talks to acquire the owner of Bang Energy and then quickly another that denied that M&A rumor. Either way, it brought back memories of my KDP prediction video from October 2021 (link below) that had some fun with the 2021 KDP Investor Day announcement that the be...
Aug 24, 2022•10 min
Pivotal is an interview-style segment that tackles topics in consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) from the business leaders that live it EVERY DAY! If you’re an OG consumer of my content, you might recognize this episode’s guest. That’s because he was also the guest on Pivotal episode number one way back in August 2018. While repeating guests won’t be commonplace, I felt like since a lot has changed in the last four years for both of us, I needed to run it back wit...
Aug 22, 2022•44 min
Is Glanbia the bellwether for the supplement industry or will things change in the second half of 2022? Glanbia Performance Nutrition had 2022 H1 revenue growth of 14.9% YoY on a constant currency basis from strong pricing increases. They also benefitted from the mid-2021 acquisition of LevlUp, a gamer (esports) nutrition brand. Glanbia Performance Nutrition is one of two wholly-owned segments of Glanbia plc (LON:GLB), a multi-billion dollar global nutrition company. The brands in the Glanbia Pe...
Aug 18, 2022•12 min
Did you know that the specialty supplement retailer GNC had a venture investing platform? This is broadly known as corporate venture capital. It’s essentially a practice where a large corporate entity takes an equity stake in a small but innovative or specialist company with the objective of gaining a specific competitive advantage. As an alternative to traditional acquisitions, companies are making more of these minority investments. In fact, corporate venture capital now accounts for nearly a ...
Aug 17, 2022•12 min
The haters are coming out of the woodwork after the PepsiCo and Celsius Holdings deal, but can’t we all be collegial and appreciate just how impressive its growth story has been? Celsius Holdings (NASDAQ: CELH) hit another record quarterly revenue ($154 million - up 137% YoY) and represented its 16th consecutive quarter of sequential growth for the energy drinks brand. While Celsius energy drinks saw massive growth in convenience stores, mass retailers like Walmart, the club channel, and the Ama...
Aug 10, 2022•13 min
Did Netflix just create an ‘in real life” entertainment CPG go-to-market playbook? While I appreciated the expansiveness, sharper storylines, amazing cinematography, and darker nature of Season 4 like most other fans of Stranger Things, the CPG industry strategist in me couldn’t help but notice something else…Surfer Boy Pizza. This was a fake pizza restaurant chain that had a reoccurring theme throughout Season 4, but did you know that you could actually buy a real Surfer Boy Pizza at Walmart? T...
Aug 09, 2022•11 min
Will Dymatize have enough power remaining in its growth story to make up for some predicted Premier Protein headwinds from a product recall? As I normally do with my performance update content of publicly-traded functional CPG brands, I will use the recently filled earnings report, earnings conference call, and any relevant publicly disclosed news, in this case it’s Bellring Brands (NYSE: BRBR) 2022 Q3 earnings release, to obviously update you on the performance of brands in that portfolio, but ...
Aug 06, 2022•11 min
The Vitamin Shoppe is on pace to have it's highest topline revenue in the company's history. 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 supplement retailer’s turnaround hasn’t been front and center, but overlooking it would...
Aug 05, 2022•12 min
It was just announced that PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP) entered into a long-term agreement to be the preferred global distribution partner for Celsius Holdings (NASDAQ: CELH). PepsiCo will also make a net cash investment of $550 million in exchange for 8.5% ownership of Celsius Holdings. With the Bang Energy deal coming to an abrupt end in June 2022, PepsiCo couldn’t risk falling behind in one of the fastest growing mature beverage categories. So, what does the PepsiCo and Celsius Holdings deal mean to...
Aug 02, 2022•12 min
Pivotal is an interview-style segment that tackles topics in consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) from the business leaders that live it EVERY DAY! My guest on this episode is a fellow Austintown Fitch High School alumnus that just happens to also be a beverage industry superstar. Chris Hunter shares how that Youngstown, OH upbringing shaped his brand building process that’s spanned categorical opposites from Four Loko alcoholic beverages to now Koia plant-based he...
Aug 01, 2022•42 min
The fitness world has always been fast-changing, but did the life-altering last two plus years create additional opportunities for supplement (sports nutrition) brands to focus on endurance activity participants? Maybe we all want to wipe this from our memories, but it wasn’t too long ago that gyms across the country were closed, bikes (both traditional and stationary exercise ones) were sold out everywhere and going for a run was one of the few legally approved ways to leave your home. While th...
Jul 28, 2022•15 min
Amazon’s private-label business started in 2005 with bedding offerings under the Pinzon brand name. It then expanded into consumer electronics products and eventually other categories under Amazon Basics. It now encompasses everything from vitamins and coffee to clothing and furniture under the veil of more than 1000 brands at this point that could be over half a million SKUs. At just face value, that’s a shit load of private label brands and products. In comparison, Target has about 50 private ...
Jul 25, 2022•10 min
Grubhub and Amazon recently announced they had entered into a strategic partnership. As a part of the deal, Amazon Prime members in the United States have the ability to get Grubhub Plus for an entire year free. That means somewhere around 150 million American households that reportedly have an Amazon Prime membership can use Grubhub without delivery fees in more than 4,000 U.S. cities. That’s fairly massive news if you ask me. Why? I'll explain why why each party entered into this strategic par...
Jul 21, 2022•9 min
Pivotal is an interview-style segment that tackles topics in consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) from the business leaders that live it EVERY DAY! My guest on this episode has quickly become one of my favorite new connections on LinkedIn. But when Will Nitze isn’t pumping out consistent thought provoking content that spans all over the CPG entrepreneurship spectrum, he is running the popular brain nutrition brand IQBAR. Coming from zero previous CPG experience, Wi...
Jul 18, 2022•52 min
This is a special edition esports strategy conversation that I had with my good buddy Dan Lourenco (Co-Founder and CEO of GHOST Lifestyle) on behalf of Natural Products Insider. Dan and I talked through some trending topics within esports, the broader gaming ecosystem, and how the supplement industry should be responding to it. We also discussed the launch of GHOST Gamer, how officially licensed flavors are resonating with gamers, and what the FaZe Clan partnership could mean to GHOST. Fact is, ...
Jul 14, 2022•14 min
Is the weight management category of the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry dying or is it lowkey evolving into something more interesting now? Americans are still extremely interested in weight management. Yes, it has seen several cycles of ups and downs during the pandemic era, but I’d argue the extra unwanted pounds gained by the average American during these last two or so years has only elevated the long-term outlook for the weight management category. There are the obvious health-relat...
Jul 11, 2022•12 min
Did you know that the self-help guru Tai Lopez (aka “here in my garage” guy) is the son of a professional bodybuilder? Why exactly could that useless piece of trivia knowledge be important now? Let’s connect the dots between what Tai Lopez has been focusing on professionally for the last three years and bodybuilding. In 2019, Tai Lopez and his business partner Alex Mehr founded the private equity firm Retail Ecommerce Ventures. The goal is to transform well-known undervalued retail brands into e...
Jul 07, 2022•9 min
Pivotal is an interview-style segment that tackles topics in consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) from the business leaders that live it EVERY DAY! My guest on this episode is an absolute Rockstar. Before becoming the Chief Digital Officer at one of my favorite digital-first CPG brands HighKey, he was the Co-Founder of the meal delivery company Factor_ that sold to Hello Fresh for almost $300 million. We cover a crucial story at the end of our conversation about ho...
Jul 06, 2022•43 min
