When legacy CPG brands hear about trending movements like leveraging upcycled ingredients, I imagine all the oldheads sitting in a conference room acting like a scene from The Office. Oh…but then there’s the 117-year-old family-owned Spangler Candy Company, that’s headquartered in the great state of Ohio. See...the candy maker must have recently instituted “bring your Gen Z granddaughter or grandson to workday” because it just invented the perfect circularity strategy. The Spangler Candy Company...
Feb 12, 2024•59 sec
Premier Protein just confidently deployed a product strategy that could be key to its future growth…now it just needs to get the execution details right! BellRing Brands (NYSE: BRBR) is a portfolio that owns a collection of convenient nutrition brands like Premier Protein and Dymatize Nutrition, which was previously wholly-owned by Post Holdings. A fast-paced and busy lifestyle is pushing consumers to switch to quick and healthy meal options. This has resulted in above average categorical growth...
Feb 07, 2024•13 min
How crazy is it to think that the “Church of Dr. Andrew Huberman” has grown to millions of regular worshippers in only a few short years? And this is at a time when attention spans are getting shorter, Americans’ trust in scientists is declining, and misinformation seems to be rampant...but maybe that’s actually a key part of this recipe for success. Admittedly, I’m not a Huberman Husband or have been indoctrinated into Hubermania (yet)…but it’s the broader cultural phenomenon, that’s powering t...
Feb 06, 2024•13 min
There are rules that need no introduction. They're not documented in books nor authorized by law, and still, they govern our daily lives. The problem with unwritten rules is they’re unwritten…and that leads to misunderstandings, especially in a constantly changing world! Take the supplement industry…there was this unwritten rule that children were generally off limits. That is unless that brand was owned by Big CPG. Then, the “Great Lockdown” happened in 2020! A LOT of converging forces produced...
Feb 05, 2024•57 sec
Footwear, apparel, and now nutrition…does the Tom Brady-infused NOBULL have what it takes to build a “complete wellness company”? To be fully honest, it’s been maybe four or five years since I’ve thought deeply about the TB12 brand. While the ideological foundation of the brand was (and still is) compelling, I became disinterested relatively quickly…as the level of execution required to bring that brand distinctiveness to life just wasn’t initially apparent. But my TB12 interest was reinvigorate...
Feb 01, 2024•13 min
When you think about the celebrity packaged goods movement, which food/beverage categories come to mind first? I’m going to guess that very few of you had frozen dinners pop up in your head…but maybe that changes soon. Manufactured in partnership with Golden West Food, and available exclusively at Walmart, “MasterChef” Gordon Ramsay, Guy Fieri, and several other celebrity chefs are bringing their colorful charisma to the frozen section. For many years, frozen food companies attempted to attract ...
Jan 29, 2024•56 sec
Did we just become best friends Matthew Moulding? Because any CEO of a multibillion-dollar company that throws “Easter eggs” into an internal companywide video and then shares it publicly on Linkedin is my kind of guy! THG (aka the company formerly known as The Hut Group) recently updated the public markets by releasing its 2023 Q4 earnings report. I’ll be utilizing that financial information, along with notes I took listening to the earnings conference call, and any relevant publicly disclosed ...
Jan 22, 2024•13 min
I’ve declared in the past that CPG brands must pivot from linear thinking to advancing a truly circular economy. Yet, I’m 100% sure I wasn’t envisioning this strategic transition in the same way as the sports drinks brand Release. Where does “the world's first fully reusable energy drink” source its “upcycled functional ingredients”? At the same place it became a top-selling beverage brand…Amazon. Confused? Well…whether Amazon delivery drivers simply have trouble finding public restrooms or they...
Jan 22, 2024•57 sec
I think my base case for last year's Nutrabolt "outlandish prediction" is still sound, albeit I was too bullish timing-wise on the IPO markets. But it's what I mentioned at the very end of that prediction…about Nutrabolt wanting to build the health and wellness version of The Kraft Heinz Company, which also aligns to the inspiration for this content. On January 17, 2024, Nutrabolt (makers of C4 Energy) announced that it made a significant minority investment into Bloom Nutrition. The investment ...
Jan 18, 2024•15 min
In the late-2010s, the supplement industry experienced a commercialization paradigm shift with stick packs because of what I dubbed the “Liquid I.V. Effect." What was once a packaging format most notably utilized for product sampling in the supplement industry became a foundational strategic element of a billion-dollar supplement brand. Now…it’s undeniable that stick packs have quietly become a ubiquitous packaging format central to many leading supplement products, as its value comes from its a...
Jan 16, 2024•9 min
Milk is a liquid produced by mammals, and a plant, as I’m sure y’all realize, is not a mammal. Big Dairy is paying me to say that plant milks are HAHA just kidding. But the controversy around this nomenclature isn’t new. In fact, twelve years ago…the FDA even issued a warning letter to Cytosport about the fact that their flagship protein supplement, Muscle Milk, contained no actual milk. Hold on though because this content is about to get really meta. PepsiCo just announced that it is bringing M...
Jan 15, 2024•50 sec
I want to welcome you back to another episode of what I’ve branded Pivotal since these interview-style segments tackle impactful CPG industry topics and lessons from the business leaders that live it EVERY DAY! At the end of 2022, when I pitched the idea to host these collaborative holistic categorical deep dive sessions with the wellness-focused data company SPINS, Scott Dicker (Market Insights Director - SPINS) and I knew we wanted to start close to our passions with a sort of sports/active nu...
Jan 11, 2024•49 min
During the 15-year stretch from 2004 to midway through 2019, the top three brands within the U.S. energy drinks market went unchanged (e.g. Red Bull, Monster Energy, and Rockstar Energy). But then Bang Energy blasted past Rockstar Energy that summer with a staggering 700%+ YoY growth rate…ending the 2019 calendar year at around $1.2 billion in sales. This sent shockwaves across the packaged beverage space for many reasons, but I want to focus on a particular aspect of the “Bang Effect.” It’s tim...
Jan 08, 2024•12 min
Just when you thought Amazon couldn’t up its artificial intelligence game any further, the retailing giant introduced one of its most influential resources yet. No, Autofac…I mean Amazon isn’t letting the machines lose yet, but they did introduce generative AI to one of the oldest and most important features on Amazon…customer reviews! To see this in action, let’s look at Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey. The first generative AI layer you’ll notice is with an overall review summary, which is...
Jan 08, 2024•54 sec
The Simply Good Foods Company isn’t salty with the recent performance at Quest Nutrition, but it does want more. In this latest episode, I'll utilize the 2024 Q1 Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ: SMPL) earnings report, earnings call, and supplemental presentations that were filed on 1/4/2024 as the backdrop to provide broad nutritional snacking market insights. In Q1 of fiscal 2024, both Atkins Nutritionals and Quest Nutrition performed well against the categorical competitors in tacked channel...
Jan 04, 2024•11 min
Republican and Democrat congressional members can’t agree on almost anything anymore. That is unless we are talking about their favorite energy drink. Vending machines sprinkled across government buildings are stocked exclusively with CELSIUS. One government staffer noted, “Congress would probably go into a government shutdown without CELSIUS.” And maybe that’s the real reason Dunkin’ recently decided to authorize merchandising the energy drink brand in store locations…because they knew “America...
Jan 01, 2024•58 sec
What happens when you combine the number one brand in the convenient nutrition category, a sales channel revenue diversification opportunity with 150K U.S. locations, and a beverage portfolio that’s recently shown an affinity for strategic partnerships? If you’re an avid follower of my quarterly content that analyzes the performance of the functional CPG brand portfolio BellRing Brands (NYSE: BRBR), that introductory word problem might sound vaguely familiar. And that’s because at the very end o...
Dec 31, 2023•15 min
After decades of Gatorade sports drinks market dominance, blurring categorical lines and emerging legitimate competitors have begun to create one of the most intriguing functional CPG spaces to watch in the coming years. The overall U.S. market size of sports drinks is just shy of $13 billion…growing around 12% YoY. Increases in total household penetration, average spending per household, purchase frequency, and spends per unit/trip are driving the sales growth. The current market leader is stil...
Dec 29, 2023•14 min
Maybe I’m just in the holiday spirit because our Christmas tree is right outside the door of my home office, but I’ve always considered this time of year as a high point for CPG industry marketing. I don’t think it has much to do with Christmas cheer though…instead it likely centers around the universally known fact that consumers typically buy more items…and CPG marketers must work extra hard to earn attention and dollars. That being said, one of my all-time favorite CPG marketing efforts combi...
Dec 25, 2023•50 sec
I consider myself extremely lucky that I didn’t ignore those topics, activities, and ideas that dominated a significant amount of my time throughout life. While I don’t think I have any special talents, I’ve been passionately curious about the intersections of those things…and that has allowed me to create this wonderful professional life today. That being said, I’m naturally drawn to people that have similar approaches to life. So, it shouldn't be of any surprise to you why Mark French and I ha...
Dec 21, 2023•32 min
What does the Republican Party’s 2012 nominee for U.S. President Mitt Romney, the thirteenth-largest global private equity firm, and a supplement brand portfolio that will likely IPO next year…have to do with each other? A LOT more than you might think! On December 13, Bain Capital signed a definitive agreement to acquire a significant stake in 1440 Foods. You might not recognize the brand portfolio name 1440 Foods, but it was created from the leftover sports and active nutrition division (i.e. ...
Dec 19, 2023•12 min
Do you remember in late 2021 when I predicted that the "gummification of the supplement industry" would finally start making its way into the sports nutrition category? Those of us forward-leaning strategists have known forever that some of the biggest growth areas within the sports nutrition industry are likely to come from a widening of traditional definitions, as well as products coming to market in alternative delivery forms. That sounds like a perfect set-up for what’s been going on within ...
Dec 18, 2023•54 sec
From Canopy Growth acquiring a majority stake in BioSteel four years ago…to the rise and fall of the supplement turned sports drink brand, I’ve attempted to contextualize the marketplace data and provide insights into would be valuable to the functional CPG community. But with BioSteel officially emerging from bankruptcy recently with a new owner, I thought it would be important to reconcile some of my “what’s next” predictions from the last piece of content. And who’s better at helping me do th...
Dec 13, 2023•37 min
What’s up guys, it’s your boy Joshy Pooh! OK…OK…that poor attempt at copying Maxx Chewning was not authentic. So, I guess according to the famous Dan Lourenco saying "authenticity is undefeated," I'm taking a loss here. But let’s talk about the recent GHOST x Sour Strips collaboration a bit though. Tons of content out there already on the amazing taste of the products and overall cool factor, which is par for the course with GHOST, but here’s what I loved about the collab…the tactful ability of ...
Dec 11, 2023•50 sec
There has been A LOT of change at the convenient nutrition brand HUEL. But on the other hand, A LOT has stayed the same…which is maybe at the heart as to why HUEL has been so successful. But you might remember that almost exactly two years ago, I made my last piece of dedicated content about HUEL (https://youtu.be/UOiTExb1fk0). In that previous content, I was primarily focused on breaking down the predicted huge discussion that HUEL leadership was internally partaking in…about exit event optiona...
Dec 06, 2023•14 min
Is the sports and active nutrition space really the influential epicenter of the CPG world? I’ve made that confident declaration A LOT lately, but I have to be honest…behind closed doors I’m just waiting for someone to call me out one of its massive blind spots (like sustainability). But as Deion Sanders recently said, "you better come get us now because this is the worst we will ever be." While there’s still tons of industry-wide work that needs to be done, I’m inspired by a recent innovative s...
Dec 04, 2023•49 sec
I’m not sure if the Canadian bankruptcy courts are just wildly more efficient than in the United States, but we already have a major announcement in the BioSteel court-supervised sale process. For those that haven’t been following my previous content on this business activity…and recognize BioSteel probably from all the prominent sports marketing deals (e.g. NHL sponsorship), you might be wondering why previous owner Canopy Growth didn’t just find a potential buyer itself? It did two separate ti...
Nov 28, 2023•9 min
G Fuel decided to invite “the suits” into its cool kids’ club. Will this result in a similar FaZe Clan-like collapse or does this turn out differently for G Fuel? If you haven't seen the headlines yet from November 16th, G Fuel announced that it received a significant cash investment from private equity firms Kingswood Capital Management and First Bev. Precise terms of the 8-figure deal were not immediately released, but the deal provides significant growth equity for G Fuel. Alongside the inves...
Nov 27, 2023•16 min
Gamers are no longer that stigmatized nerdy and overweight young white male cohort who live in their parents’ basements. With an increasing number of people playing, broadcasting, and watching esports, the multi-billion-dollar gaming ecosystem is without a doubt cementing itself as a straight up cultural phenomenon. So, maybe it’s time to retire the stereotype that gamers are only interested in unhealthy snacks, caffeine drinks, and pizzas for marathon gaming sessions? Nissin Foods, maker of pop...
Nov 27, 2023•58 sec
I think it’s finally time for THG to file the necessary SEC paperwork, so my September 2022 MyProtein prediction can become a reality. THG (aka the company formerly known as The Hut Group) recently updated the public markets by releasing its 2023 Q3 earnings report. I’ll be utilizing that financial information, along with notes I took listening to the earnings conference call, and any relevant publicly disclosed information to obviously update you on the recent performance of THG Nutrition divis...
Nov 25, 2023•13 min
