Data insights company Circana just released its year-end recap analysis (and outlook) for the global retail food and beverage industry. To save you time (and a few headaches) from all that reading, I’ve compiled my top takeaways from that dense presentation. The first is that consumers are adopting more selective buying habits in hopes of making more room for discretionary items. Moreover, that’s manifesting itself in shifting shopping patterns…as consumers are making more trips but buying fewer...
Feb 03, 2025•55 sec
Ferrero Group recently announced it had signed an agreement to acquire Power Crunch. But why would the one of the world's largest sweet-packaged food companies acquire Power Crunch? Ferrero Group is no different than other multinational confectionary giants from Hershey’s to Mondelez and Mars, as involvement within the bar format of convenient nutrition is not abnormal (whether entering through M&A activity or brand extension development). In fact, Power Crunch isn’t even the first deal by F...
Jan 30, 2025•13 min
After getting ghosted, Anheuser-Busch puts together a deal that no one saw coming [well almost no one]. But maybe why this deal news announcement by Anheuser-Busch caught so many off guard was that (even being in market more than two years now) the trailing twelve months of tracked channel retail sales for the 1st Phorm Energy drink would rank them just inside the Top 50 energy drink brands in the U.S. market. But as you'll hear in the content, even if comparative growth rates were sharply incre...
Jan 27, 2025•16 min
Why did the U.S. subsidiary that owns Stoli vodka (and many other alcohol brands) recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection? The most obvious answer is that everyone in America has stopped drinking alcohol, right? But if only every complex question could be answered plain and simple! Unfortunately, this is a dark tale twisted in time that arguably started with a countertrade agreement that eventually involved Pepsi owning a fleet of Soviet military ships. No really…watch the related vi...
Jan 27, 2025•55 sec
Private label CPG is growing…and fast! Many will point to continued inflation as the major support for consumers switching to private-label alternatives, but what if it stems from a grocery retail CAPEX investment theme that started a decade earlier? Consider the digitalization of supermarkets…facial recognition cameras, AI-powered smart carts, smartphone apps, and I could keep going, but harnessing this Big Data can certainly help grocers create better private label products. So, yes…grocery re...
Jan 20, 2025•58 sec
Looking back is a source of inspiration…rather than a sign of stagnation. But if there is no progress…there must be decline, right? Yet, I’m sure we’re all astutely aware of trend cycles across various forms of cultural expression. And one of my personal favorites can be seen through the Hip Hop music I grew up listening to. And that’s because Hip Hop music isn’t just inspired by jazz and soul…it’s made by recycling and reimagining snippets from those classic records. In fact, the art of music s...
Jan 16, 2025•10 min
When you read the headline “Jenny Craig owner acquires Ancient Nutrition,” it might leave you befuddled…but what if I told you everything actually makes perfect sense? Wellful was essentially created in 2021 when Kainos Capital, a middle-market consumer products focused private equity firm, merged the direct-to-consumer weight management meal solution brand Nutrisystem with the supplement brand portfolio Adaptive Health. But then you need to know that Adaptive Health was formed when Direct Digit...
Jan 14, 2025•10 min
What I’d consider traditional AI has already been built into many backend aspects of the CPG industry, but what about generative AI? I like to describe the ideal CPG industry AI scenario by using an analogy involving NFL offensive lineman. While these players are absolutely essential for success, you typically only acknowledge them when there’s a holding penalty. In the same manner, generative AI will become vital for CPG brands to win long-term. But it’s probably not from the gimmicky or cringy...
Jan 13, 2025•1 min
Quest Nutrition might possess much more revenue diversification compared to when it was acquired more than five years ago, but that doesn’t mean the Quest Bar has become any less of an important piece of the brand’s multibillion-dollar growth puzzle today. In this latest episode, I'll utilize the Q1 2025 Simply Good Foods Company (NASDAQ: SMPL) earnings report, earnings call, and supplemental presentations that were filed on 1/8/2025 as the backdrop to provide broad nutritional snacking market i...
Jan 09, 2025•13 min
I’d like to thank the Austin Business Journal for carrying on this decade-long tradition of sporadically mentioning Nutrabolt IPO rumors after each new major business milestone has been reached. The first IPO rumors showed up in an August 2014 PricePlow blog post…after it noticed a spike in search traffic related to Nutrabolt receiving a significant minority investment from private equity firm, MidOcean Partners. Then, at the end of 2022…I predicted Nutrabolt would go public within the next year...
Jan 07, 2025•14 min
Each year, we’re currently adding more than 70 million new humans to the planet…which should make your head spin if you attempt to grasp how the food supply will handle this immense population proliferation. Were you able to pull an idea out of thin air? Wait a minute…that’s it! In the 1970s, NASA invented a method that allowed astronauts to use oxygen supplies to grow food. While this food technology was basically forgotten for four decades, the nascent air-fermentation-based proteins market is...
Jan 06, 2025•57 sec
If you haven’t noticed by now, I enjoy deconstructing the core mechanics behind different business models to see what makes them successful or not. It means dissecting how various companies generate revenue, understand their value propositions, identify their target markets, and examine the various strategies they use to deliver products and/or services. But I arguably have the most fun when analyzing companies that are generally outside of (but through some strategic decision is now entering) m...
Jan 02, 2025•9 min
What does the mythical phoenix bird rising from its own ashes after bursting into flames have in common with a Canadian supplement brand going public through a reverse takeover transaction? On December 19, 2024, a reverse takeover transaction involving Cizzle Brands was completed…and it was granted conditional approval to list its common shares on CBOE Canada (on December 30, 2024) under the stock ticker symbol CZZL. I’m sure most haven’t heard of Cizzle Brands yet...and that probably stems from...
Dec 30, 2024•10 min
Can we all agree that Liquid Death is the king of the CPG industry when it comes to brand collaborations? It’s newest LTO merch offering solves a major golf etiquette problem…especially for those that “had one too many” Liquid Death and believe golf courses are essentially just massive public bathrooms. Now…instead of always running to the woods to pee, golfers can whizz right on the course in front of everyone. To make this public urination dream become a reality, Liquid Death partnered with no...
Dec 30, 2024•52 sec
On the Monday before the Christmas holiday, USANA Health Sciences (which if you didn’t know is a U.S. public company trading on the NYSE under the stock ticker USNA) announced its acquisition of an almost 79% controlling ownership stake in Hiya Health for a $205 million cash transaction…with contract features providing acquisition of the remaining equity at a pre-negotiated valuation scale. For the last twelve months ended September 30, 2024, Hiya Health generated net sales of $103 million and a...
Dec 27, 2024•11 min
Comparing Poppi and Olipop is like comparing a college sorority girl and a biochemistry lab nerd. So, why does it seem surprising to most beverage industry pundits that consumers aren’t worried about recent claims disputing Poppi’s good-for-your-gut reputation? In the two months since Poppi was hit by a widely publicized class action lawsuit, retail sales numbers continue to crush harder than I am now after seeing Poppi co-founder Allison Ellsworth kill that dance. I’m joking guys…happily marrie...
Dec 23, 2024•59 sec
Several years ago, I explored three strategic paths of extending into nutritional supplements that would be available to major lifestyle brands predominantly known for athletic apparel. And those were obviously entering the supplement category through acquisition, internal brand development, or creating a strategic partnership. But since that original content was released, several large athletic apparel brands have indeed decided to extend into nutritional supplements...and by leveraging each of...
Dec 19, 2024•14 min
It was once famously said that “life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” And that is certainly true regarding how the “Great Shutdown” era impacted American society. But while much of that story is still being written several years later…we can be quite confident that the way people approach their personal health (and wellness) will never quite be the same again. As an example, occasion-based vitamins and supplements thrived as consumers invested in certain conditio...
Dec 17, 2024•14 min
Yogurt! Yogurt! I hate Yogurt! Even with strawberries. Maybe Rick Moranis doesn’t like yogurt because he also has the technology to blow up and then shrink people…but for the more than 37 million Americans with type 2 diabetes, yogurt consumption could be on the rise. That’s because the FDA just announced it will allow the first ever qualified health claim for yogurt…recognizing that three servings per week may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. Diabetes is a top 10 cause of death in America…wh...
Dec 16, 2024•50 sec
About a year ago, Campbell Soup Company CEO Mark Clouse made that statement during a keynote presentation to student leaders saying, "I like to seek out experiences that challenge me. I like to do things that make me a little uncomfortable and that put me in positions where I was learning…where I was trying something that I might not have been great at.” And he’s right…as putting yourself in positions where you're a little uncomfortable (but where you can learn and develop as you move forward) i...
Dec 09, 2024•11 min
Vital Proteins was hardly the first supplement brand to utilize collagen peptides, but it has become a category creator that disrupted the entire protein space. And while most will focus on the brand’s leading share in the collagen market across every U.S. sales channel, I want to talk sustainability at Vital Proteins. For those unaware, collagen peptides are an upcycled byproduct of the meat industry…but Vital Proteins has additional responsible sourcing standards and traceability guidelines. A...
Dec 09, 2024•59 sec
Is the future of convenient nutrition centered around human fuel? Bombarded with tons of complicated information about what they should and shouldn’t eat/drink, busy health-conscious consumers are searching for nutrition simplicity. In fact, U.S. and UK consumers are spending (on average) half as much time preparing food as the previous generation…which is increasing interest (and demand) for high-protein convenient nutrition products. And this makes sense…especially when you consider that prote...
Dec 05, 2024•10 min
Though it certainly wouldn’t go down as the biggest acquisition, totally overlooking last week’s PROMIX Nutrition deal will prove detrimental for any founder building within the supplement industry. In 2011, Albert Matheny founded PROMIX after being unable to find products that matched his standards for ingredient quality, science-backed performance, and product safety. PROMIX lives by the simple mantra “no artificial anything.” To control the product (and ingredient) quality, PROMIX develops it...
Dec 04, 2024•9 min
More than two years ago, I began sharing early indicators around how GLP-1 pharmaceutical weight loss solutions were starting to impact various aspects of functional CPG product categories. And while only an estimated six percent of U.S. adults are currently prescribed GLP-1 medication, it has already become a major disruptor to the entire space. We’re already seeing brands make sharp repositioning moves, initially through mostly marketing communications, to ensure a boost from GLP-1 second-orde...
Dec 02, 2024•57 sec
The side hustle boom is happening across every age group, income level, and industry in America. And that should motivate the functional CPG space to spend extra time analyzing this cultural force. I’m the “product of a side hustle.” And I won’t bore you with all the personal details because it’s not contextually relevant, but I wouldn’t be who I am (or where I am) today if it wasn’t for a string of side hustle pursuits that began at the tail-end of my undergraduate education. But while “always ...
Nov 26, 2024•14 min
We live in an era where health and wellness dominate public conversation, but one person’s voice remains arguably the most powerful catalyst for change. Even at 70-years-old (and more than a decade removed from daytime TV), Oprah Winfrey still very much has the potential to move society. While she’s been a major contributor to diet culture, it’s her recent public discourse that could mark a pivotal moment in public health. Despite the prevalence of obesity (and its association with numerous heal...
Nov 25, 2024•52 sec
With M&A transactions getting louder, it can only mean one thing…protein bar brands are starting to party like it’s 2019 again! In my April 2024 content, I stated for that "party to restart" the protein bar market needed increased deal announcements. And maybe not so surprisingly…it only took less than four months before a deal announcement included a protein bar brand that was included on my list. That’s because in early-August, international private equity firm Cinven announced that it had...
Nov 21, 2024•12 min
Believe it or not…it’s already been five years since Post Holdings spun-off its “active nutrition brand portfolio” to create BellRing Brands. But while being nostalgic can be fun…I’m more interested in pondering what the next five years could look like. 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 consumer...
Nov 20, 2024•22 min
Is the best college football coach of all time Nick Saban? Is “Goodfellas” the best mob movie? Does Handel’s Ice Cream taste the best? Or how about…am I the world’s best dad? There is no such thing as “best,” even if the art created by my newborn son Axton (that hangs on my home office wall) states that “hands down” I am the world’s best dad! There is no “best” or “worst,” only different…and everything has a value that can only be truly measured subjectively. So, despite CPG brands still lazily ...
Nov 18, 2024•44 min
Do you remember last year when Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard revealed their kids sometimes order non-alcoholic beer at restaurants. Well…it sparked an important discussion around how the emerging alcohol-like beverage category fits into the consumption habits of minors. When Recess Mood or a “beer” from Athletic Brewing were conceptualized, these entrepreneurs created products with adults in mind. But broken down to their most basic ingredients, many are hardly different from juice, soda, or komb...
Nov 18, 2024•54 sec
