The Checkout: Bountiful Company’s Former Sports and Nutrition Unit Acquired; Ashton Kutcher Invests In MeaTech
Welcome to The Checkout: an express lane for the weekly news you need to know, always 10 items or less.
4×4 Capital Buys The Bountiful Company’s Sports and Active Nutrition Division
New York-based investment firm 4×4 Capital this week acquired The Bountiful Company’s former sports and active nutrition business from its prior owners, KKR and The Carlyle Group, who sold the company and its vitamin and supplements brands to Nestlé earlier this year. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Brands included in the transaction are protein snack and shake brand Pure Protein; protein powder maker Body Fortress; meal replacement brand MET-Rx; and nutrition bar maker Balance.
“With wellness-focused eating and drinking on the rise, protein has become a mainstream category,” 4×4 Capital co-founder Alex Medicis said in a press release. “We look forward to partnering with Kent and his team to maximize long-term growth by offering great tasting products that will help people in their search for a healthier lifestyle.”
Former Bountiful Company general manager Ken Cunningham will continue to lead the business. The sports and active nutrition unit has operated under the name Worldwide Sports & Nutrition Supplements since the close of the Nestlé acquisition.
“Alex and his partners bring world-class management expertise and an impressive operational track record,” Cunningham said. “Their long-term view on value creation aligns with our excitement for what’s next in active nutrition.”
The sale follows Nestlé’s acquisition of the company’s vitamin and supplement unit, including Nature’s Bounty, Solgar, Osteo Bi-Flex and Puritan’s Pride as well as its U.S. private label business, earlier this year. While those brands were integrated into its Nestlé Health Science division, in a press release, Nestlé said it declined to purchase Bountiful’s sports and active nutrition brands because they did not “complement its existing portfolio.”
In 2017 Global investment firm KKR acquired majority control of The Bountiful Company, then known as The Nature’s Bounty Co., from Carlyle, who retained a significant stake in the company. The company rebranded to The Bountiful Company in January 2021.
Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures Partners With MeaTech
Israel-based cultivated meat producer MeaTech 3D Ltd. is partnering with venture capital and private equity firm Sound Ventures co-founders actor and investor Ashton Kutcher and talent manager Guy Oseary, along with managing partner Effie Epstein, the company announced this week.
In a press release, MeaTech CEO Sharon Fima called the partnership a “strategic collaboration” to help the company reach its goal to be a leading player in the cultivated meat industry. Details of the partnership, including capital investment, were not disclosed.
“We will leverage their expertise and relationships with key industry players to help us propel our strategy, go-to-market activities and brand,” Fima simply said.
Launched in 2019, MeaTech is developing manufacturing technologies to produce cultured alt-protein products such as marbled steaks. Kutcher said the company was part of Sound Venture’s efforts to support sustainability focused businesses.
“We are excited about MeaTech’s innovative technologies, which we believe position MeaTech to be the leader in industrial scale production of cultured meat,” he said. “The engagement with MeaTech is in line with our group’s mission to provide sustainable solutions through company building, investment, and acceleration of companies and technologies across various sustainability domains.”
Kutcher is the latest celebrity investor to enter the cultivated meat space, following actor and activist Leonardo DiCaprio’s investment in Mosa Meat and Aleph Farms last month.
Nestlé Tests “Vrimp” in Europe
Nestlé this week unveiled two alt-protein innovations it is testing in the European market — plant-based eggs and shrimp. Both products have rolled out under its Garden Gourmet line.The soy-based egg alternatives are debuting under the name “vEGGie,” while the seaweed, pea and konjac root-based shrimp launched as “Vrimp.”
Both products were developed at Nestlé Research in Switzerland and its R&D Center for culinary food in Germany. The multinational corporation is testing the products in a limited number of stores in both countries. Nestlé chief technology officer Stefan Palze said the company’s “longstanding expertise in plant, protein and nutritional sciences” allowed it to develop the new innovations in less than a year.
The launches follow the August 2020 debut of Garden Gourmet Vuna, sold in Switzerland, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. Amid the launch this week, Palze said in a press release the company is “already preparing the next wave of plant-based launches.”
Should the new plant-based products eventually roll out to a wider audience, they’ll face competition from several startups, such as Eat Just’s and New Wave Foods.
SnackMagic Launches “Cardboard Vending Machines”
Snack box service SnackMagic this week debuted what it’s calling “Cardboard Vending Machines” as a way for small businesses to make additional revenue and raise money for nonprofits while offering brands on its platform new discovery opportunities.
The vending machines are essentially just open boxes featuring 50 to 100 snacks consumers can buy using a displayed QR code. Designed for co-working spaces, Ubers and Lyfts, coffee shops and hotels and rentals, business owners can choose to “Give It, Split It or Keep It” when it comes to revenues, that is donate or bank the revenue from snack sales. SnackMagic has begun testing the boxes in New York City and San Francisco.
The boxes are customizable both in terms of branding and snack selection. SnackMagic will track the inventory through the QR codes and automatically send refills for snacks that are sold. The company has begun testing the boxes in New York City and San Francisco at locations like coffee shops, Airbnbs and gyms.
Launched as Stadium in 2014, SnackMagic pivoted at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and secured $15 million in funding in April.
“As a business born out of the pandemic, everyone at SnackMagic understands the need to pivot and it’s so important to us to find ways to support those in need, whether a non-profit organization or the small business economy,” founder and CEO Shaunak Amin said in a press release. “Now, we’re able to help businesses add another revenue stream or easily introduce a philanthropy component to seamlessly raise funds for a meaningful cause.”
