Jeff Klineman

Peter Rahal built his reputation on RXBAR, a product that clearly stated its few ingredients on the front of the package. His newest product, part of his growing David protein bar empire, purports to have just one ingredient: Frozen, boiled cod.

The abrupt closure of Lincoln, R.I.-based co-packer Plants to Food has left several brands wondering where and when they will be able to access their products.

Last week’s blockbuster investment news about David – including a $75 million round from investors and a post-money valuation of $725 million, according to co-founder Peter Rahal – is also creating a supply chain gridlock for a number of other brands.

Presence Marketing, a natural products brokerage firm that grew out of its Chicagoland founding in 1990 to become the largest independent sales and marketing organization in its channel, has been bought by PLTFRM, a multi-channel sales, marketing, and investment company.

As businesses entered the weekend, there was a strong sense of realization: it’s happening. Tariffs on a wide variety of goods are effective as of Tuesday, Feb. 4; retaliatory tariffs are almost sure to follow. So, we asked the experts what to expect.

Over the past year-plus, we’ve written repeatedly about the slowdown in venture funding and strategic transactions, and panelists on our stages continue to point out that they’d rather see brands with high margins and profitability.

Big-brand portfolio reshuffling isn’t going to all of a sudden clear a pathway to acquisition for tiny brands to get scooped up by huge food concerns – at least not right now. Instead, strategics are looking for those billion-dollar acquisitions that can bring them tangible revenue gains.

For a summer without a whole lot of financial news, the rumored buyout of snacking giant Kellanova by legacy candy maker Mars hit like Hurricane Debby. The potential for a company with an estimated combined revenue of $60 billion, after all, carries a lot of crosswinds.

So if there were no fireworks going off on the deal front last quarter, that’s because they had a long enough fuse to extend into April.

An important source of working capital for early stage food and beverage entrepreneurs is in turmoil as fintech consumer brand lender Ampla and its investors have spent the last several weeks fighting off collapse.