News

Nutrition platform brand Bulletproof 360 today announced a $13 million capital raise to fund the brand’s omnichannel expansion and the development of products in new and existing categories. The raise was led by Beliv, the Latin America-based business unit of multinational beverage corporation the CBC Group, and Rocana Ventures along with existing investors CAVU Venture Partners and Trinity Ventures.

Financial services firm Barclays’ annual Global Consumer Staples Conference was held online from Wednesday to Friday last week, giving big CPG producers a chance to provide business updates and insights. During the event, company executives discussed plans to evolve their respective portfolios and channel strategies in the coming months while reflecting on recent hurdles experienced during the pandemic.

As special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) targeting the CPG sector have experienced a sudden surge in interest this year, Clayton Christopher is the latest food and beverage industry veteran to join the party.

A panel of six food and beverage entrepreneurs from across the country joined up with BevNET Editor in Chief Jeff Klineman to discuss the challenges that the summer of 2020 — and the ongoing struggle with a global pandemic — brought them. Speakers addressed ways they are overcoming challenges around production, financing, sales and marketing, offering support and advice to each other.

Soozy’s is looking to grow the grain-free category. This summer the brand launched frozen bread and bagels as well as shelf-stable cookies into Whole Food Market stores nationally, expanding its retail footprint to 2,000 stores.

Dip and salad dressing brand Litehouse Foods is ready to expand beyond the produce section after announcing today that it had completed the acquisition of pasta alternative company Veggiecraft Farms in July. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

In this week’s Checkout, Kroger reports Q2 results, OSHA fines Smithfield for COVID-19-related issues and hemp advocacy and natural product associations support new CBD supplement bill.

While it’s fairly common for startup food brands to face challenges in their first few years, there aren’t too many that are thought of as nice-to-haves. Still, Joel Warady believes that things could be a lot worse as he moves into the president’s role at keto-friendly snack brand Catalina Crunch.

We’re almost to the finish line! In this episode, not only will you see the end design result, but you’ll also get to hear directly from Melissa. She’ll go into detail about the most critical learnings and how she felt about the process.

Last month Melissa Facchina, founder and CEO of outsourced operations firm Siddhi Ops, and the Finn Family, the backers of Martstar investments, announced the close of their first fund under the newly formed firm Siddhi Capital. Facchina will also partner with the father and son duo of Brian Finn (the former CEO of Credit Suisse USA) and Steven Finn on a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC.