News

Can collagen move from its fitness fan-base to mainstream? Vital Proteins and its new investor CAVU Venture Partners thinks so. Yesterday the the “collagen-boosting nutrition” brand announced a $19 million investment from CAVU to support its rapid growth.

The Kellogg Company and Mondelez Inc., the CPG leaders posted their first revenue growth in years on Tuesday during their respective quarterly earnings calls. While part of the growth is a result of the value of the dollar overseas, part of the success is due to how the two brands are innovating and strategizing.

Two coffee-forward brands are getting a jolt after receiving investments. Eat Your Coffee, an energy bar company using coffee as an ingredient and as its caffeine source, and Alpine Start, a maker of instant coffee, both announced last week that they raised funds.

CircleUp is hitching its growth fund to Helio. The online fundraising platform today announced the launch of a $125 million venture capital fund that will incorporate the proprietary machine learning platform as a tool to help guide investment in early-stage consumer and retail companies.

In the battle to attract consumers to clean label products, it’s about more than just ingredient certifications and claims. That’s what Irish global ingredient supplier Kerry Group found out as the result of research into labeling as the company tries to shape strategies that will guide its plans for customers’ innovation pipelines.

Over the past few years, center store brands have been hurting –canned foods in particular. Given consumers penchant for “fresher” foods, soup producers, including CPG leaders Campbells and Progresso, have been forced to come up with new lines to appeal to shoppers: First Campbell’s with its release of two lines of refrigerated soup and now Progresso with its recent launch of an organic canned soup line.

In this week’s episode of Taste Radio, we spoke with Hint’s Kara Goldin about how her experiences in the tech world helped shape the business strategy. Goldin also explained how she overcame early challenges of a food and beverage industry long dominated by legacy brands

Last week global food and beverage company Nestle finalized its purchase of plant-based food producer, Sweet Earth. Founded in 2011 by the former global VP of marketing for Calvin Klein and former CMO of Pepsi, the company offers over 50 frozen and refrigerated products, all using a variety of plant-protein sources, including beans, chickpeas, seeds, nuts and seitan.

During last week’s National Association of Convenience Stores Show (NACS) 2017 in Chicago, Illinois, a panel evaluated the implications of a Trump-led White House for the industry, separating policy changes into “the good and the bad and the unknown.” Here’s how the panelists think Donald Trump’s presidency has shaped the convenience channel thus far.