Food Industry News, Insights, and Education for the CPG Community

The BevNET team is hosting a SoCal food, beverage and beer industry meetup on Wednesday, September 25th from 5PM to 7PM PT. Join Naturally San Diego and our BevNET San Diego team, as well as the Producer & Editor of Taste Radio, Ray Latif, and Taste Radio co-hosts John Craven, Mike Schneider and Jacqui Brugliera.

Mars, Inc. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Kellanova for $83.50 per share in cash, representing a total enterprise value of $35.9 billion.

Goodles is turning the box on its head once again and looking to shake out a notch more of nostalgia for a new consumer group.

Jane Miller and Justin Gold, two well-known CPG innovators who are now leading the revitalization of Rudi’s Rocky Mountain Bakery, will discuss their methods for finding the thread of growth within choppy waters.

Smoothie powder producer Kencko is taking its freeze-drying expertise to a new aisles. The New York-based company recently introduced a new line of Iced Lattes and more as it marks it first year in retail.

Also in this issue: this week’s new products including a giant Pop-Tart and Oreo cream cheese, details on Beyond Meat’s continued climb, news of Conagra’s latest protein acquisition, Above Food adds more ingredient muscle and more.

In this week’s new products roundup, Pop-Tarts unveils its biggest product yet, Chia Smash launches a line of poppable PB&J bites, and Fishwife releases its new-and-improved Smoked Rainbow Trout after two years of R&D.

Beyond Meat made progress in its mission to reach profitable growth in Q2 with gross margins and profits increasing despite a net revenue drop of -8.8% year-over-year.

Laird Superfood showed “tremendous progress” in Q2 posting net sales of $10 million on the back of its DTC and ecommerce growth.

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.

The CPG Week podcast team talks “zombie brands,” a rumored mega-merger of snacks and sweets, beverage brands earnings, and more legal woes for PRIME.

Irresistible Foods Group – the umbrella company behind King’s Hawaiian, Grillo’s Pickles and Shaka Tea – is adding The Killer Brownie Company to its portfolio after taking a majority stake in the baked sweets maker.

Dairy cheese stinks, literally. Plant-based cheese (typically) doesn’t. That’s why category newcomer Plonts is seeking to crack the code by using microbes to achieve crowd-appealing taste, texture and smell.

Instacart’s core business has moved well beyond its origins in the gig-economy, third-party delivery space as it diversifies deeper into tech-based services. And those efforts appear to be paying off.