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

In this week’s notable new products roundup, Lesser Evil teams up with RIND to launch Piña Colada popcorn, Clevr introduces a new line of SuperTeas and YumEarth expands its Ultimate Line of sweet treats.

The annual report tracks the top 100 food and beverage and top 100 nonfood product launches that completed a full year of sales in 2022, which combined reached $6.8 billion in year-one sales, up from $6 billion the year before. Within food and beverage alone, “New Product Pacesetter” brands reached nearly $3.5 billion in sales, a 19% increase from 2021.

On this week’s show, the team chats about a recent move from Sonoma Creamery and runs down some nutty news from Campbell’s. Later, Neil Booher, VP of Crisis and Reputation Risk at Edelman explains how business leaders should navigate crises that enter the public eye.

MyForest Foods, maker of plant-based, mycelium-grown bacon alternative MyBacon, announced yesterday it has added an additional $15 million in capital to accelerate retail and foodservice distribution across the East Coast and appointed a new CEO.

The Campbell Soup Company reported Q3 FY2023 earnings in line with its expectations as net sales grew 5%, according to the company’s earnings report this morning. Reported earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) fell by 14% to $254 million and adjusted EBIT was down 2% to $313 million.

J.M. Smucker Co. reported a 10% net sales growth year-over-year on the back of its coffee and Uncrustables brands during its Q4 earnings call and is expecting about $8.5 billion in sales for FY2024 with gross margins hovering around 36.5% to 37%.

Kids nutrition company PlantBaby is making its first foray into food with the launch of Kiki Butter, a multi-use spreadable and blendable oat and seed butter.

Meati is cutting its workforce by about 5%, affecting about 17 employees of the 300-person company less than six months after the mycelium-based protein company opened a new 100,000 sq. ft. production facility.

In this week’s notable new products roundup, Blender Bites launches its new 1-Step Frappé innovation, Rao’s announces a pop-up in Chicago showcasing five new SKUs and Three Wishes takes inspiration from a classic fireside treat to create its newest flavor.

In this roundup: Texas passes new bill on plant-based product labels; Albertsons consolidates its leading private label line; Kraft launches in the frozen aisle; and Oath Pizza CEO sued by investors.

This week the NOSH team revisits some important lessons and stories shared during NOSH Live Winter 2022 with Suzie York, founder and CEO of The Better Chocolate and Matt Clifford, CEO of CanDo. Both have moved onto their second endeavors in the world of CPG and share how they applied certain learnings from their first businesses, the second time around.

Health and wellness-focused CPG investment firm Selva Ventures announced this week it has closed a $34 million raise for its second fund, which included backing from Unilever Ventures, PagsGroup and Obelysk as well as existing investors.

After announcing a serving agreement for its credit offerings in March, fintech platform Brightflow has acquired the remainder of lender, investor and software platform CircleUp with an eye on further monetizing AI-driven data and insights platform Helio.

Tony’s Chocolonely is looking to set a new corporate standard that legally protects the values of mission-driven businesses.