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

D2C condiment brand Fly By Jing announced late last week that it had raised $5 million from investment firm Prelude Growth Partners. Over the next few months the company will debut in Sprouts stores nationwide along with launches in some regions of Target, Whole Foods Market and Costco.

In this week’s Checkout, veggie burger producer Actual Veggies raises $2.3 million; digital delivery platform Gopuff secures $1 billion; HelloFresh Market debuts in the U.S.; and Manitoba Harvest announces a new research partnership.

If The New Primal was started to help consumers eat like cavemen, then the company has certainly evolved. To help fund this growth, the condiment, sauce and snack company announced today it has raised $15 million from investor Manna Tree.

In a recap of this week’s quarterly and half-year earnings calls, Hershey’s salty snacks and bars see sales bumps, while baking declines; Nestlé talks inflation-induced price hikes and Health Science strategy; and Mondelēz reports growth across snacking and confection.

As a leader, there are always hard decisions to be made — sometimes unpopular or even risky calls. So how do you learn to lean into the fear and uncertainty that can surround these choices in a way that can help your company or your own career? How do you empower and engage your team to move companies forward?
Jolie Weber, the CEO of snack brand Lenny & Larry’s, will delve into these questions, and more, during this episode of Market Share, with host Carol Ortenberg, the editor of NOSH.

Ultra-fresh meal, snack and beverage producer Urban Remedy is doubling down on a strategy to grow sales via its branded kiosks. It’s a move that CEO Paul Coletta says allows the company to achieve better margins, grow faster with less capital investment and puts the company on “path to profitability.” To support this strategy, the company last week announced it had raised an additional $18 million in funding.

As the final step to complete a merger with European fresh produce company Total Produce that began in February, this week Dole Packaged Foods intends to raise $559 million from an initial public offering. The merger forms the world’s largest fresh produce provider, joining Dole’s 109,000 acres of land, 162 distribution and manufacturing facilities, 75 picking houses and 12 cold storage facilities with Total Produce’s global import and distribution network.

As Foxtrot Market, one of the most hyped retailers in recent memory, prepares to open dozens of new locations, we sat down with co-founder/CEO Mike LaVitola to talk about how the company cultivates an intimate understanding of its consumers and why the chain is simultaneously going head-to-head with the likes of Starbucks, 7-Eleven and DoorDash.

Office Hours returns today with a look into the state of the food service channel as a revenue and visibility outlet for food and beverage entrepreneurs. BevNET Editor in Chief Jeff Klineman was joined by Rooted Food Sales’ Matt Cotton and Clay Lichterman of Kodiak Cakes to explore the ways the Covid-19 pandemic cut into food service opportunities and the slow road back for many institutional accounts.

Food tech company NotCo announced today that it has raised $235 million in a Series D funding round led by Tiger Global, bringing its total financing to over $350 million to date. The funding will help the plant-based milk and meat producer to launch its food products in the U.S. and scale its proprietary A.I. technology platform.

Plant-based cheese maker Nobell announced last week that it has secured $75 million in funding to scale the production of its plant-based cheese products made with casein — an essential protein found in milk that gives cheese its taste and texture — cultivated from genetically modified soybeans, rather than cows.

North Carolina-based grocer The Fresh Market filed for an initial public offering this month for the second time in the company’s almost 40-year history. This second IPO could bring significant changes to the grocer’s position in the retail landscape, forcing them to optimize operations at the expense of local and emerging brands.

In this week’s Checkout, Quinn Snacks raises $10 million; Stryve begins trading on the NASDAQ after closing SPAC deal; Foxtrot reveals expansion plans, including adding 50 locations in the next two years; and Target announces the first class of its food & beverage accelerator.

Looking ahead to the second half of this year and beyond, retention of new shoppers, increasing comfort buying CPG online and acceleration of investments by leading retailers in online capabilities is set to drive expansion of online grocery further, representing an estimated 12% of total edible sales.