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

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.

BevNET and NOSH will be presenting our very first Supercharge D2C event on Sept. 29 with the purpose of helping food and beverage brands develop, refine, and energize their approach to the direct to consumer channel. This event — included for BevNET and NOSH subscribers — will address strategic, operational, and marketing practices around D2C, as well as provide direct-from-the-entrepreneur stories of how companies are dealing with the D2C environment.

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.

It’s the summer of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs). Also known as blank check companies, SPACs have increasingly become appealing for the ability to quickly create category leaders and getting capital infusions into brands that need them. The past week has seen two such investment vehicles from industry experts.

In its fourth quarter earnings presentation yesterday, Campbell’s Soup Company reported that its net sales increased 18% to $2.1 billion over the quarter as consumers continued to partake in “quick scratch cooking” while also stocking up on snacks.

In this week’s Checkout, Climax Foods raises a $7.5 million seed round to study plant-based alternatives, Giant Eagle debuts cashierless tech and Target adds 600 ‘premium’ products to Good and Gather.

In this complicated back-to-school environment, snack brands that relied on their allergy-friendly ‘school safe’ appeal are striving to now find a place in consumers’ homes, focusing less on the lunchbox and instead trying to capitalize on the uptick in cooking at home.

The second part of our monthly new products gallery takes a look at the new snacks, sides and meals that hit shelves in August. Brands turned to comfort foods and flavors last month, with cheesy snack and meal offerings from 8Myles, Feel Good Foods and Good Health and two new varieties of refried beans from A Dozen Cousins. Check out the gallery for more of the month’s notable releases, including the latest from RXBAR and LesserEvil.