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

Taste Radio is getting to the meat of Krave Jerky with the brand’s founder Jon Sebastiani. Recorded during the 2017 Summer Fancy Food Show, Sebastiani delved into his 20-year background in the food and beverage industry, and what spurred him to strike out on his own with Krave.

Brian Strom, cofounder of Crapola, launched the Minnesota-based artisanal granola company as “simply a joke.” Now, the company is celebrating its tenth anniversary, and Strom is reflecting on the pun-forward brand’s history while in pursuit of a different kind of throne: major retailers’ shelves.

Both The Hershey Company and Mondelez International announced they will be investing more in retailers’ click-and-collect programs and third party e-commerce channels during their quarterly earnings calls this week.

Today pulse-based pasta brand Banza announced the close of a $7.5 million series A financing round lead by Beechwood Capital. At Project NOSH Live this past June, Project NOSH Editor, Carol Ortenberg, sat down with Beechwood and Banza to discuss the round.

In a letter posted to business networking website LinkedIn, Annie’s President John Foraker announced he was stepping down from his post at the organic food brand.

It seems yogurt brands are agreeing to disagree on which of the category’s newest styles will spark the next “Chobani boom.” While all of them seem to be experimenting with innovation, the direction of that innovation is extremely varied, as can be seen most recently by launches from Hain Celestial and Dannon.

Call it insect evolution. Chapul and Exo, two of the leading brands of cricket-based foods, hope to get the industry chirping about their new looks. Both Chapul and Exo announced new branding earlier this summer, with similar aims: speak to an offbeat, fearless consumer

Led by Temasek Holdings, a Singapore state-investment firm, the round also included repeat investors such as Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Khosla Ventures and Horizons Ventures and new investor Open Philanthropy Project, from Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz.

A new study in Trends in Food Science & Technology suggests that while consumers want “natural,” the varying definitions could potentially confuse consumers regarding how new technologies play a role in the natural space.

ProYo has seen major distribution gains this summer. The protein-focused frozen yogurt and ice cream brand has more than doubled its store count since launching its pint-like formats in the spring.

Pete Speranza, a new business development principal for 301, sat down with Project NOSH Editor Carol Ortenberg and Senior Brand Specialist Jon Landis to talk about the nature of the group’s partnerships with its brands and how the venture-arm will evolve in years to come.

At this year’s Summer Fancy Foods Show, Project NOSH Editor Carol Ortenberg sat down with Frank Pellegrino Jr, principle of Rao’s Restaurant Group and son of Rao’s founder Frank Pellegrino, to discuss why his father started the specialty food company and what other restaurateurs who aspire to enter CPG can learn from the Rao’s model.

During Amazon’s earning call Thursday, SVP and CFO Brian Olsavsky said the e-commerce leader’s Q2 year-over-year earning differences were ”driven by investments.” Its biggest–and most costly– pending investment is Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods Market, who also shared quarterly earning results earlier this week.

This week private equity investment group VMG Partners announced the close of their fourth fund at $550 million, with another $150 million available in a flex-up vehicle. The capital, said VMG Managing Director Wayne Wu, will continue to be invested in emerging consumable branded goods in the lower middle market.