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

June has been quite a month for Small Axe Peppers, the makers of Bronx Hot Sauce. Last week the mission-driven hot sauce brand won the second annual Project NOSH Pitch Slam, and now the company announced that it’s extending its community garden business model to a new borough: Queens.

Following the Friday announcement that e-commerce pioneer Amazon would be purchasing natural products retailer Whole Foods Market, there has been rampant discussion over what the merger means for the retailer and industry. In communications to team members, both through email and a “town hall meeting” at Whole Foods headquarters, some information has come to light.

Three days prior to the blockbuster announcement that Amazon would acquire Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, Matt Jimenez, the senior category leader for Whole Foods’ global grocery team took the stage at BevNET Live Summer 2017 and discussed recent changes to the company’s grocery management structure and buying processes.

During Tuesday’s BevNET Live Expo in at Metropolitan West in New York City, suppliers and flavoring companies took over the conference floor to showcase their latest innovations. The NOSH team walked the floor to survey exhibitors on what they think are the top trends of the flavor world right now.

During the Cincinnati-based retailer’s Q1 earnings call on Thursday, before the Whole Foods sale was announced, Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen said earnings would be about nine percent lower than initially forecast due to new investments in pricing and service, as well as margin pressure. The retailer’s stock price plunged 19 percent on Thursday as a result of the struggles, then — similar to other retailers– fell another 13 percent Friday once the Whole Foods deal was done. The market slowly began rebounding late Monday morning.

A panel early on during last week’s BevNET Live in Manhattan discussed e-marketing and a lot of the time was spent on the Amazon effect: In terms of setting up direct-to-consumer marketplaces, creating “full basket” solutions with Amazon Fresh, and simply providing a place for customers to search by keywords for specific products, the e-commerce titan has begun to exert an outsized influence in the ways consumers shop.

In a deal that’s shaking the shopping experience for consumers, retailers, and food and beverage companies, Amazon’s scooping up of Whole Foods for $13.7 billion on Friday has hardened talk of large-scale disruption in the way consumers buy their groceries. The deal is the largest U.S. grocery transaction since a $17.4 billion takeover of Albertsons, according to Mergermarket. Here’s an in-depth look into the acquisition and its implications for the retailers and beyond.

Amazon was a prime subject for the first two speakers in an e-commerce discussion series at the just-concluded BevNET Live Summer 2017 event in New York this week.

Amazon announced Friday that it will acquire Whole Foods Market for $42 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $13.7 billion, including Whole Food’s net debt.

Come Ready Nutrition is hoping for a win with its newly doubled portfolio of performance-based snacks. At the Sweets and Snacks Expo in Chicago, Illinois, last month the brand rolled out protein puffs, apple slices and protein waters, all which will retail for under $3. Patrick Cavanaugh, President and founder of Come Ready Nutrition, told NOSH he hopes the new products will expand the usage occasions for the brand, as well as the day-parts in which they are consumed.

Over the past year social media platforms became dominated with cauliflower-based items and one rose to the top: cauliflower crust pizza. Now it’s taking off in retail, too. Just a short four months after its launch, Caulipower, a ready-to-cook cauliflower pizza and crust company, has added a thousand retailers.

There is no such thing as an afternoon slump at NOSH Live. Presentations continued throughout the day on topics ranging from what’s trending in Whole Foods Market to scaling and selling your business. Here are a few highlights from the afternoon sessions at NOSH Live Summer 2017.

The event at the Metropolitan West in New York City was packed with presentations ranging from the keys to growing brands and relationships to the steps for rapid growth and the best branding for good-for-you products. The buzz of networking breaks was actionable advice, stories from market leaders and conversations with industry trailblazers — and that was all before lunch.

The New York-based, mission-driven hot sauce brand won the second annual Project NOSH Pitch Slam at the Metropolitan West in New York City on Monday. Bronx Hot Sauce Vice President Daniel Fitzgerald competed against representatives from four other emerging brands: Cali’flour Foods, Zesty Z, Bearded Brothers and Partake Foods.