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

Project NOSH is pleased to announce its lineup of speakers for Project NOSH Brooklyn, taking place on June 8th at the Liberty Warehouse in Brooklyn. Project NOSH Brooklyn, a full-day business conference for members of the food industry, will bring together a stellar lineup of thought-provoking speakers and eager entrepreneurs to learn, network and grow together.

For bags of broken chocolate bars, Hershey broke the bank. The massive chocolate company announced today that it had acquired the Ripple Collective, which produces fast-growing snacking chocolate line barkTHINS. Hershey has been diversifying its business from being solely confection-focused to offer more healthy snacking options through acquisition and innovation.

With springtime flowers starting to bloom, so too are sales for several NOSH brands bursting onto the scene. The growth comes after debuts at Expo West, packaging redesigns and new partnerships.

HOPE Foods, a hummus company using HPP, is setting its sights on a new new category, guacamole. Helping fund the new line was a round of investment from friends, family, and investment firm BIGR.

Millennial focused granola and snack bar company Bear Naked has partnered with with IBM’s supercomputer “Watson” to allow consumers to create their own perfect, customized granola blend. The resulting program speaks to the trend of customization while decreasing food waste.

Last month BevNET and Project NOSH hosted the first BevNET Boot Camp for food and beverage entrepreneurs. For those that weren’t able to join us in person, complete video coverage of the day is now available for viewing on our YouTube channel.

If you are connected to the industry, you have certainly noticed the influx of high-quality talent in food and beverage, particularly on the packaged side. A new generation of entrepreneurs is following the lead of their tech brethren. These sophisticated, inventive, and passionate founders are out-of-the box thinkers, and as investors and partners it’s our job to help them succeed.

In the month since Natural Products Expo West closed, food and beverage companies have announced millions of dollars’ worth of investment, from strategic investment in companies like Juicero and Body Armor to advanced funding rounds in brands like Perky Jerky and Health Ade.

Last week equity and investment crowdfunding platform CircleUp and venture capital firm the Collaborative Fund announced the launch of Collab+Consumer, a new fund on CircleUp for early-stage, mission-driven companies in retail, apparel, CPG and pet care.

While the Expo West frenzy has almost died down, many of the brands that exhibited at the show are now seeing pickup by retailers both big and small.

This week private equity firm VMG Partners and algae-based food maker TerraVia (formerly Solazyme, Inc) announced the formation of a new venture, TerraBrands. The new group, which will function as a part of TerraVia, will acquire or invest in leading food and beverage companies that would like to incorporate TerraVia’s algae-based ingredients into their products.

Last week, Acosta, one of the largest grocery brokers in the world, announced that it had acquired Ignite Sales & Marketing, following a sales process run by Whipstitch capital. The purchase brings a high-touch set of account managers who foster the growth of mid-sized businesses into a brokerage and sales strategy firm that deals with the largest companies in the world.

Lori King, who has been responsible for the company’s sales growth and financial stability for the past two decades, will take the stage to walk attendees through the key decisions that have taken place as the company consciously expanded its retail footprint from its position as a staple of the natural and specialty channel into mainstream grocery accounts.