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

Guest author Scott Sanders looks at the condiment wars happening in retailers nationwide and the role small, entrepreneurial brands are playing.

A look at recent news stories covering packaged food products including: What Back to the Future got right and wrong, how Kale wants to take over Hollywood and leadership at top CPG and food related companies

After a day filled with networking and learning as well as strategic presentations by acclaimed food luminaries from companies including Kroger, B&G Foods, VMG and Health Warrior, Project NOSH LA attendees will certainly feel energized and excited for the future. Bringing all the day’s lessons together will be one dynamic speaker, Sarah Chapin, the CEO of Hail Merry.

General Mills’ 301 INC incubator pivoted loudly yesterday, announcing that it would begin focusing primarily on investing in early-stage food startups to help them grow. Project NOSH spoke with John Haugen, VP and General Manager, about what food and beverage entrepreneurs can expect to see from 301 and why the unit shifted strategies.

A look at recent food and beverage sports endorsement deals which reflect a greater expansion of the parameters of the “big four” sports leagues’ approach to marketing for the industry.

At Project NOSH L.A. afternoon sessions will include a panel with deep experience in the process of partnering with and acquiring entrepreneurial brands. The “From Brand Incubator to Brand Acquirer” unit will bring together representatives from 301 INC/General Mills and B & G Foods as well as veteran entrepreneur Paul Nardone.

At this year’s NACS Expo, sellers of all kinds pointed out their healthy, organic, and sustainable bona fides. This video survey shows some of the brands and trends influencing convenience store retailing, and looks to John Mackey, the co-CEO of Whole Foods for an indication of where the future of the channel might lie.

It’s the entrepreneurial food brand that has turned into the firmament of its category, but Chobani, now a staple of many a shopping list, might even be targeted for purchase by strategic investors, as well.

Michael Burgmaier and Nick McCoy have left Silverwood Partners, where they led the consumer products practice for the last six years, to open Whipstitch Capital, a boutique investment bank focusing on the consumer products industry.

Changing consumer values, new brand aesthetics, and overall disenchantment with many of the brands owned by those big food companies have been creating changes in the retailing world for several years now — but a series of surveys reviewed by Project NOSH indicates just how drastically those changes, many driven by the 50-million-plus millennial demographic, have manifested.

Dwight Richmond, the Global Grocery Purchasing Coordinator for Whole Foods for the past six years, is leaving the company.

New speakers and talks have been added to the lineup of Project NOSH L.A., the first conference aimed at providing actionable strategic advice on the growth needs of emerging Natural, Organic, Sustainable and Healthy food companies.

For those who were not able to attend in person, complete video coverage of FBU Boston is now available for viewing at on Project NOSH Education or BevNET’s Beverage School.

At the just-finished Natural Products Expo East show, Project NOSH stopped by Veggie Fries for a chat with founder David Peters about the overall changes taking place in the frozen foods section, as well as the way he hopes to attract a new generation of consumers with revamped versions of a much-beloved side dish.