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

Presence Marketing, a natural products brokerage firm that grew out of its Chicagoland founding in 1990 to become the largest independent sales and marketing organization in its channel, has been bought by PLTFRM, a multi-channel sales, marketing, and investment company.

A decade ago, direct-to-consumer meal kit subscription services like Blue Apron and HelloFresh had blanketed the market with a strong pitch to consumers centering on convenience, wellness and quality ready-to-cook food they could have shipped to their doorsteps. During the pandemic, many of these brands saw big lifts and even bigger valuations as consumers stuck at home decided to try their hand at home cooking.

In this week’s notable new products roundup, Gopuff teams up with Tom Brady to launch a line of vegan fruit snacks, GoodPop uses the force with Lucasfilm, and McCain Foods seeks to drive consumer awareness around regenerative farming.

Bone broth innovator Kettle & Fire secured a $43 million secondary buyout led by Colter Ventures, the company announced today, marking the start of a new strategic partnership to help fuel the brand’s next stage of growth.

We’re excited to announce that the Nosh Notables 2025 awards will be returning this July, and we want to hear who you’d pick! These annual awards recognize the individuals who are driving change, innovation, and growth across the packaged food industry. If you know someone who is making a significant impact—whether through leadership, collaboration, or support for the industry—this is their chance to be recognized.

Back to Nature has reconstructed the basics of its operations while rebuilding its team and refining its approach to the better-for-you snack category two years after B&G Foods sold it to Barilla without a single team member.

The CPG Week team discusses the launch of a new soda line from sparkling water maker Spindrift just a month after its sale to a private equity group. Then, the group digs into the details of Celsius Holdings’ $1.8 billion acquisition of competitor Alani Nu and examines how the deal could impact distribution in the energy drink category as well as what the sale spells for prior owner (and PRIME maker) Congo Brands.

Robert Broome created chilled oat bar brand Mooski three years ago as a fresh take on granola bars using a formulation inspired by his family’s muesli recipe. He didn’t realize then that he had developed the perfect product for skiers and snowboarders, an avid community of consumers seeking slope-worthy snacks that don’t harden in frigid temperatures.

The grocery industry is gearing up for a slow year as retailers across all channels – including natural, discount, mass, conventional and even third-parties like Instacart – project a deceleration in sales throughout the course of 2025.

B&G Foods is doubling down on its portfolio reshaping efforts, seeking to build a “stable platform” for future growth after posting a Q4 net loss of $222.4 million in its earnings report yesterday.

Instacart’s strong Q4 and full-year performance was not enough to soothe investor and analyst fears about the slow growth set to capture the grocery industry in 2025 as shares were down 9.66% to $44.04 per share today in mid-morning trading.

The latest launch from specialty olive oil brand Graza is a single-origin, high-heat cooking oil that co-founder and CEO Andrew Benin described as a “game-changer.” The new varietal debuts this week at Whole Foods Market stores nationwide in spray bottle and squeeze bottle formats. A two-liter jug will be available online in the coming weeks.

Lakeview Farms and its newly-acquired noosa brand have merged to form new entity Novus Foods. The move comes less than three months after CapVest Partners-owned Lakeview announced its plans to acquire noosa from Campbell’s.

Amidst accelerated growth, chef-crafted veggie burger brand Actual Veggies is making new hires and ramping up marketing efforts with the support of a $7 million investment round led by Relentless Consumer Partners, announced today.