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🚨NOSH INSIDER WEEKLY: Ben with no Jerry? Building a Breakthrough Brand, Melissa's Spill Everything Hotline & More |
This week, we're wondering what happens when an iconic founder leaves acrimoniously, looking at some M&A madness that's gone down recently, and slipping into some extremely comfortable butter shoes. But, more on all that below.
And, when are the robots taking over again? The Nosh team has been pouring over some new consumer reports charting how AI is affecting the consumer experience. Lukas, who is definitely not a robot (we swear), has all the info here.
Alright! On with the Sunday newsletter.
FIRST UP! Behind closed doors - private label merger creates powerhouse as manufacturing segment continues to outpace competition. |
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💸 Winland, La Doria Merger Creates $4BN Global Biz |
U.S.-based Winland Foods and Italy-based La Doria have combined to create a $4BN global private label behemoth called Windoria (yes, really) writes Private Business Editor Adrianne DeLuca. | |
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La Doria focuses on dried pasta, canned food, tomato-based sauces and proably some other stuff - all complimentary markets to Winland, which also encompasses dry blends, sauces, soups and dresses dressings. Combined, the new entity boasts over 9,000 SKUs and distro in 60 countries. Wowzers! For Winland the move opens up substantial avenues: over 90% of La Doria's revenue is from long-standing retail partnerships and 80% of its revenue comes from international markets. Surely, a match made in the private label equivalent of heaven. Read the full intel on Nosh.com. 🥡 Key Takeaway: Private label is continuing to have a moment. According to the super-cool Private Label Manufacturers Association, private label product sales have outpaced national brands for the past three years. Perception in the US is shifting - consumers increasingly see them as not just value-oriented but on a par in terms of quality with national brands. | |
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😎 Building a Breakthrough Brand at Nosh Live 2025 |
| Starting from scratch, to put it lightly, is not easy. But it's definitely possible and at Nosh Live 2025 you'll hear the leaders of Actual Veggies, Daily Crunch and Archer discuss the leaps of faith and all-or-nothing strategies they took to supercharge their growth.
Hey, get this: early registration is ending next month but that mighty fine Insiders-only discount is still on offer, so don't miss out.
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| AND: the fun doesn't end there: nominations are open for the Nosh Live 2025 Pitch Slam - think of it like a 90s rage cage WWE match except everyone is throwing packs of ramen at each other.
Are you an emerging packaged food brand looking to share your story in front of an audience of industry leaders? Nosh is giving six brands just that opportunity.
Past participants include Partake Foods, Sunnie and Olyra, who all seemed to have done pretty well.
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🗣 Nombase: Beyond THC: Exploring the Next Big Buzz |
THC and CBD are big ticket items in the cannabis beverage world these days, but they're far from the only cannabinoids around - so where's the next big buzz coming from?
This week's Nombase Podcast sees Cannabis brand FABRIC’s Tom Eddleston, Magic Cactus founder Jonny Locarni and SōRSE Technology’s Michael Flemmens discuss lesser-known cannabinoids, how formulations effect flavor and effect, and of course a little on regulations.
The trio share real-world lessons on building drinks brands while not once fumbling the pronounciation of 'cannabinoids' (gosh!).
Hosted by BevNET & Nosh Director of Community Melissa Traverse, the Nombase Podcast is like a warm CPG hug direct to your brain.
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🔊 CPG Week Podcast: Peak Protein? Private Label Boom |
On this week's CPG Week podcast Nosh managing editor Monica Watrous and senior reporter Brad Avery go off-piste with the on-trend off-brands. Later, the duo discuss Wandering Bear's high-protein cold brew latte, and wonder if this endless summer of protein will ever end (or if it will just extend to lupini beans). It all gets washed down with a crisp and refreshing 40oz RC Cola.
Spin this week's podcast here. | |
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🍓 Juicy Quote |
| "We’ve always wanted to use peanut butter as the platform and put it in other products versus making all kinds of nut butters"
This week's PB&J comes courtesy of Noted Small Horse Expert Shauna Golden who sat down with One Trick Pony co-founder Lucy Dana to discuss the brand's salty snacks expansion - and why they'll be sticking with the trusty old peanut for its butter, please and thank you. | |
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The brand's just-released Caramel Crunch Peanut Butter Popcorn is a delightful caramel and peanut butter coated popcorn treat, mixed in with pretzel pieces. A D2C play initially, it's available for $8 per 6 oz. bag.
It's fair to say the biz has done its due diligence. Following a small windfall of surplus popcorn from its co-manufacturer, One Trick Pony sent out samples to select consumers - whose feedback resulted in the pretzel mix-ins (my suggestion of beef jerkey bites was perhaps wisely rejected).
With retail expansion on the cards for the brand's innovative no-stir jar format, expect to see One Trick Pony continue to test new segments in 2026.
What are your thoughts, Sunday readers? What are your favored salty snack applications for peanut butter? Any ideas for what hasn't been done before? And have you picked up One Trick Pony's upside-down jar format? Click here to send in your comments. | |
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🥑 Quick Bites |
The conglonerate is instead focusing on organic sales restoration via value and innovation plays writes General Milliner Shauna Golden.
The once-mighty SlimFast has gone through numerous ownership changes over the last 25 years - with each sale denoting a lower valuation writes Artificial Sweeteners Editor Monica Watrous. |
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📰 Jobs Market |
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🥶 Ben, no Jerry: Ice Cream Co-Founder Quits as Unilever Relations Freeze |
Relations between the semi-autonomous Ben & Jerry's and parent company Unilever have reached minus temperatures this week with the news that co-founder Jerry Greenfield has packed it in after 47 years writes Ice Cream Fanatic Shauna Golden.
The latest move in an ongoing public dispute between the two parties was announced by co-founder Ben Cohen on Twitter X on Tuesday night. The ice cream brand has long touted its social mission independence, with its own board of directors, despite being wholly owned by the conglomerate.
Unilever turned up the heat in July by announcing it was spinning off its ice cream business into a separate entity called The Magnum Ice Cream Company. Cohen and Greenfield penned a letter to the new company board arguing that B&J's independence be grandfathered in.
🥡 Key Takeaway: The drama is far from over at B&J and Unilever. With lawsuits outstanding and a new company prepping to float on the stock exchange, this story has several more chapters to come. Losing an iconic founder is a huge blow - but will it result in a retail sales hit? | |
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👀 ICYMI 👀 |
| Someone call my 15 year-old self because I think he needs to know: Melissa Joan Hart is fronting a new marketing campaign for Pop Secret, inviting fans to call a Spill Everything hotline to reveal their juiciest secrets.
Taking on the role of Chief of Butter, fans can call Melissa on 1-844-SPILL-PS through October 31 to spill the dirt, listen to Melissa's secret, and listen to secrets others have called in. Me? I'm tighter lipped than Johnny Tightlips - and these secrets are going to my grave. | |
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| AND FINALLY: Speaking of butter, Land O'Lakes has teamed up with 'good-for-you' (yes, really) footwear brand Clove for a limited-edition line of buttery, yellow-ish shoes.
No word on what happened to the butter shoe used in the marketing photo. Your move, Kerrygold. | |
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| If you'll excuse me, it's a day for nostalgia - I'm off to call Melissa Joan Hart while swigging a bottle of Complicated, Avril Lavigne's inaugural wine. What a time to be alive. Until next week, your host, |
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