• ⭐ Starday Foods’ Proprietary Platform
• 🔮 Mondelēz On Surging Cocoa Prices
• 🛒 Instacart's Shelf-Checking Gig
• 🍪 Legacy Bakehouse Acquires Classic Cookie
• 🍽️ CookUnity Embraces GLP-1 Meals
• 👖 Hidden Valley Pants, Frank’s RedHot & Vega’s New Look

Just about every packaged food maker has faced rising costs in recent years as supply chain challenges and volatile ingredient markets persist. Oat Haus is no different but has navigated those hurdles with business interests and customer demands weighing on either side of the scale.  

About a year ago, the granola butter brand switched from using olive oil to the more affordable sunflower oil. With olive oil prices skyrocketing, the company shared on its website at the time, “we had to make the difficult decision to pivot because if we continued to use olive oil in our product, we would either go out of business or need to essentially double our prices.”

Fans weren’t buying it. 

• One-star reviews of the brand on Amazon.com read: “They went the cheap route and compromised literally all their standards” and “I am SO disappointed that they switched to sunflower oil instead of their usual olive oil… Will not be [buying] again, such a bummer.”

As the movement against seed oils intensifies, some brands face a tough choice: go with what makes their business work or what their customers want. The decision, however, is not always simple or feasible, and these options aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive.

According to founder Ali Bonar, the brand heard its customers’ complaints about the switch “loud and clear” and worked to retool other operations within the business in order to bring olive oil back to the Haus. 

After her team managed to lower costs by automating operations, coupled with a slight drop in ingredient prices, the company determined it could bring olive oil back into its recipes. Jars sold on its website are now made with olive oil, and the new formula will roll out to retail in the coming months with no change to the price tag, she added.

The announcement was met with scores of positive responses on social media, including a number of followers pledging to buy or try the product again. 

In a TikTok video detailing the saga, Bonar summed up a battle many brand operators face: “One of the hard things I’ve learned as a business owner is to differentiate what is the loud minority and what is something that most customers actually want.”

Go Deeper: Inside the Movement Against Seed Oil

Pinpointing pent-up demand and product-market fit before a trend reaches an over-saturated status is no easy task. But Starday Foods believes it can use machine learning to find this alignment in center-store aisles and launch new products before consumers move on to the next shiny thing.

🧑‍💻 The business model uses consumer tracking data paired with online insights scraped from cooking blogs, social media and restaurant websites to anticipate trends.

🍚 The company has launched four brands since it was founded in 2021: hazelnut cocoa spread Gooey, chickpea-based protein seasoning All Day, low-FODMAP seasoned rice blend Cozumi and, its latest product, allergen-free sweet potato crackers Habeya, launching this month.

💰 Starday has also accumulated a powerful investment group including entrepreneur Tristan Walker, Instacart CEO Fidji Simo and Instacart founder Max Mullen along with a number of venture capital firms and angel investors.

Learn how the company is working to become the ‘next great food conglomerate’ on Nosh

Mondelēz International warned of the potential for a double-digit drop in earnings per share during fiscal 2025 amid “unprecedented cocoa cost inflation” during its Q4 earnings call on Tuesday. Here’s a quick run of key numbers:

• Net revenues increased 3.1% year-over-year to $9.6 billion in Q4
• Gross profit grew $241 million, and gross profit margin increased 130 basis points to 38.6%
• Adjusted EPS was down 15.9% to $0.65, driven by a decrease in operating results and lower equity method investment earnings

👀 The Oreo and Cadbury maker expects organic net revenue to grow approximately 5% and adjusted EPS to decline by roughly 10% on a constant currency basis in 2025. The outlook does not include the impact of potential import tariffs by the U.S. 

💬 “Our teams are well equipped to stay agile [...] and we believe we are solidly positioned for attractive long-term top and bottom-line growth.” – Dirk Van de Put, chair and CEO

Stay tuned for a full earnings recap later today.

Instacart’s suite of grocery services is growing, and the latest move combines its support for both sides of the retailer and supplier relationships with the introduction of a new shelf-checking service, powered by gig workers. 

⏱️ The program has been in a testing phase since last fall with Instacart shoppers directed to take pictures of what’s in stock or refill displays alongside completing their standard Instacart grocery orders.

☑️ Instacart said it is evaluating other tasks gig workers could complete to support merchandising efforts, building on its existing grocery services assortment, which includes advertising insights for brands and tech for retailers such as smart shopping carts. 

Catch Up: Deepened Retailer Integrations Fuel Instacart’s Strong Q3 Results

Wisconsin-based contract and private label baked snacks manufacturer Legacy Bakehouse has acquired Mannon Specialty Foods, the maker of premium cookie brand Classic Cookie.

The deal will bring Mannon’s 50,000 sq. ft. Sevierville, Tenn., production facility into Legacy’s portfolio, marking its third factory and also adding cookie and brownie production capabilities to its suite of contract and private label services. 

• Classic Cookie sells its products at Walmart in addition to other national and regional retail partners.
• Century-old Legacy (which was acquired by Benford Partners in 2023) currently produces baked snacks including pita chips, tortillas, rye chips, garlic chips, bread sticks and more.

Meal delivery service CookUnity is the latest to get on board with the GLP-1 craze, announcing the introduction of GLP-1 balanced meals on Tuesday. 

🍽️ The new offerings were created in partnership with registered dietician Kristy Del Coro and are designed to support the specific nutrient-dense, dietary needs of GLP-1 users to mitigate malnutrition and muscle loss. 

🌮 The collection includes Beef Tinga Tacos, Sesame-Ginger Tofu Poke Bowl, Pork Al Pastor Grain Bowl, Seared Salmon With Berry Glaze and Steak Suya & West African Kale Salad. 

It’s Hump Day! Here’s a look at the new drops and activations from the first half of the week. 

🌶️ That’s hot! Frank’s RedHot has joined forces with socialite Paris Hilton and her next-gen media company, 11:11 Media, to create a series of game day recipes like Buffalo Chicken Dip and Buffalo Chicken Wings. 

👠 Here’s proof ranch is having a moment: Dipping into high fashion, Hidden Valley Ranch has launched its first luxury fashion collaboration with designer Emma Gage of MELKE. The collection features two cardigans, a knit vest, a blouse and a pair of pants, with prices ranging between $240 and $1,000. 

💪 Plant-based protein powder maker Vega unveiled a new look featuring sleeker packaging and a new tagline, “Perform Better.” The brand also introduced three new Performance Line items: Protein + Creatine, Pre-Workout Energy, and RTD Plant-Based Protein Shake.