• 📈 Hormel Sees Strong Q3 Earnings
• 🍦 Former Jeni’s CEO Launches PE Firm
• 🥩 Chomps To Beef Up Production
• 🥬 Plenty To Research Indoor Ag
• 🏛️ Albertsons CEO Takes The Stand
• 😝 T. Hasegawa Acquires Abelei Flavors
• 🙋 People Moves: Hershey’s New Candy Prez

Hormel Foods’ third-quarter financial results included a better-than-expected bottom line and net sales that totaled $2.9 billion, down 2.2% from the prior-year period. Here are the top-level highlights:

• Net earnings increased to $176.7 million from $162.6 million the year before
• Operating margin came in at 8.2% while adjusted operating margin was 9.2%
• Foodservice segment sales rose 7%, while retail segment sales declined 7%, driven by pricing decreases for whole bird turkeys, lower sales of Planters snack nuts and lower center-store volumes

Management has lowered its full-year net sales range expectations to $11.8 billion to $12.1 billion (down from a previous outlook of $12.2 billion to $12.5 billion), reflecting lower-than-expected commodity markets, production disruptions at a Virginia facility and declines in its contract manufacturing business.

🔊 What they said: “In the fourth quarter, we expect continued momentum across many of our key retail brands, growth within our Foodservice and International businesses, improved service levels for the Planters snack nuts business, and further advancements of our transform and modernize initiative." - Jim Snee, chairman, president and CEO

John Lowe spent 15 years building the insurgent ice cream brand Jeni's – and served as its CEO for more than 13 years of that tenure. Now, he is moving to the other side of the table, founding a new private equity firm, Amok Consumer Growth Fund, that aims to invest in “consumer-focused, early-stage businesses in restaurants and retail.”

🧵 Lowe is joined by the former head of sales at Magic Spoon and Mason Dixie Foods Rachelle Lynch as well as investor Ryan Parish and QSR veteran Timmy McCarthy. Lynch also recently launched sales firm Golden Thread CPG. 

💰 Amok Consumer Growth Fund will leverage the collective experience of the four operating partners and will make investments in the $500,000 to $5 million range. 

🤝 The new firm has finished its first round of fundraising and is negotiating a deal with a “CPG company whose products are sold at Whole Foods,” according to QSR Magazine.

Go Deeper: Golden Thread CPG To Bring Big Business Insight To Early Stage Brands

Meat snack maker Chomps announced today it will open a manufacturing facility in Mexico, Mo., next year to support expanded distribution and strong growth. 

🏭 The plant will span 300,000 sq. ft. and is expected to create approximately 250 full-time jobs.

🤝 The opening of the facility builds on Chomps’ longtime strategic partnership with Western Smokehouse Partners (WSP). Currently, Chomps products are produced at two WSP plants.

📈 The move will also support the brand’s recent growth surge, which according to SPINS data, has seen sales spike 206% year over year. 

Indoor farming company Plenty Unlimited Inc. announced this week it is expanding its R&D footprint and building an expansive new research center in Laramie, Wyo., with support from the Wyoming Business Council, Laramie Chamber Business Alliance and City of Laramie.

💰 The new facility will be funded by a $20 million grant from the state of Wyoming which Plenty received in February 2023. Plenty will break ground on the facility next spring with plans for it to be operational by summer 2026.

🧬 The new R&D platform will include advanced genetics and breeding, custom hardware and growing environments and AI and data analytics to support the company’s crop diversification with more than 50 different products ranging from tomatoes to squashes. 

🗣️ What they said: "This new advanced plant science research facility is not only the culmination of investing hundreds of millions of dollars into R&D over the past decade, but a blueprint for expanding our research capacity to support projects valuable to our partners, our industry and beyond. What we're building in Wyoming is truly unlike anything else in the world – you'd have to go to Wageningen in the Netherlands to come close.” – Arama Kukutai, CEO of Plenty

The federal hearing on the proposed Kroger/Albertsons merger is beginning its eighth day in Oregon court, and earlier this week Albertsons’ CEO Vivek Sankaran took the stand and attempted to clear the air around his opening claims that the company would have to shutter stores and lay off employees if the deal is blocked. 

🛒 Despite emphasizing that Albertsons is in “sound financial condition” he claims the company will not be able to compete in the future against Walmart, Amazon and Costco without the strength it would gain from combining with Kroger.

📲 Sankaran was also forced to defend himself and employees over a series of deleted text messages, which the FTC believes include candid, insider opinions about how the merger will impact competition in the grocery industry.

💬 "Kroger is a competitor, but not our most important competitor," Sankaran said during the hearing, according to Law360.  

Get ready for a blast of flavor. Custom flavors and fragrances manufacturer T. Hasegawa USA announced it has acquired Illinois-based Abelei Flavors.

🗺️ By acquiring the over 40-year-old flavor house, T. Hasegawa has the opportunity to expand its geographical footprint, technical capabilities and overall flavor portfolio, according to CEO Tom Damiano.

🏭 The entire Abalei team will join T. Hasegawa following the close of the transaction. Tokyo-based T. Hasegawa has a U.S. office in California, in addition to 30 locations globally. The company employs over 1,600 individuals, generates over $500 million in sales revenue and manages a 3.6 million sq. ft. operational footprint. 

🍫 Hershey’s has tapped former PepsiCo executive Michael Del Pozzo to be its new U.S. confection president. Del Pozzo comes to Hershey’s with 16 years of experience at the beverage giant with his most recent serving as president and GM of the Gatorade portfolio.

♻️ Food waste grocery business Flashfood announced Christopher Taylor as its new CFO. Taylor comes to Flashfood from other food tech platforms Goodfood, Go Bolt and ShopThing.

🥗 Del Sol Foods, makers of Brianna’s Salad Dressings, has hired Sam Sommer as its new VP of finance and accounting. Sommer previously worked as CFO for Texas-based Blue Bell Creameries.

🌾 President of Puris Grains Jordan Atchison has been appointed to the board of the Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance.

The CPG Week team dove into the details around Foxtrot 2.0, Foxtrot Café & Market, opening this week, and discussed the disparaging response the announcement has received on social media. Nosh managing editor Monica Watrous goes on to recount her recent trip to Denver for New Hope Network’s inaugural Newtopia Now event and shared what attendees were saying about the new conference format. The podcast finishes with senior reporter Lukas Southard explaining the challenges and successes in the alcohol-removed and wine alternatives and how it represents broader issues in adult non-alc.

Listen to the episode on Nosh.

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