• 🐝 From Bees To A Business Model: Mellody Plots A Plant-Based Honey Market
• 💸 Report: More Funding Flows to Fewer Hands
• 🆕 Gallery: This Week’s Notable New Products
• 📽️ Friday Night Flicks: ‘Food, Inc. 2’ Debuts

Vividly’s end-to-end deduction management solution, with features like streamlined error handling, quick clearing, and all-in-one workflows, makes navigating trade deductions a breeze. And the best part? Brands who use Vividly for deduction management see a 90% reduction in processing labor. Learn more

Over the past several years, retail and CPG companies have searched for solutions to soothe volatile supply chains. Despite these efforts, the industry continues to face challenges, but in navigating those hurdles, many have homed in on how and where improvements may make the most impact, according to The RELEX State of Supply Chain 2024: Retail and CPG Dynamics report. Here’s what they’ve learned:  

Three Big Hurdles: Out of the 285 global retail, CPG and wholesale leaders surveyed, 55% rated rapidly shifting consumer demand volatility as the biggest threat to improving supply chain efficiencies over the next three to five years. Others reported hurdles such as global events and disruptions (50%) and an inaccurate sense of customer-specific demand (43%). 

How will they address these challenges? A majority (58%) said their top priority is investing in tech to enhance ecommerce and online sales capabilities for the next three to five years, followed by improving inventory management and demand forecasting (49%), leveraging data analytics and business intelligence (45%) and improving sustainability (42%).

AI and machine learning (ML) capabilities ranked fifth, which suggests that although companies see the future potential of AI, they may be “missing the point of how AI technology underpins many of the technologies aimed at improving inventory levels and forecasting against shifting consumer demand,” the report states.

Reshaping Retail Networks: Omnichannel demand has pushed retailers’ to evolve their supply chain networks to be more resilient to volatility. 

• One of the biggest remaining challenges for retailers is anticipating consumer demand – 45% said real-time visibility is “crucial” to balancing stock levels and making adjustments on the fly. 
• Retain a competitive edge over DTC: The report suggests retailers should optimize pricing and assortments while offering promotions. 
• According to the report, companies are actively evolving their growth strategies, with 59% of surveyed retailers saying they plan to expand omnichannel options to accommodate shifting consumer delivery preferences.

CPGs Are Balancing Investments With Tighter Retail Collaboration. Brands are seeking to balance volatility and retail collaboration while expanding consumer touchpoints, which requires more integrated and agile supply chain capabilities. 

• Eighty-two percent of respondents reported that issues like material shortages and production outages routinely impact their ability to meet orders. 
• According to the report, integrated operations and the right digital backbone can help CPGs capitalize on emerging opportunities (like DTC programs) while still aligning their priorities with retail partners. 

Still curious about the role of AI in CPG? Check out our latest deep dive on Nosh and give this companion episode of Community Call a listen (ICYMI: the episode features Rivalz CEO Peter Barrick and Offline Ventures investor Melissa Li). 

Silicon Valley-based MeliBio, the producer of Mellody plant-based honey, is gearing up for a substantial retail expansion via a new distribution deal with KeHE. The agreement is set to jumpstart the food tech’s U.S. retail operations, beginning with Town & Country markets in the Pacific Northwest.

But retail is just one side of Mellody’s plans to scale up. The alt-honey-tech pioneer has grown its B2B ingredient and foodservice distribution businesses as it worked to validate the product concept over the last two years. 

• Currently, B2B ingredient partnerships account for half of the business while foodservice amounts to a little more than a third of sales and retail captures the remaining 20%.

“An omni-channel strategy is something that people don’t sign up for lightly because it can draw questions around the focus, team and the resource allocations [which] are really fair,” said co-founder and CEO Darko Mandich. “When we were analyzing our situation, we realized that the most difficult thing that this company achieved was making honey without bees.”

Insiders get access to all the details around Mellody’s omnichannel and market building strategy via the full story on Nosh.

“Follow the money” is one of the core principles of journalism, but even that doesn’t paint the full picture of the current funding market for CPG. A look through market researcher FABID’s latest Q1 2024 report reveals a complex economic climate, with more money flowing in but going to a limited number of beneficiaries. 

😃 Broadly good news: The clouds of a once-imminent economic recession have receded, and venture funding has rebounded with its strongest quarter in two years in Q1, up 8.5% sequentially to $573 million. Average investment size in Q1 was $11 million, almost doubling from the same period in 2023 ($6 million) and above the average from 2022 ($10.2 million).

🙃 But the spread tells a different story. The total number of deals keeps dropping: 99 in 2022, then 88 in 2023, and now just 52 in Q1 2024. And that jump in venture dollars has come primarily from five $50 million-plus investments in established brands, with four companies — Bloom ($90 million), Truff ($80 million), Aloha ($69 million) and Liquid Death ($68 million) — receiving over half the total amount raised during the most recent period.

Read our full recap, including what the lack of activity from strategics may mean for deal flow and how quarterly funding broke down by category.

It’s finally Friday, folks! And that can only mean one thing – it’s time for the release of our weekly new product gallery. Here’s a brief overview of what’s in store:

🍫 Endangered Species unveiled a new line of Mini Truffle Bars in three flavors: Almond Dipped in 33% Cocoa, Milk Dipped in 33% Cocoa and Sea Salt Dipped in 55% Cocoa. The individually-wrapped bites are available via the brand’s website for $8.49 per 4.6 oz. bag.

🌮 SOMOS expanded its portfolio of Mexican meal solutions with a new line of Taco, Fajita and Al Pastor Simmer Sauces made from a base of vegetables like peppers, tomatoes and tomatillos. 

Keep an eye out for the full NPG on Nosh later today. 

Order your (plant-based, gluten-free) pizza, get comfy on the couch and gear up for some Friday night fun because 15 years after its debut, “Food, Inc.” has returned with a sequel, aptly named “Food, Inc. 2.” 

• The updated food industry exposé is now streaming on platforms including Amazon Prime, Youtube and Apple TV.

According to a review in the New York Times, the sequel is more “hopeful” and proposes a range of solutions to the industry's most pressing problems – from stronger antitrust enforcement, supporting fair labor practices and returning “to time-tested farming methods” (👀 Regen-ag fanatics, tune in).