• 👶 Serenity Kids Raises $52 Million
• 🏛️ SEC Passes Climate Disclosure Final Rule
• 🤝 C.A. Fortune and SRW Agency Merge
• 🆕 New Products from Snak Club, Lenny & Larry’s and more
• 🌱 Whole Foods Names LEAP On The Verge Cohort

As the industry gears up for the Iditarod (we’re tired of “Super Bowl”) of the CPG food and beverage world, also known as Natural Products Expo West, we’re taking a look at what better-for-you chewy candy will be on display at the show. From new ingredients and textures to global flavors, new wave candy brands are actively seeking to capture consumers’ attention, and their wallets.

🌎 According to Bella Hughes, co-founder of “globally-inspired” sour gummy brand Better Sour (Booth #N1235), candy is currently entering its “third wave,” focused on better-for-you products with quality ingredients, bold flavors, and authenticity. The latter of which is often used as an ode to the founders’ heritage.

Better Sour’s lineup includes a Middle East stone fruit mix consisting of pomegranate, apricot and plum and an Asia Pacific-themed mix featuring guava, calamansi and ume. Each 1.8 oz. bag retails for a SRP of $3.00. At the show, Better Sour will unveil its latest innovation inspired by Hughes and lifelong friend/co-founder Semira Nikou’s childhood in Hawaii. 

“We’re going after the same consumer that’s grabbing a Poppi instead of a Coke every time they reach for a soda. Maybe they still have a Coke once in a while, but their palates have expanded,” said Hughes.

👀 Issei (Booth # N649) produces a line of better-for-you, mochi-based gummies. Founder and CEO Mika Shino, a first-generation Japanese immigrant, created the first iterations of Issei in her home kitchen. Shino was looking to make a gelatin-free gummy candy for her two young sons and achieved the product’s unique texture by using mochi as the base ingredient.

“It’s all about the texture. Everybody’s been playing around with lower-sugar gelatin-based gummies or lower-sugar pectin-based gummies. It’s puzzling to me, and I think for anybody who is new to the industry, [as to] why everyone’s doing it the same way,” said Shino.

🍬 Elsewhere, longstanding brands like YumEarth (Booth #N605) – founded in 2007 – and SmartSweets (Booth #5393) – founded in 2016 – are crafting better-for-you iterations (be it using natural dyes or lower levels of sugar, or both) of legacy products like Starburst, Swedish Fish, and Sour Patch Kids.

At the show, the latter will unveil its “most critical launch to date” – the relaunch of four core SKUs in the U.S. The “New & Improved” product formula, used in the brand’s Peach Rings, Sweet Fish, Sourmelon Bites, and Sour Blast Buddies, ditches allulose and increases the amount of Isomalto-oligosaccharide.

Learn more about the chewy candy brands exhibiting at Expo West by reading the full story on Nosh.

SmartSweets is debuting exciting new launches at Expo West! Check out their new Barbie™ x SmartSweets Pink Lemonade Dream gummies in partnership with Mattel Inc and take your tastebuds to the tropics with new Tropical Sours. Both new snacks have 92% less sugar than traditional candy! Learn more

Serenity Kids announced today it has closed a $52 million Series B investment round led by Stride Consumer Partners. The growth capital will be used for marketing, new product development and hiring. 

💸 The baby and toddler food company is profitable and was not seeking funding, according to co-founder Joe Carr; however, the team was attracted to the investment firm’s track record partnering with brands like Yasso and Chomps.

🛒 Serenity Kids’ pouched baby food, toddler formula and grain-free puffs are sold in 18,000 grocery stores nationwide.

💬 “The current investment landscape is pretty dire, so our ability to attract this financing and partnership validates our differentiation, mission and growth potential,” Carr said.

Read more about Serenity's plans for the new funds on Nosh.

Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted to approve a new rule that would require publicly traded companies to disclose Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions (GhG).

⛔ Notably, the two-year old proposal had been revised so that the final rule no longer included disclosure requirements for Scope 3, often referred to as supply chain emissions. The rule was created to inform investors about a company’s GhG emissions risk and other climate change-related risks to the business. 

📝 The final iteration also exempts many small companies and only requires large public companies to disclose “material” emissions they directly produce. That means if the company doesn’t feel a certain output could have a significant impact on their bottom line, it can be left unreported.

Two consumer brand agencies are joining forces. National sales and marketing agency C.A. Fortune announced this morning that it has agreed to acquire food and beverage focused agency SRW.

📈 Both firms are headquartered in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood and will retain their existing offices and teams. The deal creates a more than 50-person marketing team within the combined company of about 600 employees. 

🎨 SRW’s founders, Charlie Stone and Kate Weidner, will continue to lead their division. Stone will oversee strategic partnerships and new business development while Weidner will serve as SRW president as well as C.A.'s chief creative officer. 

💭 “Joining the C.A. Fortune team empowers us to scale our impact, bringing holistic, data-driven marketing solutions to consumer brands across the nation,” said Weidner in a press release. 

To kick off the week, we’re recapping our hot new products gallery that dropped on Friday #ICYMI. Here’s a brief overview: 

🔥 Snak Club heats up its product portfolio through a new collaboration with YouTube interview show Hot Ones. Available in three varieties – Tangy Chili, Smoky Sweet and Hot Habanero – the new spicy snack mixes feature a blend of peanuts, cashews, sesame sticks, toasted corn and pretzels.

🥨 Lenny & Larry’s enters the salty snack space with the launch of Fitzels, a new line of protein-pack pretzels. Available in three flavors at launch – Pizza Palooza, Boujie Mustard and Everything Bagel – each 3 oz. bag of the salty snacks packs 18 grams of protein.

🥓 Better-for-you plant-based mac and cheese producer Goodles has unveiled its latest flavor creation, Bling Bling Bac’n. The new sweet and peppery-flavored offering has 14 grams of protein, 7 grams of fiber and 21 nutrients from plants per serving.

Check out the full NPG on Nosh. 

Whole Foods Market announced it has selected 10 companies to participate in its Local and Emerging Accelerator Program (LEAP) On the Verge cohort. Selected brands are nominated by the retailer’s merchants and foragers based on growth potential, trends and values alignment. 

🛒 The retailer launched the LEAP initiative in 2022 first with the Early Growth program and, last year, added the On the Verge track last year to “deepen relationships” with existing suppliers in select regions. 

🧀 On the Verge 2024 participants are Dare Vegan Cheese, Evergreen, Funky Mello, Moku, Myles Comfort Food, Painterland Sisters, The Organic Pantry Co., Shar, Sinto Gourmet and Uncle Waithley’s. 

🤝 “Mentoring these brands-to-watch is one of the most exciting and personal ways we can be hands-on with emerging producers and uplift them in our stores,” said Kelly Landrieu, Principal Planner for Local & Emerging Brands.

📈 Whole Foods is also seeking emerging brands for the next Early Growth cohort. In addition to following a 12-week curriculum, participants will be considered for placement on the grocer’s shelves in local stores. Applications are open through April 19.