• 🥡 Wonder Bags Grubhub for $650M
• 🔄 Saffron Road's Leadership Change Up
• 📊 Instacart Posts Strong Q3 Results 
• 🍎 Amazon Opens More ‘Fresh’ Stores
• ✨ Bedazzled Snack Wrappers Anyone?
• 🥖 $30 Million In Three Years & Profitable. Wildgrain Is Just Warming Up.

The trading continues, and we can safely say this deal was actually on our 2024 bingo card… 

The time has come for the Campbell Soup Company to part ways with recently acquired Australian-style yogurt brand noosa. ICYMI: the soup giant gained ownership of the yogurt brand as part of its $2.7 billion acquisition of Rao’s Homemade and Michael Angelo's parent company Sovos Brands in March. 

On Tuesday afternoon the company announced it has entered into an agreement to sell noosa, along with its trademarks and Colorado manufacturing facility to refrigerated desserts, dips and specialty food producer Lakeview Farms. About 240 noosa employees will join Lakeview as part of the transaction. 

Campbell’s execs have consistently maintained they were looking into strategic alternatives for the brand, which is a bit out of step with its core focus on snacks, meals and beverages, but also have emphasized the strength and strong performance of noosa, which has generated net sales of $177 million in the past 12-month period, ending October 2024. 

“Noosa is a well-run business supported by a great team,” said Mick Beekhuizen, EVP and president of Campbell’s Meals & Beverages division, in a press release. “We are pleased that its new home will be with a buyer with a strategic focus on the refrigerated category.”

Lakeview, a CapVest Partners portfolio company, operates 12 retail brands including its namesake Lakeview Farms banner along with Fresh Cravings, Italian Rose, Tribe, Rojos, Tabla Fresca and Salads of the Sea. The company also has a robust foodservice and private label arm and owns four R&D facilities as well as one production plant. 

The addition of noosa adds “significant scale and size” to Lakeview’s capabilities, effectively doubles its production footprint and gives it a well-established in-road to the $8 billion U.S. yogurt market, which itself has undergone a bit of an overhaul this past year. 

Nosh Insiders can access the full story for more details and a complete understanding of how the yogurt category is evolving.

Wonder is acquiring food ordering and delivery platform Grubhub from Just Eat Takeaway.com in a transaction valued at $650 million. The deal is expected to close in Q1 2025.

🍴 Founded by serial entrepreneur (and former Walmart exec) Marc Lore, Wonder is working to create a “super app” for mealtime featuring exclusive offerings from top chefs and restaurants that are delivered in less than 30 minutes. (Reminder: Wonder also acquired distressed meal kit company Blue Apron last year).

🤑 In addition to the Grubhub deal, Wonder announced today it has raised an additional $250 million in capital from new investors. Earlier this year, the startup secured $700 million, at the time bringing its total funding to $1.5 billion. 

Go Deeper: Blue Apron Sold To Wonder For $130 Million

Saffron Road Foods EVP Jack Acree is departing the company after 15 years to move into a new role at the Specialty Food Association (SFA) focused on education and advocacy. The company also announced the appointment of Paul Turbeville as president. 

👔 Turbeville comes to Saffron Road with extensive experience in the CPG industry, most recently serving as CCO at Village Gourmet. He will take over some of Acree’s sales and marketing responsibilities in addition to his C-suite duties as president, per the announcement. 

💭 “I couldn’t be more excited to welcome Paul into our C-suite as president and as my co-pilot leading Saffron Road forward. Paul’s pedigree as a ‘been there, done that’ entrepreneurial executive will amplify our Journey to Better,” said Adnan Durrani, chairman and CEO, in a statement.

Instacart’s diversification efforts into tech-based services and deeper retail integrations appear to be paying off. The company’s gross transaction value (GTV) rose 11% year-over-year in Q3 to $8.3 billion, according to an earnings call this week. Here are some key numbers: 

• Orders were up 10% to 72.9 million.
• Total revenue was $852 million, up 12%, representing 10.3% of GTV.
• Transaction revenue was $606 million, up 12%, representing 7.3% of GTV.

🤝 CEO Fidji Simo said Instacart has strengthened its retailer partnerships with enterprise technology by adding over 30 new customizable offer types – available at all 1,500+ retail banner partners – and highlighted it has created 120 additional features for natural chain Sprouts alone. 

💭 “When it comes to driving growth, depth of integration is much more important than exclusivity. The majority of our GTV is not exclusive today and so far this year, across our top 20 retailer partners, non-exclusive retailers grew faster with us than exclusive retailers on average,” said Simo in a statement. 

Keep an eye out for a full earnings recap on Nosh later today. 

Amazon has opened eight new Amazon Fresh stores in recent weeks, bringing its total store count to 60, according to a Grocery Dive report. The reopenings come after the ecommerce giant shuttered many of its locations and put a nearly year-long pause on expanding the  emerging grocery chain.  

🛒 The newly opened storefronts are located in California, New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and range in size from 31,000 to 59,000 sq. ft.

⏩ The expansion follows a refresh initiated last year that included improved lighting, more baked goods and prepared foods, and additional self-checkout stands. The company also removed its “Just Walk Out” payment technology from stores after it was revealed to be relying on remote human employees reviewing baskets. 

On the list of things we didn’t know we needed until now: check out Massachusetts-based artist Linda Dolack’s mixed media art collection, which prominently features discarded food and beverage packaging that has been recycled (could we call this upcycled?) and repurposed with glittering glow-ups. 

For all of you CPG aficionados out there, we are here to let you in on a secret: you can be the proud owner of a bedazzled carton of Hood Heavy Cream for a measly $3,300. Adding this one to our holiday gift lists!

Ismail Salhi, the co-founder of subscription-based baking company Wildgrain, talks about why being obsessed with its existing customer base and not hiring “until it’s painful” has helped the brand generate $30 million in revenue and become profitable just three years after its launch.

Listen to the episode now.