• 👑 Amazon The New King Of Retail?
• 🚚 Hain Celestial New Distribution Center
• 🐣 Post Braces for Bird Flu Headwinds
• 🔀 Monday Moves

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Big Food is bracing for a tough year after various company leaders signaled lower-than-expected growth during a handful of quarterly reports over the past week. 

Why? Supply chain woes have made ingredient sourcing a challenge, and market uncertainty hangs over demand.

Along with the looming threat of tariff impacts, food makers are citing a variety of supply chain challenges – whether it's the continued cocoa crisis driving costs up for raw materials or bird flu creating egg shortages.

Large chocolate manufacturers like The Hershey Company and Mondelēz are working to lock in cocoa pricing early as raw the cost of cacao remains elevated after an upward surge last year.

• Hershey said 2024 price increases helped soften the impact of increased costs on its Q4 call. It has diversified sourcing and negotiated lower prices directly with producers in West Africa, which is expected to relieve pressure in the future.
• Mondelēz International was less optimistic, warning shareholders that it can’t accurately predict how cocoa prices will impact growth in its 2025 guidance. The multinational sweets and snacks maker has been instituting contingencies through a “prudent planning stance” to hedge around cocoa price volatility.

Looking towards the henhouse, Post Holdings said it is expecting headwinds in its second quarter as avian flu creates a supply imbalance and causes sourcing and cost challenges in Q2.

Hain Celestial is working to shore up the midpoint of its supply chain, opening a new distribution center in Georgia that it believes will expedite its products’ journey to shelf while also reducing transportation costs (more details on that facility later). Paired with a “poor in-store performance in snacks,” the company lowered 2025 organic net sales guidance to a range of -2% to 4% and flat year-over-year adjusted EBITDA.

PepsiCo is focused on bringing consumers back to its snacking portfolio, expecting the integration of Siete Foods to buoy revenue after declines in Q4. Flowers Foods is also betting on its recent acquisition of Simple Mills to pull in more better-for-you consumers but cautioned that baked goods are experiencing “softness.”

The general sentiment: Hold on tight as market conditions remain in-flux, compounded by the geopolitical issues and trade wars on the horizon. 

Catch up on recent sentiments from Big CPGs on Nosh.

Who is the king of commerce? Online retail giant Amazon might have taken the mantle after posting Q4 sales of $187.8 billion.

• That figure is expected to be higher than mass retailer Walmart’s revenue, marking the first time Amazon has surpassed the mass retailer. 
• However, the ecommerce behemoth has long been far ahead in terms of profits due to its diversified cloud storage, streaming and ad services.

In other grocery news: Southeastern Grocers (SEG) has reacquired the Winn-Dixie and Harveys banners from ALDI. The deal appears to roll back a move the German-owned private supermarket company made in March 2024 when it bought the roughly 400 stores from SEG. 

• Winn-Dixie and Harveys’ new owners are current SEG CEO and president Anthony Hucker and C&S Wholesale Grocers.

Catch Up: ALDI To Acquire Winn Dixie, Harveys Stores

The Hain Celestial Group is slated to open its fourth distribution center this month, more than doubling its U.S. network capacity. Located in Savannah, Ga., the company believes the facility will enhance delivery speed and reduce transportation costs. 

⏩ Hain Celestial expects the new facility will give it the ability to reach 90% of U.S. consumers within one to two transit days (a 15% increase). That equates to a 66% reduction in delivery route mileage and multimillion-dollar savings. 

🗣️The company is actively reassessing its supply chain to be “more agile and robust,” according to chief supply chain officer Steve Golliher. He said this strategic expansion will enable Hain to “swiftly” respond to market demands. 

Post Holdings COO Jeff Sadix warned that it is bracing for a bird flu-spurred egg shortage that will create headwinds “in the range of $30 million to $50 million” for Q2 2025, during the company’s earnings call last week. 

But he sought to reassure investors and analysts that it’s not the company’s first rodeo when it comes to avian flu outbreaks.

• Sadix said Post has been able to successfully adjust pricing for past avian flu epidemics and is “confident in our ability to navigate through the current landscape.”
• The broader outlook saw Post’s net sales hit nearly $2 billion in Q1 of fiscal year 2025, up 0.4% year-over-year. 
• Operating profit was $214.1 million and gross profit up 4% to $595.3 million (30.1% of net sales).

Read the full story on Nosh for the full breakdown.

Here’s a taste of the people and products moving around the industry to start off your week.

🥩 Co-founder Pete Maldonado has stepped down from his role as co-CEO of meat snack brand Chomps, transitioning to chairman. Rashid Ali will continue to lead the company in the chief executive spot. 

🛒 Online grocery delivery service Weee! has appointed Jeff Wilke as a company advisor. Wilke comes to the company with decades of experience, having previously served as CEO of Amazon Worldwide Consumer. 

🐟 Briana Warner has joined Bristol Seafood as VP of marketing and strategy. The news comes less than one month after Warner stepped down as CEO of Atlantic Sea Farms, shifting into a role of strategic advisor. 

🌶️ Bitchin’ Sauce has landed its single-serve Chipotle sauce on the Winter Menu of select Starbucks locations across the U.S. 

🌱 Beyond Meat has expanded its portfolio of plant-based steak analogs with the launch of Beyond Steak Chimichurri and Beyond Steak Korean BBQ-style at Sprouts Farmers Market stores nationwide.