• 👔 Northeast Grocery, Inc. Announces Retirement of CEO
• 🎤 Dolly Parton Launches New Retail Food Line Via Conagra
• 🆕 Justin’s Launches New Chocolate Candy Pieces

This year will see a slow escalation in acquisitions as inflation recedes and the Federal Reserve begins to lower interest rates, according to Solomon Partners. The financial advisory firm took a stab at what the landscape for M&A will look like in a new report: 2024 Outlook: Trends Impacting Consumer and Retail M&A so let’s dive into the four narratives Solomon believes will drive M&A activity in food and beverage this year…

The resilience of the food and beverage landscape amid challenging macroeconomic headwinds. The report flagged that despite declines at the register as consumers stretch their dollars further, “strategics with strong balance sheets” have been making key acquisitions to “modernize their portfolios” and “capture attractive consumer demographics” especially in better-for-you foods. Solomon presented examples like Campbell’s bringing Rao’s into its portfolio as part of the SOVOS Brands deal, Unilever diversifying further in frozen novelties with the acquisition of Yasso and Mars’ adding Kevin’s Naturals over the summer and TruFru in December 2022 to its family of brands bringing healthier options to entrees and indulgent snacks.

A focus on supply chain security continues to dominate the conversation among M&A deals with private equity outfits targeting vertically integrated platforms. These deals “enable investors to participate in the defensibility, resiliency, and growth of certain categories in a brand-agnostic way.” Companies with manufacturing capabilities to produce private-label, co-manufactured and value-added ingredient offerings bring scale and diversification to portfolios.

Big retailers are expected to keep getting bigger. The top two CPG retailers — Walmart and Amazon — will continue to battle over consumer dollars and Solomon predicts that Amazon will overtake Walmart by 2025 as the top revenue-generating retailer. The ecommerce giant contributed “nearly 34.0% of total revenue growth across the top 150 retailers” as retailers outside of the top 10 have declined from “32.3% of total in 2013 to 23.0% in 2023.”

The expansion of bigger retailers’ market share is playing out most dramatically in consumer shopping DTC and in ecommerce. The report conceded that many retailers have undergone dramatic business model transformations highlighted by Walmart shifting from being solely brick-and-mortar to an emphasis on ecommerce through its acquisition of Jet.com. The heated competition online for consumer attention has grown more among incumbent brands (+16%) who now outpace digitally-native businesses (+2%) for the over $1.1 trillion in sales during 2023.

Price Chopper/Market 32 and Tops Friendly Markets parent company Northeast Grocery Inc. (NGI), has announced the retirement of CEO Frank Curci. He will be succeeded by NGI COO John Persons, effective February 26.

🤝 Persons started as a cashier at Tops 40 years ago and has served as NGI’s COO since June 2023. In that role, Curci managed operations for the company’s grocery banners and oversaw merchandising and marketing functions.

💭 “I’d like to express my gratitude to Frank Curci for his leadership and mentorship over the years and reiterate my commitment to [building] on the momentum and success that he has fostered,” said Persons in a statement. 

🛒 The Schenectady, New York-based Price Chopper/Market 32 grocery chain merged with Tops in 2021 effectively creating Northeast Grocery’s retail footprint of over 300 stores. At the time, Persons was appointed president of Tops Markets.

Building on the success of her multiyear partnership with Duncan Hines, beloved singer-songwriter Dolly Parton has inked a deal with parent company Conagra Brands to create a collection of retail food products.

🍰 The deal is expected to bring new Parton-themed food items spanning frozen, refrigerated, grocery and snack categories; the superstar will also expand her collaboration with Duncan Hines’ with a range of new cake and muffin mixes.

🥞 The first single-branded Dolly Parton item, Buttermilk Pancake Mix, will begin rolling out to retailers this winter. More items, including frozen foods, are expected to launch later this year. 

🧑‍🍳 "[This partnership] gives us an incredible opportunity to further cement Conagra Brands in our established categories, while authentically positioning us for tremendous growth in new ones including Southern cooking and comfort food," said Conagra COO Tom McGough.

Instant smoothie brand Kencko is working to rebuild and relocate operations after its online fulfillment center experienced a fire in late November 2023. 

⏯️ The DTC native company was forced to pause operations for its online store, which sells its full lineup of freeze-dried smoothie powders in addition to fruit and vegetable-based gumdrops.

🚚 While the company expanded beyond its DTC-only roots last year via a brick-and-mortar launch at Walmart with five SKUs, its online shop carries the full lineup of smoothie powders which includes over 20 varieties. 

📈 At the time, Kencko also onboarded Kelly Deen as CCO as it aims to grow the brand in retail and foodservice accounts.

Justin’s is expanding its presence in the candy aisle beyond nut butter cups, today announcing the launch of its USDA Organic-certified Chocolate Candy Pieces. According to Penny Andino, VP of marketing at Justin’s, the new product fills whitespace that still exists for organic options in the nut-based chocolate candy pieces segment. 

🍫Available in two varieties – Dark Chocolate Peanut and Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter – the treats are crafted with Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa and feature coloring made from fruits and veggies rather than synthetic dyes. 

🛒Justin’s Chocolate Candy Pieces will be available for purchase in both shareable 4.5 oz. pouches (SRP $6.49) and single-serve 1.5 oz. pouches (SRP $2.29) at Whole Foods Market, Amazon, The Fresh Market and Stop & Shop later this month.

Check out the full story on NOSH

Nosh has moved beyond natural to be more inclusive of the growing packaged food industry as a whole. Expect additional insights on innovation, trends, new products, and developments shaping the future of the industry. Learn more.