• 🛒FreshDirect Sells To Getir 
• 📉 Hain Reimagined Hits Net Sales Growth
• ☕ Farmers Allege Kroger Breached Kona Coffee Settlement
• 💸 Wonder Group Secures $100M Investment From Nestlé
• 🥯 Zedd Invests in BetterBrand, Drops Limited Edition Collab

The J.M. Smucker Company is investing more muscle behind sweet snacks and realigning its business structure to support that focus, following the close of its Hostess Brands acquisition yesterday. 

Moving forward the company will now be divided into five business segments: (1) away from home and international; (2) coffee; (3) frozen handheld and spreads (formerly titled consumer foods); (4) pet; (5) and sweet baked snacks. 

• Each division reports to a SVP and GM – all of whom report up to COO John Brase.
• Former Hostess Brands chief growth officer Dan O’Leary will oversee both the sweet baked snacks and pet divisions. 
• Smucker’s former pet business leader Rob Ferguson is now SVP and GM of its coffee division; Ferguson will also pull double duty – overseeing procurement management across all categories. (Thankfully he’ll have plenty of caffeine within reach). 
• In tandem with the promotions, it was announced that both the current SVP and GM of Smucker’s coffee business and the head of its procurement and commodities will both depart in December. 

So what gives? According to Smucker execs, the move streamlines operations and supports the company’s “Transformation” strategy (yes, Transformation with a capital T!). 

• But, the company’s Big T (a.k.a. current transformation officer Amy Held), will leave Smucker’s in February after 11 years at the jelly giant.
• CFO Tucker Marshall will lead strategy, finance, transformation and information services going forward. 

Marshaling those divisions over to Marshall “will enable the close connection between the company's margin-management objectives and its multiple planning processes with short- and long-term horizons,” according to a release.

Go Deeper: Hostess Sells To J.M. Smucker For $5.6B

East Coast grocery retail giant Ahold Delhaize is offloading its NYC-based e-grocery business FreshDirect to Turkish grocery delivery startup Getir in an effort to focus investments on its omni-channel businesses.

⏩Ultra-fast grocery delivery company Getir is hoping to grow its U.S. presence through the acquisition and said it will incorporate its technology and operational footprint with FreshDirect to offer faster services to its customers.

🏢FreshDirect customers won’t experience any major changes as a result of the transaction and will continue to be served by their local delivery teams and operate from its Bronx HQ.

📈Ahold – the parent company of grocery chains Giant Food, Hannaford and Food Lion – released its Q3 earnings results alongside the deal announcement – reporting that net online sales increased by 6.4%, fueled by “double-digit growth at Food Lion and Hannaford.” 

💭“This was a difficult decision, especially given FreshDirect’s rich history in the New York City area,” said JJ Fleeman, CEO of Ahold Delhaize USA, in a press release. “However, our strength as a grocery retailer in the U.S. is the true omni-channel experience."

Wondering what is up with online grocery delivery? Read the full story on NOSH. 

Also in retail news: Walmart announced that all U.S. stores will begin following “sensory-friendly” hours from 8 to 10 am everyday, indefinitely; during that time lights will be lowered, radios will be off and wall TVs will be static in an effort to cater to individuals with sensory processing issues such as autism, ADHD and PTSD.

Hain Celestial’s second corporate turnaround plan is underway and, despite a 3.3% drop in net sales this past quarter compared to a 2% drop in the previous quarter, the strategy is on track, according to president and CEO Wendy Davidson in an earnings report yesterday.

⬇️ Organic net sales – which do not account for acquisitions, divestitures and discontinued brands – declined 2.9% year over year; the company reported a 170 point gross margin decrease to 19.7%.

🥤 This new multi-year transformation plan will focus growth on the company’s better-for-you Snacks, Baby & Kids and Beverage segments.

⛽ That strategy also includes the “Fuel Program” – designed to improve gross margins by between 400 to 500 basis points through operational efficiencies as well as revenue growth and working capital management.

Check out the story on NOSH for more on Hain Reimagined and the full earnings recap.

A group of Hawaiian coffee farmers has filed a motion in Washington federal court alleging grocery chain Kroger broke the terms of a 2022 settlement to stop selling falsely labeled “Kona” coffee. 

🏷️ Plaintiffs allege the retailer has been “consistently” selling products labeled “Kona blend” without disclosing the percentage of Kona beans to its customers.

💵 The farmers are requesting the judge to order Kroger to hand over Kona coffee products  sales records in order to calculate damages from the breach. 

🛒 The settlement followed a 2019 suit with coffee farmers from the Kona region accusing 21 companies – including Kroger and Costco – of falsely marketing coffee products as being from Hawaii’s Big Island Kona region. 

❌ A settlement with Kroger was reached in 2022 and the grocery chain agreed to label the minimum percentage of Kona beans present in its products; Kroger failed to make the changes within the 10-month grace period. 

Fresh off its proposed $103 million acquisition of Blue Apron, Wonder Group (founded by Marc Lore) is buffing up its B2B foodservice business with a $100 million investment and strategic partnership with Nestlé. 

🔪 The deal will enable Wonder to grow its B2B arm and sell food service kitchen equipment and prepared ingredients to like hotels, hospitals and entertainment venues.

🚚 Wonder as a “restaurant quality” food delivery service and has grown from a food truck-based model to brick-and-mortar partnerships using its “high-speed, efficient equipment.”

🧑‍🍳 The company is planning to have 10 kitchen hubs operational in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut by the end of the year.

💲 The partnership with Wonder also serves Nestlé’s – which services a cafeterias, cruise lines and other foodservice outlets – by allowing its operators to improve food quality, consistency and open up "additional revenue streams that have been pretty challenged post-pandemic,” Melissa Henshaw, president of out-of-home for Nestlé told MSNBC 

Catch Up Fast: Blue Apron Sold For $130 Million.

Low-carb bread maker BetterBrand has nabbed another celebrity investor: Grammy Award-winning musical artist Anton Zaslavski, professionally known as Zedd, according to an announcement today. 

🌶️ To commemorate the new partnership, the company is releasing its first collaborative, LTO product: Zedd x The Jalapeño Cheddar Bagel. 

💰The news comes on the heels of BetterBrand’s $6 million Series A round, which closed earlier this year.

📸 Zedd joins BetterBrand’s roster of well-known investors – including Patrick Schwarzenegger; Cruise Automation founder and CEO, Kyle Vogt; and actor Emmy Rossum, among others.

🍞 Launched in 2021, BetterBrand’s launched in 2021 and makes low-carb bagels, buns and rolls – which are available at more than 2,000 retail locations across the U.K. and the U.S.