• 👌 A Bite With Stride Consumer Partners' Paul Kenny
• 🍫 Scharffen Berger Joins 1-800-FLOWERS
• 🔄 People: Dan Goldstein CEO of Purple Carrot
• 🤝 Florenz Acquires Wedderspoon Organic
• ✉️ CULT Food Pens Letter Of Opposition To Florida

As Nosh’s recent Trendlines Report pointed out – the CPG industry is always changing including where, why and how consumers shop. Don’t even get us started about how quickly what they shop for shifts…

As omni-channel strategies have taken root, the emergence of retail-led sales holidays – such as Amazon’s Prime Day, Walmart’s Walmart+ Week and Target’s Circle Week – have contributed to this evolution. Nowadays, brick-and-mortar retail appears to be nothing without a click-and-collect counterpart. 

Recent trend reports from Numerator and The Food Industry Association (FMI) captured some of these changes and gave us a sense of the direction ahead. With Amazon Prime Day taking place next week, let’s get a read on what is, and isn’t working, out there:

Retail media networks are becoming increasingly more social, and effective. 

• FMI’s survey revealed that retailers believe TikTok (78%) is the most effective outreach vehicle – beating out TV ads (63%), Instagram (55%), Youtube (56%) and Facebook (50%).
• Effective digital marketing strategies are becoming more important for all as the competitive landscape shifts away from traditional supermarkets and toward mass retailers like Target, Walmart and Amazon.
• Eighty four percent of retailers told FMI they are leveraging online shopping as a “service differentiation strategy.” 
• Being able to speak to an online shopper, while online, will likely support the mass channel’s continued capture of grocery sales – 100% of Prime Day shoppers told Numerator they were aware of the event ahead of time due to ad efforts. 
• The results are also in line with a recent move from distributor UNFI, which unveiled its own in-house retail media platform in May as a way to help retailers and brands market more directly to customers

But the proof? That is in the (Amazon Prime Day) pudding. 

• Numerator’s report tracked an 11% site traffic lift during the online retail giant’s bi-annual Prime Day event in 2023, which also overlapped with similar sales holidays hosted by Target and Walmart. 
• While all three saw site traffic spike, Amazon tracked the largest sales gain as consumers reported the platform offered the best prices and greatest diversity of items.  
• Consumables, particularly beverages and vitamins and supplements, have become more popular during the bi-annual event; notably consumer interest in snacks during Prime Day has fallen out of the top 10 since 2019. 
• Seventy-two percent of food retailers said competition from online retailers is negatively impacting their business. 

The reason why consumers are turning to the mass, online channel is important if traditional grocers aim to reclaim territory. Fifty-seven percent of consumers said they seek a wide variety of items on sale, second only to the 75% that said best prices come first. 

Go Deeper: PLTFRM Broadens Base with Eye to New Channels

After 35 years in CPG, Paul Kenny has some useful advice for emerging food and beverage brands. Kenny’s approach, now via the private equity sector, is to guide brands into the next stage of growth using his expertise from working in sales at Nabisco and Procter & Gamble to his leadership at KIND and Yasso.

👏 In the early days, it is important to cultivate a team of people who can wear many hats and work in a variety of roles in order to maintain a lean and efficient workforce as the brand builds distribution.

🔎 How do you increase margins? Taking price when justified and driving out inefficient costs. Those are some of the most important lessons to learn early if a brand aims to be profitable.

🧘 For Kenny, one of the lessons he is learning (as opposed to teaching) in his new role is to be patient and listen while he sits on the other side of the boardroom table. 

Nosh Insiders can check out the full interview for all of Kenny’s insights.

Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker, which touts itself as America’s first “bean-to-bar” chocolate producer, has joined 1-800-FLOWERS’ family of brands. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

⏪ Founded in 1996, the premium company markets baking chocolates, bars, thins and “Breaks,” a line of low-glycemic chocolate snacks made with oat milk, coconut sugar and cacao beans. 

🤝 Scharffen Berger was acquired by The Hershey Company in 2005 before returning to private ownership in 2021 after it was divested to confection category veteran Paul Cherrie. 

🍿 1-800-FLOWERS’ portfolio also includes Harry & David, Shari’s Berries, Simply Chocolate, Cheryl’s Cookies, The Popcorn Factory, Wolferman’s Bakery and Vital Choice. 

🥕 Dan Goldstein has moved into a new role as CEO of Purple Carrot. He previously served as CEO of the meal kit delivery brand’s parent company Oisix, Inc. 

🍝 Family-run Italian pasta brand Pasta Rummo has promoted James W. Donnelly Jr. to CCO as it works to invest deeper in its U.S. business. Donnelly previously served as the company’s U.S. VP of sales. 

🌱 Raj Joshi has departed Blue Diamond Growers after five years with the farmer-owned cooperative to join organic breakfast and snack food brand Nature’s Path as CMO. In an announcement, Nature’s Path called Joshi a “distinguished marketing leader and CPG industry expert.” 

🥩 Amidst its brand renovation, Stryve Foods has elected PepsiCo veteran Kevin Vivian as its new Chairman of the Board. Vivian spent 32 years at PepsiCo, serving the last six as SVP of national account sales and VP/GM of Frito-Lay’s $4 billion immediate consumption business. 

🍜 DayDayCook – which acquired Omsom last month – has named former IMAC Holdings CEO Jeffrey Ervin as Co-CFO. The appointment comes as the Asian food “powerhouse” seeks to gain a foothold in the U.S. financial markets. 

Florenz, a subsidiary of investment company Masthead Ltd., has purchased Wedderspoon Organic, the largest seller of New Zealand-sourced and manufactured Manuka honey products in North America. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

🍯 Wedderspoon’s product portfolio includes Manuka honey lozenges, drops and lip balm as well as Bee Propolis throat sprays. Its products are sold at over 23,000 stores across the U.S. and Canada including Costco, Walmart, CVS and Whole Foods. 

👀 Florenz also owns New Zealand-based vitamins and supplement exporter Xtend-Life Group, ingredients manufacturer Dry Food New Zealand and blackcurrant-based sports performance supplement exporter 2Before Performance Nutrition. 

💭 “Brand New Zealand has never been stronger overseas and consumers globally are rapidly moving away from synthetic health products to support their wellbeing. Our nation has some of the best natural ingredients in the world,” said Florenz Group CEO Mike Tod in a statement.

Florida’s ban on cell-cultured meat is getting more pushback from food tech companies. CULT Food Science released an open letter to the state’s governor, speaker and senate leader calling for the leadership to take stakeholder insight and rethink its legislation banning the production, distribution and sale of cultured meat in the state.

💭 The letter stated that the bans “do not represent the views of leading scientists or environmental research” and represents “a harmful attitude and needs to be seen for what it is, which is protecting the interests of a select few and trying to discredit one of the most exciting areas of biotechnology and food science.”

😶 The open letter comes just weeks after cultured meat producer UPSIDE Foods hosted a free dinner featuring its cell-based chicken for diners in Miami in protest of the statewide ban.

👋 CULT Food Science currently produces Noochies, a cell-cultured dog treat product, but has invested heavily in the category including Eat JUST, Ohayo Valley and Novel Farms, among others. The food tech platform also closed the first tranche of its $1.4 million private placement last week.