• 🤳 Bibigo Goes Extra Mile For Influencers
• 👋 Johnny Tran Leaves 301 INC
• 💸 Keychain Locks In Hershey Investment
• 🤖 Sam’s Club Tests Fully Digital Stores
• 🧑‍🌾 Once Upon A Farm's New Produce Plan

This Halloween season, grocery retailers are stocking fewer chocolate items in favor of cheaper gummies, licorice and flavored cremes due to escalating cocoa costs, per a Reuters report. 

Hershey’s newest Halloween-themed products, including Reese’s Werewolf Tracks and KitKat Ghost Toast, feature creme instead of milk chocolate. Mondelez International, which does not have a major U.S. chocolate brand, is rolling out seasonal spins on Sour Patch Kids.

Still, chocolate accounts for the bulk (56%) of total confectionery sales, reaching a record-high $21.4 billion last year, according to a National Confectioners Association report released last week.

Volume and unit sales have declined in recent years – falling 3.2% and 4.9%, respectively, last year alone, while dollar sales climbed 1.5%, driven by inflation. Dollar sales are projected to hit $37.6 billion across all U.S. outlets by 2029.

According to the report, more than three-fourths of consumers eat the same amount or more chocolate than last year. Among the one-quarter of consumers who have reduced chocolate consumption, higher cost is a key factor. 

Milk chocolate is preferred by 40% of U.S. consumers (up from 37% in 2021), followed by dark chocolate (28%, down from 30%) and white chocolate (7%, up from 5%); the remaining 26% say they love it all.

Eighty-eight percent of consumers buy mainstream chocolate like Hershey’s and Snickers (up from 83% in 2021), while 75% consume premium varieties such as Lindt, Ghiradelli and Ferrero, (up from 67% in 2021) and 29% buy fine and artisan styles, defined in the survey as handmade truffles or bean-to-bar chocolate (29% in 2021).

Seasonal items accounted for 65% of total chocolate sales, and Halloween was the biggest holiday for candy sales last year.

"Chocolate serves a unique role as an affordable and accessible treat. While American families are taking steps to streamline their spending, they continue to seek out their favorite chocolate products to enhance moments of joy and comfort. Whether it's a cherished holiday tradition or a special occasion to 'treat yourself,' consumers are making allowances in their budgets for chocolate,” said John Downs, president and CEO of the National Confectioners Association, in a statement.

Go Deeper: Report: What’s in Store for CPG Amid Rising Cocoa Prices?

🚗 Bibigo is going the extra mile for influencer marketing with the release of its Dashboard Kitchen. The “fully-functioning kitchenette” includes a hot plate, LED lights, a microwave, stability-controlled eating tray and precision chopsticks to ease the process for influencers who have joined the social media trend of “eating and reviewing food in the comfort of their cars.”

🌱 The Plant Based Foods Association (PBFA) launched its first campaign this week, dubbed “May Cause” in partnership with plant-based brands such as NotCo, Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat and more. The campaign debuted during Climate Week in NYC and aims to show the “positive and unexpected changes [plant-based food] can bring to people's lives.”

🏖️ Nut snack brand SkinnyDipped activated its first national campaign this week: SkinnyDipped Beach. The campaign will include pop-up events to drive brand awareness and feature a “build your own goodie bag” cabana along with the opportunity to customize merch and create new SkinnyDipped flavors. 

📸 Ghetto Gastro is introducing its new "BOP LINE" campaign to support the rollout of its new Brown Sugar and Sweet Potato toaster pastries. The campaign includes a hotline to engage with the brand, mobile pop-ups and a video series featuring actors Gwyneth Paltrow, Michael Ealy, Siddiq Sanderson, Jerrie Johnson and rapper Maliibu Miitch.

🟫 Brownie Brittle introduced a brand refresh today that includes updated food photography and a new tagline: "Thin, Crispy, Crunchy." The brand also revamped its website for a more seamless shopping experience. The changes come nearly two years after the company was acquired by Second Nature Brands. 

Each year, Nosh recognizes packaged food industry companies, brands, individuals, products, ideas, and trends through our annual Best Of awards show, presented at our two-day Nosh Live conference. This year, the winners will be announced on December 5 in Marina del Rey, Calif.

Nominations are currently open, and you may submit as many nominations as you’d like, either for your own company/product or a company/product you find deserving. 

The deadline to submit nominations is Friday, November 1.

Click here for more information and to submit a nomination.  

Johnny Tran is stepping down as managing director of General Mills’ venture arm 301 INC after more than a decade with the Minneapolis-based company, he shared in a LinkedIn post. 

🥇 Kristen Harvey will succeed him as managing director of 301 INC. Andrew Petz will take on the role of managing partner of Gold Medal Ventures, the CPG conglomerate’s disruptive innovation and investment vehicle.

⏪ During her nearly 14-year tenure with General Mills, Harvey has held various finance roles. Most recently she was senior finance manager for Meals and Baking Solutions. Petz has been with the company for nearly 13 years, most recently as director of mergers and acquisitions.

Nosh Insiders can get all of the details and catch up on other recent people moves.

Tech company Keychain, which operates an AI-based platform that connects manufacturers with brands more efficiently, received a vote of confidence from The Hershey Company this week, announcing it has invested $2.5 million in the B2B matchmaker.

🤝 Founded by former Angi executives Oisin Hanrahan and Umang Dua, the company raised $18 million in a seed round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners in late November.

🏭 Keychain has initially focused on bridging the gap for larger CPG companies and manufacturers and currently has over 10,000 brands and retailers on its platform.

💵 The company claims to have over $100 million in projects being posted on Keychain every month.

Stay tuned to Nosh to learn how the investment will fuel Keychain’s manufacturing efficiency goals. 

Walmart-owned Sam’s Club is not just doing away with friendly human faces at checkout, it's looking to do away with the concept of checkout lanes all together. This week the club chain announced its first fully digital store will open in the Dallas area this month.

📱 Rather than check out, customers can walk the aisle and scan items they want to purchase via the retailer's Scan & Go smartphone app. This allows store workers nearly four times the space to fulfill ecommerce orders and deliveries.

💻 The showroom-style store will also feature “online-only” items in the area typically reserved for the cash registers. Customers can scan these items as well for purchase.

🛒 The tech-forward retail test comes as the chain works to differentiate itself from Costco warehouses and will serve as a platform for the Walmart-owned retailer to test new technologies.

Childhood nutrition brand Once Upon A Farm announced a new partnership with the Equitable Food Initiative (EFI) that will see the brand source and pay premiums on produce from EFI-certified suppliers.

🍎 According to the company, it aims to source 7,000,000 pounds of organic produce from EFI-certified suppliers (about 30% of the ingredients for its core portfolio) this year. The premiums are directed in the form of a bonus to non-salaried farm employees.

💬 What they said: "Multi-ingredient consumer goods often have opaque supply chains, not by choice, but rather as a by-product of their complexity. Given the diversity in our supply chain, there is not a one-size-fits-all model for responsible sourcing but Once Upon a Farm believes complexity should not equal complacency…We also have an opportunity to be honest about the challenges and imperfections, so that we can work collectively with others in the industry on how to improve." - John Foraker, CEO