• 🍪 Purely Elizabeth Grows Granola Category
• 🍫 Could Candy Consolidate?
• 🤝 L.A. Libations-Advantage Solutions' Consultant Business
• 🛒 Retail News Roundup
• ♥️ To Live Her Dream, She First Needed To Create ‘Absolute Trust’ In Her Brand

The specialty food industry said “aloha” to a handful of Hawaii-based brands during the Winter Fancy Food Show in Las Vegas this week. A cohort of exhibitors from the University of Hawaii Leeward Community College’s ‘Āina to Mākeke program showcased locally produced and heritage-inspired snacks and pantry staples. 

• The program’s participants learn to scale kitchen recipes into market-ready commercial products through hands-on workshop sessions.
• They also had access to the Wahiawā Value-Added Product Development Center, a newly-opened 33,000 sq. ft. facility in Central O’ahu. 
• The facility encompasses lab testing, production kitchens, wet and dry processing areas, a high-pressure processing plant, refrigerated storage and more.

Here’s a taste of the Hawaiian startups seeking to reach specialty shoppers on the mainland: 

• Mauka Meats produces wild-harvested Hawaiian venison bone broth that utilizes axis deer, an invasive species that spreads noxious weeds and strips the land of native plants, increasing wildfire risk. The company partners with local USDA-inspected hunters and processors to source its venison bones.
• The Hawaiian Vinegar Company markets a collection of shrubs made with upcycled seasonal fruit. Flavors range from Pineapple Mint to Basil Ginger to Star Fruit Lilikoi & Vanilla. 
• Any Kine Snax offers a Hawaiian twist on the freeze-dried candy trend, featuring local flavors like ube, lychee, li hing and lilikoi. 
• Galleon Chocolate specializes in artisanal Filipino-inspired confections highlighting the ube yam. The vibrantly purple offerings include Ube Cheesecake, Ube Goat Milk, Ube Macadamia Nuts, Ube Coconut Cream and Ube Royale. According to the brand’s founder and chocolatier Len Gonzales, ube’s flavor has notes of vanilla, pistachio and coconut.
• Island Rayne Gourmet produces a line of small-batch tropical fruit hot sauces on the Big Island. Varieties include Guava Lava, Calamansi Kini, Passionate Lilikoi, LycheeHoo and Crack Seed Addiction. The crack seed name is derived from the preservation process for li hing mui, or Hawaiian sour plum; the flavor is nostalgic to natives, according to founder Becky Shuck.
• Hawaiian Krunch Co. manufactures artisan granola highlighting locally grown ingredients including taro, breadfruit, papaya and cacao.
• Island Sausage crafts an assortment of premium pork products ranging from Spanish Chorizo and Soppressata to Spicy Korean and Ginger Miso sausages. 

Insiders can read about more trends and standout products at the Winter Fancy Food Show on Nosh.

Purely Elizabeth Cookie Granola was the biggest new product line launched in the $1.3 billion granola category last year, creating new eating occasions for a segment traditionally tied to the morning meal and propelling the brand’s sales up 85% year-over-year, according to SPINS data. 

 🥜 This week, Purely Elizabeth expanded the cookie-inspired granola line with the addition of a Peanut Butter recipe, crafted with organic oats, coconut sugar, coconut oil, chia seeds and maple syrup. 

💬 “I think it tastes like a Nutter Butter… It is by far my favorite product of ours, a total game changer whether for breakfast on top of yogurt, or straight out of the bag as a mid-day, afternoon or late-night snack,” said founder and CEO Elizabeth Stein.

Read the full interview to learn more about Stein’s perspective on emerging competition in the granola set and the brand’s plans for the year ahead.

The Sprezzatura Company, a roll-up seeking to acquire established U.S. candy brands and manufacturers, debuted last week with the ultimate goal of “transform[ing] today’s mid-market players into tomorrow’s industry leaders,” according to founder Fabio Matticoli.

🍬 Hailing from Switzerland, Matticoli believes there is more opportunity in the U.S. market, where there are nearly 1,400 candy production businesses as of 2024. 

• Matticoli sees that count as a space ripe for consolidation particularly in the lower and middle markets, stating that major players like Mars and Hershey are acquiring larger companies. 

⏩ According to Matticoli, Sprezzatura plans to sign a letter of intent by the end of this quarter and to follow through with its first acquisition of an undisclosed company by the end of July. 

🗣️ What he said: “I want to work with companies that are maybe a bit less ‘cool’ than startups but already have traction, clients and market fit and start making them sustainable [business]. We’re starting with smaller brands but, at some point, will look to acquire bigger brands as well.”

Relentless Advantage launched this week as a new partnership between St. Louis-based CPG sales and marketing agency Advantage Solutions and SoCal beverage incubator L.A. Libations.

🛒 The partnership will blend the expertise of the two businesses to bring retail support services to emerging brands.

🤔 The joint venture will service both food and beverage brands and already includes Abbot’s, Nixie, PLEZi, and Poppi, among others.

💭 Relentless Advantage will offer support services to bring distribution placement and successful sell-through with major retailers, the announcement said.

There’s been a flurry of retail news in recent weeks. Here’s a quick look at the headlines grabbing our attention:

• Grocery Outlet today announced a new president and CEO, naming Jason Potter, former CEO of The Fresh Market, to the top spot. 
• The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fined ecomm food distributor Grubmarket $550 million for providing investors with unreliable and overstated financial information.
• Weis Markets promoted Bob Gleeson to COO this week; he joined the grocery chain in 2018 and previously served as SVP of Merchandising and Marketing.  

When Amanda Thomson launched Noughty Wines, a pioneering brand of dealcoholized wines, in 2019, she was, in essence, flying blind. In this episode, Amanda talks about how she charted an unknown path for a nascent category, why gaining the “absolute trust” of consumers is key to Noughty’s future and why she advises founders to consider what they want to achieve with their brands.

Listen to the episode now.