• 📸 Marketing: Special K, Breyers, Tillamook
• 🚨 Correction: Revised Expo West Schedule in 2025
• 📊 UNFI Posts Mixed Quarterly Results 
• 🍳 Eat Just Cracks Open New Alt-Egg
• 👨🏻‍🍳 FreshRealm Partners With Wonder

The fox moves fast. In less than two months since abruptly shutting down all stores, declaring bankruptcy and auctioning off some assets of the combined parent company, Outfox Hospitality, it appears Foxtrot may soon saunter back into Chicago. 

Further Point Enterprises, the New York-based firm that bought the modern c-store chain’s non-real estate assets at auction last month for $2.2 million, is now the official tenant for six of the brand’s former locations in Chicago, which are all owned by different landlords, according to a recent filing in Delaware bankruptcy court.

According to a report in Crain’s Chicago Business Journal this morning, the new locations could begin opening as soon as this summer, specifically the Gold Coast and Old Town stores. Crain’s also confirmed the rumors that Mike LaVitola, Foxtrot’s original co-founder, is back in the driver’s seat. David Magruder, managing partner of Further Point Enterprises, will act as interim chief financial officer and board member of the new entity.

“It’s a totally new company starting from scratch, but (we) have the Foxtrot name and the (intellectual property) and a bunch of our locations… We’re like a new startup again,” LaVitola told the Chicago-based publication.

But Further Point bought the assets for a total of 15 locations during the sale, five of which are in Texas. The fate of the remaining locations and assets remains unclear at this time. As for the rest of Foxtrot’s former footprint, Outfox trustees are currently trying to eliminate any remaining unexpired leases from the bankruptcy process, according to the bankruptcy filing. 

And Foxtrot itself went on to confirm our suspicions this morning. The original @Foxtrotmarket Instagram account made its first new post since the shutdown with a picture of a sky at sunset (or sunrise, depending how symbolic you want to get) and just a glimpse of a Foxtrot store sign in the corner. The company added another cryptic layer to the whole thing by captioning the photo “A new Foxtrot with some old friends. Coming soon” and disabling the comments section. All previous posts on the account have also since been deleted. 

But what does this mean for the remaining stores and regions where the chain once operated? Will Dom’s Kitchen and Market, the product of grocery veteran Bob Mariano, reopen its doors, too? And will any brand ever want to sell at Foxtrot again? We’d love to hear from you. Send your thoughts to adeluca@bevnet.com. 

In the meantime, refresh your memory with: Foxtrot Assets Sold At Auction For $2.2M.

💵 And in additional retail news: Dollar Tree is reportedly exploring a sale of its Family Dollar banners in hopes of restructuring the business while inflation continues to restrain consumer spending.

One ice cream company claims to reverse aging, while another is offering a cutting-edge solution for thwarting freezer thieves. Let’s get into the latest packaged food marketing campaigns:

🥣 Kellogg’s Special K is featuring its first-ever pregnant woman on a cereal box. Cookbook author and self-proclaimed “diehard Special K girlie” Molly Baz appears on a special edition to “empower expectant mothers.” 

🍨 Fountain of youth? Ice cream maker Breyers is marketing its lower-carb line as “anti-aging cream” with a throwback campaign starring actor and singer Bernadette Peters, a spokesperson for the brand more than three decades ago. 

🍦 Speaking of ice cream… Tillamook is peddling a personal privacy shield to protect pints from prying eyes. The freezer-friendly Tillamook iScreen, which uses “cutting-edge optical technology that deflects light,” will be available on the brand’s website for $19.99 starting June 7. 

We previously reported that Informa Markets’ New Hope Network is revising the schedule for Natural Products Expo West next year based on exhibitor and attendee feedback, but we provided some incorrect information. 

👉 All exhibit halls (North Halls, Anaheim Convention Center Halls A-E, Arena and Level 3) will be open Wednesday through Friday. (We erroneously stated the North Halls will open only Wednesday and Thursday). 

🕟 Among other changes, buyer-only hours will be expanded and extended to include all show floors. The event will also include a one-day farmers market-style exhibition tent (previously Fresh Ideas Organic Marketplace).

😎 Additional changes to Expo West will be announced later this summer, according to New Hope Network.

United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) today reported mixed Q3 2024 results amid the company’s ongoing business transformation efforts aimed at improving profitability and working capital efficiency. Here’s the top-level view:

• UNFI saw net sales decrease 0.1% to $7.5 billion during the quarter which ended April 27.
• The distributor’s gross profit accounted for 13.6% of net sales and increased by $20 million, or 2%, to $1 billion. 
• Business transformation costs totaled $11 million in the quarter, compared to $7 million in Q3 2023. As a result, total operating expenses in Q3 were $992 million, or 13.2% of net sales.

Check out the full earnings recap on Nosh.

The consolidation of the meal-kit market continues. FreshRealm has added more manufacturing muscle to its network as it takes over four of Wonder’s New Jersey-based  production centers and makes a play as the go-to upstream producer for meal-kit companies. 

🔀 As part of the deal, FreshRealm will begin operating Wonder’s “upstream ingredient prep and production” and the facilities will be “transferred” to the meal kit co-man, according to the announcement. 

🏭 FreshRealm had taken over the manufacturing of Blue Apron last May before the company was acquired by Wonder and continues to produce the legacy meal-kit company’s offerings

💸 The partnership may signal that Wonder is also looking to take an asset-light approach to its supply chain after acquiring Blue Apron in September 2023 for $130 million.

💰 Founded by entrepreneur Michael Lippold, FreshRealm has been on a tear shoring up its role in meal-kit manufacturing and delivery with the acquisition of Marley Spoon’s operational infrastructure for $24 million in January.

Eat Just this week announced a new version of Just Egg, its mung bean-based egg replacer, with a “cleaner” flavor profile and improved texture and functionality in baking and cooking. 

🛒 The latest iteration is rolling out to Whole Foods, Sprouts, Walmart, Target and Kroger stores nationwide.

🏭 The company has revamped the recipe five times since the product’s debut in 2019. The recent tweaks resulted from efforts to simplify the manufacturing process at its plant in Appleton, Minn.

💬 According to celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern, “This latest iteration is fluffier and lighter, with better egg texture and more eggy flavor – and it performs better than any previous version I’ve tried. I cannot tell the difference between this and a conventional scrambled egg.”