• 🔥 Low and Slow To Disrupt Chip Set
• 🗺️ M&A: SPINS Acquires Data Council and More
• 🗣️ Last Call For Nosh Notables
• 👨🏿‍⚖️ General Mills Goes To Court Over Racist Claims
• 🌭 Costco Posts Strong Q3 Results
• 🪖 The First Thing Jocko Willink Did When ‘Things Went Terribly Wrong'

Consolidation is coming to the plant-based alternative space… or at least that is the category direction U.K.-based Wicked Kitchen is banking on. 

The company announced today it has joined newly established and (now) growing plant-based conglomerate platform Ahimsa Companies, started by "No Meat Athlete" author and serial entrepreneur Matt Tullman. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

According to the announcement, Ahimsa has been formed to promote an “industry-wide consolidation effort” around removing animals from the global food system while supporting growth opportunities via vertical integration and scale. That makes Wicked Kitchen, which also owns plant-based seafood brands Good Catch and Current Foods, well suited to kick off those efforts.

Reminder: Wicked Kitchen brought the two alt-seafood brands in-house and began leveraging their ingredients within its own portfolio of over 150 products in select markets. Wicked’s range already spans frozen meals and entrees, ice cream and pantry staples, so the move to build out a broader plant-based platform via Ahimsa brings them further down the vertical integration path. 

"We are aligned in our mission, and we believe that Wicked Kitchen is stronger today and better positioned to serve the health and environmentally conscious consumer who does not want to sacrifice on taste or convenience," said Pete Speranza, CEO, Wicked Kitchen. 

Speranza, who previously served as an operating partner at Unovis and as an executive at General Mills’ 301 INC innovation group, joined Wicked as CEO in 2020. The company's chef co-founders (and brothers), Derek and Chad Sarno, are now also stakeholders in Ahimsa. Wicked Kitchen has raised upwards of $34 million across multiple rounds to-date, including $20 million in 2022 to ramp up global brand awareness. 

Along with Wicked Kitchen, Ahimsa said it is also targeting brand, manufacturing and “sales enablement business” acquisitions.   

"We've said all along that consolidation will drive success for the plant-based industry… As Ahimsa Companies brings together more brands, it can leverage this strength to help stabilize and shape the new landscape for the plant-based industry," said Tullman, Ahimsa Companies Group CEO, in a press release.  

Stay tuned to Nosh this week for more details. In the meantime, catch up quick with: Wicked Kitchen Acquires Plant-Seafood Maker Current Foods in Cashless Deal.

BBQ-flavored chip purveyor Low and Slow Snacks hopes to shake up the salty snack category with a proprietary manufacturing process that smokes chips at scale. 

⏪ Founded in 2019 by former Frito-Lay VP of marketing Jared Drinkwater, the Dallas, Texas-based brand produces potato chips, corn chips and tortilla chips that are smoked using hickory wood. 

🛒 Low and Slow made its retail debut last summer and is currently available at retailers in Texas, Wisconsin, Louisiana, North Carolina and Michigan with expansions to Missouri, Tennessee and Montana slated for later this year.

👀 Drinkwater said his goal with the brand is to construct a completely novel subcategory of salty snacks and its next innovation, a hickory-smoked BBQ cheese puff, will likely hit stores this fall.

💭 “We like to say that we’re just like your favorite barbecue joint, but we smoke snack food instead of meat. Everything we do lives and breathes that barbecue culture,” said Drinkwater.

Check out the full story on Nosh.

Also from the deal news frontlines, we are tracking two additional transactions this morning: Market researcher SPINS scoops up The Data Council, and jerky co-man Western Smokehouse Partners buys Golden Valley Natural. Here’s a taste:

🔢 Data Dump: SPINS bought The Data Council from Advantage Solutions Inc. and believes the content management platform’s capabilities, which sit “at the center of ecommerce and marketing in the CPG industry” will help SPINS’ retail partners fuel ecommerce, in-store and supply chain growth. 

🔥 Heating Up: AUA Private Equity Partners portfolio company Western Smokehouse Partners announced today it has acquired all-natural and organic meat snacks producer Golden Valley Natural, the maker of Hero Snacks. (ICYMI: Western Smokehouse is the co-man behind natural jerky brand Chomps).

This is your final reminder to submit your top picks for the 2024 Nosh Notables – the powerhouses of the packaged food industry who deserve some special attention.

🥇 ICYMI: We created this distinction last year to celebrate the thought leaders, hard workers and positive forces across the consumer brands landscape. (Check out the 2023 Nosh Notables here.) 

✍️ Here’s where you come in: Complete this form to nominate a notable person, idea or company, no later than June 7. The 2024 Nosh Notables will be announced in July.

Eight employees filed a complaint in the Northern District of Georgia alleging that General Mills permitted a racist work environment within its Covington, Ga., manufacturing facility. The 58-page class action suit claims that a white male group called the "Good Ole Boys" was allowed to run the facility in a way that systematically discriminated against Black workers.

😡 The plaintiffs’ case contends that the food conglomerate hired less qualified white employees over Black candidates and threatened minority employees with pay cuts or demotions.

❌ The suit claims that General Mills ignored "egregious incidents of racism" and the use of racist imagery throughout the Covington facility.

😧 One of the many examples provided by the plaintiffs points to a mural painted in the plant’s production area that depicted popular General Mills mascots as Confederate Army generals.

In other legal news: An Oregon judge denied Kroger and Albertsons’ request to get additional information on which markets the FTC takes issue with in its ongoing challenge to the supermarket chains’ proposed mega-merger. The companies requested the underlying basis for the FTC's market share and concentration figures, but the judge said some of the requests are best suited for the expert discovery phase while others were too broad and would require too much attorney work. 

The club business continues to capture consumers on price, according to Costco’s Q3 2024 earnings results. Here’s a rundown of the numbers:

• Net income grew 29.1% y/y to $1.68 billion, or $3.78 per diluted share
• Net sales in the quarter grew over 9% y/y to $57.39 billion; U.S. comparable sales grew 6.2%, or 6% when adjusted for gas inflation and foreign currency exchange. 
• Third-quarter gross margin came in 52 basis points higher y/y at 10.84% compared to 10.32%.

Check out the full report on Nosh for all the details.

Jocko Willink, a decorated, retired Navy SEAL and founder of better-for-you beverage and supplement brand Jocko Fuel, explained why having a “military mindset” means more than you might think and how he empowers his team to navigate the complexities of running a modern consumer brand.

Listen to the episode here.