• 🍄 Better Meat Co. New Patent
• 🏁 Miyoko’s Collabs With Sprinkles
• 🛑 Snack Conscious Shutting Down
• 📰 What We’re Reading: Amazon’s Grocery Tests, PE Gets Snacky

The Hershey Company acquired candy brand Sour Strips according to an announcement late last week, and only one day after the candy and snack giant posted less-than-stellar earnings that were weighed down by high cocoa prices and pressures across all business segments. 

The sour candy brand, launched in 2019 by YouTuber and powerlifter Maxx Chewning, has amassed a substantial following on social media. It is poised to capitalize on that base and accelerate across the U.S. and enter international markets under Hershey’s direction. The deal comes as Hershey expands its candy offerings with the additions of Jolly Rancher Freeze Dried, Jolly Ranchers Ropes, and Shaq-a-licious Gummies, said president and CEO Michele Buck. 

State of Play: While there’s been plenty of brands on the auction block this year, according to Axios, many of those deals are just now dragging across the finish line after heightened seller expectations dragged out those processes amid an already-constrained environment.

For those deals that have secured final signatures, the report states they may inspire others to come on to the market (see the industry excitement around PepsiCo’s $1.2 billion acquisition of Siete Foods, for example). Nonetheless, these moves all provide insight into what types of businesses strategics are seeing as solid acquisition targets at this moment in time (For the likes of General Mills, that means smaller-size assets between the $1-$2 billion range). 

Recent Rewind: 

• Celebrity chef-founded FITCRUNCH moved completely into the house of 1440 Foods, which had owned a significant minority stake since 2019. The deal brings the active nutrition company out of a PE portfolio rooted in general food manufacturing and in line with 1440’s protein-heavy lineup. 
• Del Real Foods, a legacy Hispanic food producer, was bought by Guatemalan food manufacturing and restaurant conglomerate Corporación Multi Inversiones. The deal follows a similar tempo as FITCRUNCH with a well-established brand offering plenty of potential to unlock portfolio synergies. 

According to a report from the National Confectioners Association, the non-chocolate candy segment – which spans gummies, chewy candy, hard licorice, lollipops and marshmallows – remains a consumer favorite through prosperous, inflationary and pandemic times. The issues highlighted by its Q3 earnings may explain why Hershey is so sweet on Sour Strips. 

But the deal also marked a diversion from Hershey’s M&A strategy as of late, which has largely looked to salty snacks for growth, including the acquisitions of Dot’s Pretzels in 2021 for $1.2 billion and SkinnyPop in 2017 for $1.6 billion.

Nosh Insiders can access the full story to learn how Sour Strips will slot into Hershey’s sweets segment.

The Better Meat Co. has received a new patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that covers the creation of shelf-stable granules of Neurospora crassa, the fungi genus used to create the company’s Rhiza protein, reported Alt-Meat. 

🥩 Used as a meat replacer, Better Meat’s Rhiza is made from the filamentous mycelium of Neurospora and contains all essential amino acids. 

⏪ The news comes after the Sacramento, Calif.-based company in July received a “no questions letter” from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in response to declaring its mycoprotein ingredient as generally recognized as safe (GRAS). 

🤝 Nestlé’s KitKat brand is revving its engines as the official chocolate bar of Formula 1, marking the CPG giant’s largest global brand partnership to-date. The collaboration will kick off during the 2025 racing season with consumer activations, promotional prizes and fan zones at select Grands Prix.

🧁 Miyoko’s has teamed up with Sprinkles to launch a Vegan Sugar & Spice limited-edition cupcake, available now through Dec. 1 at all Sprinkles bakeries and bakery ATMs. The sweet treat features a vegan spice cake crafted with Miyoko’s Cinnamon Brown Sugar Oat Milk Butter topped with a spiced vegan cream cheese frosting. 

Snack Conscious is shutting down after six years in business, founder Craig Morantz shared in a LinkedIn post on Saturday. 

🍪 The Toronto-based brand produced bite-sized takes on nostalgic treats enhanced with functional benefits. Products were sold in more than 500 retail stores, according to Morantz.

💬 “Even though Snack Conscious has sales in excess of $1M with gross margin of nearly 50%, the math just doesn’t work,” Morantz wrote.

📦 Amazon.com is testing new grocery formats and fulfillment options to more effectively compete with the likes of Walmart, Target and Kroger, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

🍬 Private equity has a healthy appetite for snack and confectionery deals, per PE Hub, which detailed recent investments and predicts more in the coming months.

🤑 Axios reports auctions of food companies that began earlier in the year are on the verge of completion and cities recent bets by strategics that signal a return to “healthy deal flow.”