• 🤑 Above Foods Acquires GoodWheat 
• 🎯 Target Announces Grocery Price Cuts
• 🤝 KIND Hires Beth Jarocki
• 🇨🇦 SKIPPY Returns to Canadian Shelves
• 🌱 It’s Time To Get Beyond Plant-Based Battles. Bala To The Rescue.

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A new partnership with a major convenience store operator has the potential to open retailing opportunities for dozens of food and beverage companies in the Chicago region. 

Naturally Chicago’s Locally Made program launched last year to provide a pathway for brands into retail and support them once in store. Last year it worked with Chicago-area stores like Fresh Thyme, Mariano’s, Go Grocer and Whole Foods Market. Now, it’s added a relationship with 7-Eleven Midwest.

Naturally Chicago brand partners that have completed the Locally Made brand assessment form are eligible to apply for a discounted booth at the 7-Eleven Midwest Franchise Owners Association trade show on June 5 in Schaumburg, Ill. 

“Not every franchisee is going to take a brand on, and some of those stores are company-owned, which might be easier, but still, that’s a lot of doors with high traffic, high volume movement,” said Jim Slama, managing director of Naturally Chicago.

Perks of the program include enhanced on-shelf awareness and point-of-sale support, increased sales opportunities and access to category managers. 

“We had some initial placement in Fresh Thyme, [and] the Locally Made program has allowed us to get coveted space and shelf talkers identifying our local status,” said Ashley Selman, co-founder of functional beverage brand heywell. 

“It has created huge visibility for us, and it allows you to get your foot in the door with retailers at a time when local or ‘innovation’ programs can be either hard to get into or expensive,” she added.

Emily Groden, founder and CEO of Evergreen, said the Locally Made program helped her seal the deal after “chasing Fresh Thyme for years.” A pitch session in August landed the frozen waffle brand in eight stores, and a tabletop showcase several months later led to a chain-wide expansion. 

“Naturally Chicago and the Locally Made program helped get us in front of the right people at the right time to finally get us across the finish line,” she said.

Slama said many participating brands are women- and minority-owned, who traditionally lack access to resources. He, along with Gregory Keller, senior strategist for Naturally Chicago, are seeking to expand the Locally Made concept to other Naturally Network chapters. 

“Right now we’re fundraising to build a playbook so that we can potentially collaborate with other chapters that might be interested,” Slama said.

Canada-based Above Food is acquiring pasta and pancake mix brand GoodWheat for $4 million from agricultural innovation company Arcadia Biosciences, Inc. GoodWheat was launched in 2018 with a patented fiber and protein-rich wheat grain used to make its dried pastas, quick cake mixes and mac-and-cheese products.

🌾 Above Foods will use its vertically integrated supply chain to “accelerate Arcadia’s wheat IP,” said Arcadia president and CEO Stan Jacot, and will help commercialize the non-GMO grain to new products.

🐟 Above Food purchased Atlantic Natural Foods, a plant-based food supplier and makers of the alt-protein brands Loma Linda and Neat, in 2021.

💭 “Building better-for-you foods begins with the grower producing grains from the highest quality, non-GMO seeds. Above’s identity-preserved field-to-fork supply chain ensures the quality and security of these grains,” Lionel Kambeitz, CEO for Above Food Corp, said in a statement.

Mass retail giant Target announced a major move today that will slash the prices of nearly 5,000 “frequently shopped items” across the store. Target said it has already reduced prices for over 1,500 items, largely spanning food and beverage, with more cuts to come throughout the year. 

🥛 Categories that will see reductions include “milk, meat, bread, soda, fresh fruit and vegetables, snacks, yogurt, peanut butter, coffee, diapers, paper towels, pet food and more,” the retailer said in a press release

🔪 The price cuts come on top of the company’s already “everyday low prices” and will be implemented across national brands as well as Target owned brands like Good & Gather and Everspring.

🗣️ What they said: "Our teams work hard to deliver great value every day, and these new lower prices across thousands of items will add up to additional big savings for the millions of consumers that shop Target each week for their everyday needs.” – Rick Gomez, EVP and chief food, essentials and beauty officer at Target. 

🛒 The news also follows two significant and competitive private label moves with CVS introducing its Well Market brand last week, a move that itself came less than a month after Walmart launched its new bettergoods brand. 

Go Deeper: CVS Launches Well Market Store Brand

Mars, Inc.-owned KIND Snacks has appointed Beth Jarocki as chief customer officer of KIND North America. According to Jarocki’s LinkedIn, she has held the role since January 2024. 

• As chief customer officer, Jarocki is leading KIND North America’s unit sales and overseeing strategic planning and growth opportunities. 
• Previously, she has held sales roles at CPG brands like Anheuser-Busch, The Kraft Heinz Company, and Jack Link’s Protein Snacks. 
• Most recently, Jarocki served as chief customer officer at Mondelēz-owned premium cookie brand Tate’s Bake Shop.

Oh, Canada! After a seven-year hiatus, SKIPPY Peanut Butter has announced its return to the Canadian market. The brand is set to arrive at Canadian retailers with five new peanut butter-inspired snack products, rather than its classic jarred peanut butter.

👀 The first phase of SKIPPY’s rollout will include Multigrain Peanut Butter Cookies, Crisp Thin Potato Cookies, Peanut Butter Cookie Sticks, and Dynamite Peanut Butter Cookie Sticks with Popping Candy. 

💭 “We are just getting started. We expect these new SKIPPY snack products to make a splash in the Canadian market, and we have more exciting ideas in store for the future,” said Bonita Wong, Hormel senior brand manager, in a statement.

Jacqui’s recap of the recently held Vegan Women’s Summit spurs a conversation about consumer perception of plant-based food and meat alternatives, in particular. We also sit down with Dr. Farnoush Fadavi, the co-founder of Bala Enzyme, an innovative brand of plant-based drink mixes developed to speed recovery and reduce inflammation.

Listen to the latest episode here.