Avocado Nation & Delivery Service Dough: CPG News, Week of Mar 22-26
Contents
Unioncrate's curated weekly round-up of CPG & supply chain news. This week's news features Peeps-flavored Pepsi, a big-time valuation for delivery service goPuff, and—yup—the Suez Canal.
investments-acquisitions
Investments & Acquisitions
Delivery service goPuff, which delivers essentials within 30 minutes at a flat fee of $1.95, has raised another $1.15B, bringing its total valuation to $8.9B. TechCrunch
In Eat Just’s latest funding round, the plant-based egg brand raised $200B. Bloomberg
Vertical farming company AeroFarms is going public with a valuation of $1.2B. Food Dive
Better-for-you meal delivery company Sakara Life has raised a $15M Series B. Read more about how their brand came to be. Forbes
Avocados From Mexico has its own AI platform, Avocado Nation, that leverages its consumers’ content preferences. Supermarket Perimeter
Canadian vegan food tech company Nabati Foods has recently raised $7.7M and is planning to IPO. VegNews
CPG F&B firm Siddhi Capital has filed for IPO and seeks a “better-for-you brand” to incubate. BevNet
Plant-based energy bar brand Quantum has raised $2.5M in its seed round. FoodBev
Mondelez has bought a majority stake in Grenade, a UK-based brand and maker of the Carb Killa energy bar. Food Dive
Not Milk, a Chilean alt milk brand backed by Jeff Bezos, is approaching a $1B valuation. Bloomberg
Giant Co. has opened a flagship store in Philadelphia that’s “uniquely designed for Philadelphians.” Progressive Grocer
Ugly Drinks is making four of its limited-edition, soda-flavored sparkling waters permanent. BevNet
Amazon has chosen Amazon Fresh’s first New York location: Plainview, Long Island. Progressive Grocer
Innovation Foods is building a $45M processing facility for Oatly in Millville, New Jersey. BevNet
Dutch food tech startup Meatable has received $47M in funding from chemicals company DSM to produce cell-based beef and pork. AgFunder
Brazil-based meat company JBS is looking to IPO in the US. Forbes
products-partnerships
New Products & Partnerships
Spring’s here at last, and you know what that means? A Peeps-flavored soda from Pepsi. Pop Sugar
Hourglass Cosmetics has launched its first vegan red lipstick (instead of using carmine, a byproduct of cochineal beetles, as pigmentation). VegNews
Hilo Life, one of PepsiCo’s Hive accelerator brands, has launched keto-friendly tortilla chips made from almond flour. Food Dive
Starbucks has launched a new RTD coffee line called Cold & Crafted in an effort to target non-RTD-coffee-drinkers. Food Business News
Kerry’s Richmond brand has launched a line of plant-based meatballs and mince meat. FoodBev
Kombucha brand Rowdy Mermaid has launched an adaptogenic line of drinks called Adaptonic. BevNet
Bhu Keto has launched a keto-friendly, better-for-you chocolate-hazelnut spread. Stack3d
NBA player Kevin Love and supermodel Kate Bock are the newest investors in better-for-you nut butter brand Abby’s Better. Veg World Mag
JBS brand OZO has expanded distribution of its plant-based breakfast sausages to 2,700 Kroger locations.
Vegan wellness brand Womaness is launching menopause creams at select Targets nationwide. VegNews
Y Combinator startup Orbillion Bio is aspiring to take cell-based meat to the next level with elk, lamb, and Wagyu. TechCrunch
It’s official—Soylent’s expanding into Walgreens. Hear that? It’s me screaming. Soylent
supply-chain
Supply Chain News
Well... we all know the biggest supply chain story of the week, of the month, of the year. The Suez Canal. Read about how companies are assessing costs and alternate routes (The Wall Street Journal), the growing backlog and the ship’s current situation (The Wall Street Journal), or how the situation might force us to relive one of our favorite 2020 CPG stockout nightmares (New York Post).
The CEO of General Mills insists that the shrimp tails that one guy on Twitter found in his Cinnamon Toast Crunch didn’t come from their manufacturing facility. The Twitter shrimp guy saga continued in a very… interesting… way. Business Insider
Starbucks is reshaping its land and water usage to commit to carbon neutrality for its green coffee by 2030. Supply Chain Dive
Williams-Sonoma plans to expand its manufacturing and distribution capacity to 30% at the end of this year, which would be a YOY increase of 20%. Supply Chain Dive
Dollar General has been experiencing increased carrier and fuel costs. Their solution? Expand their private truck fleet. Supply Chain Dive
Your supply chain missing its containers? You’re not alone. Learn more about the global container shortage. Hillebrand
good-reads
Good Reads
The future’s looking cell-based; 7 in 10 American consumers say they’d swap out traditional chicken for cell-based alternatives. Food Dive
No beverage experience? No worries. The founder of unsweetened hibiscus drink Ruby didn’t have any either—and he got his product on Whole Foods shelves. Business Insider
Read all about founder Dan Kurzrock’s journey fundraising for his brand ReGrained. Forbes
Think tank RethinkX predicts the meat and dairy industry will collapse by 2030. Food Dive
Americans have $1.7 trillion to burn in revenge-spending binge.” That’s all I have to say. The Counter
About Unioncrate
Unioncrate is an AI-powered Integrated Business Planning (IBP) platform that delivers demand forecasts with unmatched accuracy, collaborative visibility, and actionable intelligence—enabling CPG brands to plan and execute agile supply chain strategies at the click of a button.