Bringing sales, marketing, insights, product innovation and commercial finance under one new ‘demand’ department will help break down silos and make Chobani even more responsive to customers and consumers, the firm’s new chief marketing and commercial...
Check out who’s moving onwards and upwards at General Mills/Annie’s, PepsiCo, Bai Brands, JM Smucker, Mondelez, Campbell Soup, Beanfields Snacks and Tyson Foods in FoodNavigator-USA’s latest round-up of new hires in food and beverage.
While it's probably still best known for its iconic condensed soup, Campbell Soup has been quietly re-engineering its portfolio in recent years via a series of strategic acquisitions and investments spanning everything from hummus and dips to organic...
From why Facebook is a great way to garner consumer insights on a budget, to why inviting chefs to your focus group could help invigorate and speed up your innovation process, FoodNavigator-USA’s Food Innovation Forum covered a lot of ground. Here are...
Protein2o – a rapidly-growing brand of flavored waters infused with electrolytes and 15g of whey protein – has completed a $4m capital raise and attracted two high-profile ex-Gatorade executives as its president and chairwoman after a year of “explosive”...
Amazon's increased penetration into the grocery sphere will mean computer wizards, molecular biologists and sustainability experts will be developing ultra-intelligent grocerants of the future, predicts 'supermarket guru' Phil Lempert.
Consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands have a tough road ahead with the boom in grocerants, but they can survive with some clever collaboration and product re-thinks, says 'supermarket guru' Phil Lempert.
In the food and beverage industry, 100-year-old companies are adapting with the times. Eagle Foods’ acquisition of ready-to-eat popcorn brand G.H. Cretors is one prime example.
Household penetration of protein bars has continued to increase as more retailers have moved them from the OTC/supplement aisles to the main snack bar fixtures, prompting shoppers to ‘trade up’ from sugary cereal bars to higher protein, lower sugar nutrition...
LIFEWTR on track to generate $200m in retail sales on annualized basis
As the lines between channels continue to blur and sales increasingly shift to untracked channels, CPG companies will have to think about growth opportunities in a more holistic manner, the CEO of PepsiCo told analysts and investors this week.
As the new CEO of Beanfields Snacks, industry veteran Mark Rampolla hopes to do for the better-for-you snack company what he did for the better-for-you beverage industry when he founded Zico Coconut Water and in doing so also help Los Angeles-based non-profit...
COO: 'We’re in a stable financial position both from an operating point of view and a capital point of view'
Chobani – which disrupted the US dairy category a decade ago with its Greek yogurt – is now aiming to do the same in the non-Greek segment with the launch of Chobani Smooth, a low fat, mild-tasting blended fruit yogurt with twice the protein, 25% less...
Dean Foods – best-known for dairy brands such as Dean’s, Dairy Pure and Land O Lakes - has acquired organic juice maker Uncle Matt’s Organic for an undisclosed sum as it seeks to expand its presence in organic market.
Bai Brands founder Ben Weiss has left the company he created in his basement in Princeton, New Jersey in 2009, five months after selling it to Dr Pepper Snapple Group (DPS) in a $1.7bn deal. He will be replaced as CEO by Lain Hancock, with immediate effect.
While barely a week goes by without the launch of a new meal kit company, there is room in the market for “many multi-billion dollar players,” provided they carve out a distinct niche, insists the founder of Gobble, which focuses on pre-prepped meals...
The SmashMallow snackable marshmallow brand – launched by food & beverage brand incubator Sonoma Brands in August 2016 – is “charging towards a very visible $25m dollar run rate in the next six to 12 months,” with a flurry of new products to come,...
Savory oats pioneer Grainful has already convinced a growing number of consumers on the east and west coasts that steel-cut oats aren’t just for breakfast, and has now persuaded investors to part with a cool $3.3m to take that message to a wider, national,...
Former KeVita exec Bryan Crowley has joined Los Angeles-based Soylent as president as the firm seeks to grow its bricks & mortar retail footprint, develop new products and expand overseas after a rocky few months marred by recalls and a public squabble...
Thanks to its unique partnership model, wider selection, and no subscription fees, customer acquisition costs at meal-delivery firm Chef’d are significantly lower than rivals,’ claims founder and CEO Kyle Ransford, who says Chef’d has been “first order...
Leonardo DiCaprio – who has already shown quite an interest in the food and beverage sector via investments in guayusa-fueled tea brand RUNA and seafood company Love the Wild – has poured an undisclosed sum into chickpea snack brand Hippeas, along with...
“It is time to change the nutrition dialogue from an obsession about what foods we put into our body to objective measures of nutritional status,” according to one nutrition thought leader.
General Mills president and COO Jeffrey L. Harmening will become CEO on June 1, 2017, succeeding Ken Powell, who will continue to serve as chairman for a transition period until his retirement, expected within the next year.
Sparkling water brand Spindrift has raised $10 million in a funding round led by VMG Partners and supported by Prolog Ventures, Karp Reilly, and other existing investors.
Can you make money supplying fresh prepared food via vending machines? Not everyone was convinced when Luke Saunders launched Farmer’s Fridge in October 2013, but the fact he's just persuaded the former bosses of ZICO and McDonald's, among others,...
Check out who’s moving onwards and upwards at Coca-Cola, Hershey, Conagra Brands, Mondelez, RUNA, D's Naturals, Hippeas, Teton Waters Ranch and JUST Goods in FoodNavigator-USA’s latest round-up of new hires in food and beverage.
Are your taste buds tickled by the prospect of a food tour of Mexico with Chef Rick Bayless? Or maybe an intensive business strategy session with Presence Marketing CEO Bill Weiland in Barrington Hills, Illinois, is more your thing?
Does selling up mean selling out? Not if you go in with your eyes open, say the co-founder of upmarket condiments brand Sir Kensington's, which has just jumped into bed with Unilever, but says the brand will retain its autonomy, its integrity, and...
Grass-fed cottage cheese brand good culture – which launched in August 2015 with organic ingredients and some edgy savory flavors - is confident it will be in 6,000 stores by the year end after bringing out a lower-priced ‘natural’ range (with more familiar...
The results of the 2017 FoodNavigator-USA reader survey are in… and not surprisingly, given the breadth of our readership, they’re pretty mixed, with many readers excited about their company’s prospects and others feeling trapped in a race to the bottom...
“So why does the world need another [insert your product here]?” is a question entrepreneurs are well-advised to prep for before hitting the stage at any pitch slam judged by ZICO founder Mark Rampolla. So how does he answer his own question when it...
Former Sbarro CEO James Greco has taken the helm at True Drinks Holdings – the firm behind kids’ flavored water brand AquaBall – while Kevin Sherman (who has been in charge since Lance Leonard departed in December 2015) will stay on as president.
Are meal kits the next big thing in food, or a black hole into which to pour large sums of cash chasing the latest fad? Investors are in different camps on this, acknowledges Terra’s Kitchen CEO Mike McDeVitt, but there’s no doubt that meal kits meet...
It’s one of the biggest beverage success stories to emerge out of Canada in the recent years, but can naturally alkaline spring water brand Flow Water – one of a new breed of waters packaged in a Tetra Pak - hit the big time in the US market? Early signs...
From turmeric paste, barley couscous and konjac rice to cashew nut spreads, coffee leaf tea and adaptogen-laced juice drinks, CHFA West - Western Canada’s largest natural health and organics trade event (hosted by the Canadian Health Food Association)...
While crickets currently lead the edible insect pack, the grasshopper – which has a whopping 72% protein by dry weight with all the essential amino acids – has just as much potential as a protein source, claims Israeli start-up Hargol FoodTech.
Emerging brands accelerator Sunrise Strategic Partners has made a minority investment in Vital Farms, which launched with 20 hens in Austin, Texas, in 2007 and is now the largest provider of pasture-raised eggs in the country.
Multinationals are investing in – or snapping up - smaller, more entrepreneurial brands in the natural and organic food and beverage space faster than you can say ‘because that’s where the growth is’. So will Spindrift – which is on a mission to disrupt...
Soy, rice and peas still dominate the plant-based protein market, but chickpeas could soon give them all a serious run for their money, predicts Israeli start-up CHiCK.P, which is seeking a strategic partner to commercialize its patent-pending process...
Big Tree Farms has developed a paler, finer ‘golden’ organic Fair trade coconut sugar that can replace refined white sugar in applications where coarser, darker coconut sugars aren’t ideal, says the company, which has been selling coconut sweeteners for...
Impossible Foods – which claims to have created a plant-based burger that precisely replicates the taste and texture of meat - will be able to produce one million pounds of Impossible Burgers a month when its first commercial-scale manufacturing facility...
If freeze-dried fruit conjures up images of space food, or brightly colored soggy bits floating in your breakfast cereal, you should buy a bag of Crunchies, and reassess, says CEO Scott Jacobson, who says that when it comes to fruit & veggie snacks,...
With frozen yogurt sales still “tanking,” retailers are increasingly turning their attention to ice cream products that offer similar benefits (more protein, less sugar and fat), but truly deliver on taste and texture, says Santa Barbara-based ProYo,...
Barnana carved out virgin territory in the healthy snacks segment with its chewy banana bites, but will its new banana brittle prove equally groundbreaking? FoodNavigator-USA caught up with chief marketing officer Nik Ingersoll at the Expo West show to...
ConAgra Brands has struck a deal to buy protein-fueled snacks business Thanasi Foods, maker of Duke's meat snacks and BIGS seeds, for an undisclosed sum.
An electric vehicle uses a very different propulsion system to the internal combustion engine, but it also has four wheels, and gets you from A to B, which to most consumers, makes it a 'car.' So isn't it time to apply the same logic to...
Meat and dairy often get a bad rap on the sustainability front, but not all animal production systems have the same impact on the planet, says EPIC Provisions co-founder Taylor Collins, who reckons that “the next big movement in food is coming in the...
