Express Checkout #38

Commerce and CPG news from the week of 8/14/2023

Author

Nate Rosen
August 21, 2023

Hello hello!

The weirdest brand collab in history award goes to…Dove + Juice Press. I’m not sure who approved this but it definitely got my attention. I think it would have been better if it was Dove soap and not body lotion! 🤷‍♂️

yes it’s real…

☕️ Last week Jess Cervellon, Patrick Johnson, and I hosted our 2nd coffee meet-up! Thank you to our gracious host, Ibby Syed founder of Cotera!

And shout out to Ani at Kolkata Chai for sharing some concentrate and Riley at Bucks County Biscotti for sending some amazing biscotti!

We’ll be hosting another one in September, and at least 2x a month going forward! If you’d like to come, or be involved let me know!

🚨 Thank you again to those who filled out my audience insights form! If you haven't filled it out yet, please take a moment to do so! 👇️👇️👇️

Now, on to the news of the week!!

🔥 Big News - 10 items or less 🔥

  • DTC underwear tumult - Ariela & Associates International, the largest women-owned intimates company in the U.S., has acquired inclusive intimates brand Parade. Their portfolio includes plus-size lingerie brand Curvy Couture, affordable intimates Smart&Sexy, and most notably Fruit of the Loom. (source)

  • Boxed finds a buyer - MSG Distributors has completed its acquisition of Boxed.com, a membership-free wholesale retailer, in an all-cash transaction. MSG is a regional distributor of consumables and household essentials. Boxed filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April of 2023. (source)

  • Bazooka-zooka bubblegum - Private equity firm Apax Partners has agreed to buy Bazooka Candy Brands from former Walt Disney Chief Executive Michael Eisner for around $700 million. Bazooka's namesake product only accounts for around 2% of annual sales, with the bulk coming from other brands like Ring Pop, Push Pop, Juicy Drop, and Baby Bottle Pop. (source)

  • ALDI buys Winn-Dixie - ALDI has acquired Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarket as part of a larger divestiture of Southeastern Grocers, adding approximately 400 stores and expanding its ability to serve the Southeast region. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2024. (source)

  • The dog food category heats up

    • Jinx has secured $17.85M in Series B funding led by The Merchant Club and Align Ventures, with participation from existing investors and new participant Range Group. (source)

    • Native Pet has raised $11 million in a series B funding round led by CAVU Consumer Partners. (source)

  • Yellow in the clear - Old Dominion Freight Line has offered $1.5 billion for Yellow Corp.'s terminals, surpassing Estes Express Lines' $1.3 billion bid. Yellow ceased all operations and filed for bankruptcy less than a month ago. (source)

🗞️ News from the week (8/14/23 - 8/21/23)

🛍 Retail

  • Walmart's Q2 results show a 6% increase in consolidated net sales and a 7% increase in operating income. eComm sales are up 24% globally! (source)

  • Trader Joe's CEO and President confirmed in a recent podcast episode that they have no plans to introduce self-checkout stations in its stores, citing a belief in people and a desire to preserve jobs. The executives also criticized other technology innovations, like aisle-scanning robots. (source)

  • Kroger and 80 Acres Farms are expanding their partnership to bring produce grown entirely indoors to 1,000 Kroger stores across the Midwest and Southeast. (source)

  • Christmas Tree Shops has converted to Chapter 7 liquidation after failing to find a buyer. The retailer had sought Chapter 11 protection in May and planned to close about 10 stores, but later announced it would liquidate if no buyer was found. (source)

🛒 CPG & Consumer

  • Current State is expanding into over 2,000 Walmart stores nationwide with a 7 product portfolio of clean and approachable priced skincare formulas. (source)

  • Sweetgreen has partnered with Siete Foods to launch its first chip flavor, Green Goddess Ranch Potato Chips, inspired by Sweetgreen's fan-favorite dressing. (source)

  • Function of Beauty has partnered with Sephora to launch Function of Beauty PRO into 300 doors. (source)

  • Hero Cosmetics has introduced two new products Bright Eyes Cream and the Mighty Patch for Tired Eyes, that aim to depuff and reduce dark circles. (source)

  • Pernod Ricard has partnered with Rabbit Hole distillery founder Kaveh Zamanian to create Mary Dowling Whiskey Company, debuting with a high-rye Bourbon finished in Tequila barrels and a Double Oak Cask Strength Bourbon. (source)

  • Nestlé is testing a pizza vending machine that makes hot DiGiorno pizza on demand in three minutes. Nestlé launched a pilot kiosk at a Colorado Walmart in April and introduced a second one three months later at a company facility in Ohio where it develops frozen foods. (source)

  • CULT Food Science and Umami Bioworks have partnered to cell-cultivated pet food brand for cats. (source)

  • Nestlé USA is voluntarily recalling limited quantities of NESTLÉ TOLL HOUSE Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough "break and bake" Bar due to potential wood fragments in two batches. (source)

  • Millie Bobby Brown, the star of "Stranger Things" and founder of beauty brand Florence by Mills, is launching her first fragrance called "Wildly Me" in collaboration with Givaudan. (source)

  • Luxury fashion marketplace Farfetch plans to shut down its online beauty business on August 31, 2023, just a year after acquiring upscale beauty retailer Violet Grey and expanding into the beauty realm. (source)

  • Oral care company, Quip has launched Quip Mints, a new product crafted with oral health ingredients including vitamin D, zinc, and xylitol. (source)

  • Proudly, the baby care brand co-founded by Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade, is launching a hair care line aimed children with curly and coily hair. It’s launching on September 3, 2023, direct-to-consumer and in Target stores. (source)

  • Israeli mineral sunscreen brand Fré has extended its pop-up in LA until August 27. The brand has sold out four times at Erewhon. Fré made $5.5m in sales in 2022 and plans to grow in the US. (source)

  • LoveShackFancy is launching its first fragrances this fall. The founder jump-started their beauty division with the hire of Stephanie Supko, an Estée Lauder Cos. and Unilever Prestige alumna who serves as general manager. (source)

  • Scalp care brand Act+Acre will be available at 235 Sephora stores nationwide, with six products in brick-and-mortar locations and 16 online. (source)

💻️ eCommerce 

  • Amazon is using generative AI to feature a short paragraph on the product detail page that highlights the product features and customer sentiment frequently mentioned across written reviews to help customers determine at a glance whether a product is right for them. (source)

  • Amazon is extending its Sponsored Products ads to premium apps and websites, including Pinterest, BuzzFeed, and Hearst Newspapers. (source)

  • DRINKS, the operating system for alcohol eComm, is enabling Imperfect Foods to market wine for the first time through its WaaS platform. (source)

  • Amazon is offering influencers $25 for each video they submit to its TikTok-like shopping feed, in an attempt to boost engagement. Rightfully so, some influencers are mocking the low offer on social media. (source)

  • LiquidData has acquired TapRm's white label e-commerce platform and its customers to bolster its backend technology. LiquidData's platform provides an end-to-end three-tier compliant online DTC sales strategy for alcohol producers. (source)

  • OpenStore, a Shopify aggregator startup founded by Keith Rabois, has launched OpenStore Boost, an accelerator program for Shopify merchants generating between $50,000 and $500,000 in net sales annually. Merchants can apply to the program and those who are accepted will have a custom iOS app built for their brand by OpenStore. (source)

🏭 Supply Chain

  • Amazon has launched a non-urgent ground delivery service called Amazon Shipping. Ground deliveries will be made in five days or less. (source)

  • DHL eCommerce has opened a new distribution center in Melrose Park, Illinois, with an automated Honeywell cross-belt loop sorter capable of processing up to 40,000 parcels and packages per hour. The logistics provider has recently built or relocated 11 warehouses. (source)

  • FedEx will lay off 843 employees across five facilities, with two involving FedEx Ship Centers and three involving FedEx Supply Chain. (source)

  • Ferraro Foods plans to add a 45,000 sq ft. multi-temp addition to its 120,000 sq ft. distribution center in Cheshire, Connecticut, at a cost of approximately $10 million. The expansion will add 70% to the facility’s storage capacity. (source)

  • H&M has announced that it will "phase out" sourcing from Myanmar. The move is part of a wider trend of fashion brands rethinking their supply chains in light of ethical concerns. (source)

💸 Funding, Exits, M&A, and VC

  • D'Amelio Brands has received a $5 million investment from Fifth Growth Fund to expand into the food and beverage sector with the launch of D'Amelio Foods. (source)

  • ThirdLove has received a $12 million revolving credit facility from Second Avenue Capital Partners. (source)

  • American Exchange Group has acquired HatchCollective, a beauty and personal care brand known for their trusted range of products. (source)

  • Robomart has raised $2 million in seed funding for its "store-hailing" service, which uses self-driving vehicles to bring a small cross-section of a store directly to consumers. (source)

  • Phospholutions, a sustainable fertilizer technology developer, has raised $10.15 million in funding led by Advantage Capital and including investment from Conti Ventures, Tekfen Ventures, Maumee Ventures, Ben Franklin Technology Partners, and Keytrade. (source)

  • ShipCalm, an e-commerce fulfillment and logistics provider, has received $2M in funding from Montage Capital. (source)

  • Assembly Ventures, an early-stage VC platform investing in mobility technologies, has closed its inaugural $76 million Fund I. (source)

  • Highlight, a company that helps CPG brands automate product testing, has raised $18 million in funding. (source)

  • St. Supéry Estate Vineyards & Winery has acquired a 48-acre vineyard in the Rutherford appellation of the Napa Valley for $14.8 million from LMR Wine Estates. St. Supéry grows about 8% of all Napa Valley’s Sauvignon Blanc. (source)

  • Nouria Energy has acquired H.A. Mapes, a c-store operator and fuel distributor based in Maine. (source)

  • Casey's General Stores has agreed to acquire 63 convenience stores from EG America for an undisclosed amount. (source)

  • Tomia, the parent company of TrèStique, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a New Jersey court amid a dispute between the founders. (source)

  • MikMak, a NY-based eComm enablement company, has acquired ChannelAdvisor's Shoppable Media and Brand Analytics product lines from CommerceHub. (source)

  • Unicomer Group has acquired RadioShack's IP in about 70 countries, including the US and Canada for an undisclosed amount. (source)

🧐 Interesting reads

💡 Data, reports, and trends

😋 Brands and things I’ve tried this week

Thank you Matt for sending over some of your new and improved Moku flavors! They were tasty! And I’m not a mushroom guy, at all. One of the few foods I don’t eat. But these were good!

I also had the pleasure of trying some new beef jerky from Yay’s. This stuff is impressive! Crispy and loaded with flavor. Yay's jerky is thinly-sliced premium beef that is marinated in a traditional family recipe and slow-dried for 24 hours. Yay is a Khmer word that means "grandma!”

Thanks for reading! If you have any suggestions, feedback, or stories or posts I missed, let me know!

Nate :)

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