Caught My Attention 021 (171106)


It seems that the things that have been getting my attention recently have been about some of the smaller up and coming brands getting acquired by the big conglomerates. Blue Bottle specialty coffee recently getting scooped up by Nestle, now they are eyeing RxBars. And what happens after these guys get acquired, there’s an article on Justin’s Peanut Butter and parent company Hormel. It does seem, like with the big beer cos collecting craft brewers, that big food is on the hunt for the small brands that are taking slivers of market share. If you can’t beat’em, join’em.

  
  
Kelloggs is about to acquire RxBars, the protein bar with the iconic minimalist packaging with just text in a plain font listing the main ingredients. If they let Rx continue on like a small brand will be interesting to see. This article points out how the Kashi acquisition didn’t go so well and they had to reverse a bit. Also a mention in this article, I didn’t know that Epic Provisions had been bought by General Mills.
(link to MarketWatch: Kellogg to buy protein-bar maker Rxbar for $600M)
  
  
Here is a bit of a long read, but interesting, about how things go when smaller up and coming brands get acquired by large corporations. They discuss with 4 brands and the common thread seems to be that they really try to stay independent in managing their brand marketing/sales, but fully utilizing the larger scale production, distribution, and logistics. Justin’s is particularly interesting to me.
(link to Food Dive: From startup to bought up: What 4 food brands learned from being acquired)
  
  
Everyone wants to use social media to help their brand, but not everyone does it well. Some only use it as advertising. Others are better and are actually social and interact with their tribes. And a few take it a step further in ways some wouldn’t think of. Wild Friends used IG to do R&D and found “trusted tasters” when developing a new line of products, oat cups.
(link to Project Nosh: Brands ‘Like’ Instagram for Innovation Inspiration)
  
  
I’m always watching out for what the new flavor trends are and recently the influence of southeast Asia can really be seen. Especially the up trend of Filipino and Thai foods, ube drinks and pastries, even pandan lattes.
(link to The Telegraph: Pandan leaf, blue algae and the other ingredients coming soon to a dinner party near you)
  
  
Having looked into selling food products on Amazon numerous times and finding that for the small brands it can be expensive (all the fees really stack up). It was interesting to hear about them reducing some fees. I still don’t know if it makes sense to sell there for the small guy, unless considering it marketing and not expect decent margins.
(link to recode: Amazon has slashed seller fees to try to improve its grocery selection online)
  
  
Premiumizaton, is good way to describe some old school food items getting updating for the current market of better for you and natural food items. (video interview)
(link to Project Nosh video: 4505 Founder Talks the ‘Premiumizaton’ of Pork Rinds in Convenience)
  
  
Natural or Artificial flavors?
(link to NPR the salt: Is ‘Natural Flavor’ Healthier Than ‘Artificial Flavor’?)
  
  
I’ve been hearing several stories about the devastating Santa Rosa wildfire, from the food industry community, but here is a story with a tech slant to it.
(link to Press Democrat: Hewlett-Packard historical archives destroyed in Santa Rosa fires)
  
  
Nestle, recently bought Blue Bottle, has now just acquired Chameleon Cold Brew. Looks like they are competing with JAB (parent co of Stumptown, Intelligentsia, Peet’s, …). JAB is rumored to be scooping up Dunks now too.
(link to CNBC: Investors are speculating that Krispy Kreme owner could try to acquire Dunkin’ Brands)
  
  

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