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Advent Acquires Sauer Brands, InvestBev Backs Renais Gin 🍸

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CPG WIRE
January 07, 2025

Welcome back to This Week in CPG, folks. Hope everyone had a relaxing weekend and a productive Monday. Here’s a preview of what we’re getting into today:

  • L Catterton buys KAPITAL 👖

  • WWE invests in Real American Beer 🍻

  • JVN Hair expands lineup 📈

  • David unveils new flavors 💪

  • Throne Sport Coffee lands at QuikTrip ☕️

Advent Acquires Sauer Brands 🥪

Global private equity firm Advent International has agreed to acquire Sauer Brands, a scaled platform of leading condiments and seasonings brands. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but Bloomberg reported that Sauer Brands was being valued at $1.5B, or about 13x annual EBITDA.

The seller is Falfurrias Capital Partners who acquired Sauer Brands in 2019 for a reported $300M.

Sauer’s best-known brand is Duke’s Mayo, the beloved Southern pantry staple and the third largest mayonnaise brand in the U.S., but they also own Mateo’s Gourmet Salsa (acquired in ‘21), Kernel Season’s, The Spice Hunter, and Tasty Shakes.

“With a more than 135-year history, Sauer Brands has established itself as a standout player in the highly attractive condiments and seasonings categories. Despite its long history, we believe that the company is still in the early innings of growth,” said Tricia Glynn, a Managing Partner at Advent International.

Here’s a quick look at Sauer Brands by the numbers: 

  • More than $120M in annual EBITDA

  • Four manufacturing facilities across the U.S. 

  • Over 1,000 employees 

Advent International has proven itself to be a more than capable operator of scaled food & beverage platforms. In 2023, Advent sold Sovos Brands — the owner of Rao’s Homemade, Michael Angelo’s, and Noosa Yoghurt — to Campbell Soup Company for $2.7B. Later that same year, Advent sold Grupo CRM, a Brazilian chocolate manufacturer & retailer, to Nestlé for an undisclosed sum. 

I imagine Advent’s playbook for Sauer Brands will be similar to what they did with Sovos Brands: divest non-strategic brands, dial up product innovation, expand into new categories, and focus on increasing distribution and household penetration. 

Advent was able to grow Rao’s Homemade 9x from 2017 to 2023, so why not run it back?

More on the transaction from Bloomberg.

Deals 💰

Mergers & Acquisitions 

  • Designworks Collective, a Nashville-based family of brands, has acquired personal care & home fragrance brand Archipelago Botanicals for an undisclosed sum. Designworks Collective owns a number of brands including PADDYWAX, Good Citizen Coffee Co., Gentlemen’s Hardware, and Barrel & Oak. BeautyMatter

  • L Catterton acquired a majority stake in Japanese apparel brand KAPITAL. KAPITAL was founded by Toshikiyo Hirata in 1985. Hirata passed away last April. L Catterton’s recent apparel plays include A.P.C., Birkenstock, and Ganni. Hypebeast

  • WWE acquired a minority stake in Real American Beer, the beer brand that Hulk Hogan launched with an AB InBev alum in the middle of 2024. Real American Beer will also be promoted at WWE events over the next few years. VinePair

Fundraising

  • Renais Gin, the luxury spirits brand co-founded by Emma Watson and her brother Alex Watson, raised just under £5M from InvestBev and Jean-Sebastien Robicquet. The company will use the funding to expand its presence in the U.S. and launch in Canada, Dubai, France, and Spain. InvestBev is also an investor in JuneShine, Ten To One Rum, Siempre Tequila, Nomadica, and others. The craft gin category has been attracting capital lately: John Paul DeJoria acquired Waterloo Gin last September and Gallo invested in Condesa Gin in April. The Spirits Business

  • Revival Tea Company secured a little over $500K on crowdfunding platform Wefunder. The company is based in Spokane, WA and is a purveyor of various tea products. BevNET

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What’s New 🤩

Apparel, Cosmetics, and Wellness

  • JVN Hair started the new year off with three new products. The hero product is the Revive Rapid Repair Bond Gloss which is available via their website and online at Sephora. The new SKU will hit shelves at Sephora on January 10th. Instagram

  • Clean beauty retailer Credo unveiled a new kelp-powered body care collection. The collection includes a body cream, serum, and body wash. WWD

  • Fragrance brand Snif is launching a new scent on January 9th. Dubbed Me, the shape-shifting scent blends with your chemistry to create a smell that’s unique to the user. Instagram

  • Nécessaire launched a very well-designed and minimalist lip balm product that retails for $25. It’s a low-key beauty. New Beauty

Food, Beverage, and Alcohol

  • Protein bar brand David dropped two new flavors: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk and Salted Peanut Butter. Both flavors stick to David’s rigorous 28g of protein, 150 calories, and 0 sugar framework. Sign us up. Instagram

  • Non-alcoholic beverage brand TÖST debuted their first-ever RTD range with two flavors: Original and Rosé. The new line is available via their website and will hit the retail channel throughout 2025. PR Newswire

  • Red Bull introduced its newest product — Red Bull Zero — which is sweetened with monk fruit extract and supposedly tastes better than Red Bull Sugar Free. Fun fact: 12 billion cans of Red Bull were consumed in 2023. PR Newswire

  • French plant-based meat startup La Vie partnered with Papa Johns in the UK to launch a Hawaiian Vegan Pizza. The pizza features tomato sauce, dairy-free cheese, and La Vie’s plant-based ham. Vegconomist

  • Besieged beverage brand Prime Hydration started off 2025 by releasing their new Prime Ice range. Prime Ice is available in three flavors and already started hitting shelves at Walmart. Stack3d

  • Munk Pack launched a new range of Probiotic Protein Bars with three flavors. The packaging is terrific. Instagram

  • Mizu Lab is an Asian-inspired hydration brand that launched fairly recently. The flavors are pretty novel and each serving contains 1000mg of electrolytes. BevNET

  • Chicken of the Sea and OLD BAY released a surprisingly great-looking tuna collaboration. PR Newswire

Data 🖥️

  • According to IWSR, the fastest-growing RTD subcategory remains hard tea which is expected to grow by double digits through 2028. Wine-based RTDs also saw double digit growth. The Spirits Business

  • Functional beverage brand BRĒZ continues to grow at an impressive clip. In December, revenue jumped 4.6% month-over-month to $3.6M. They launched 20 months ago…Twitter

Distribution News 🚚