Amara Raises $20M, New Products from K18 & Supergoop ⛱️

Welcome back to This Week in CPG, folks.

If you happen to live in Austin, TX, we’re throwing an event there for CPG founders, operators, and investors on April 10th. Here’s a link to the RSVP page. We have an awesome venue and some great people attending, and we’d love to have you there too.

Anyways, let’s get into the newsletter:

• OTB buys footwear manufacturer 👠

• The Flex Co. scores funding 💰

• Rhone adds to its board 🎽

• Duppy Share x Old Jamaica 🍹

• Teremana goes international 📈

Deals 💰

Mergers & Acquisitions 

• OTB — the parent company of Maison Margiela and Jil Sander — is acquiring Italian luxury footwear manufacturer Calzaturificio Stephen for an undisclosed sum. This is their second supplier acquisition after Florentine leather goods firm Frassineti. Vogue Business

Fundraising

• Organic baby food brand Amara raised $20M in Series B funding. The round was led by HumanCo with additional participation from Melitas Ventures, Touch Capital, and other investors. Forbes

• The Flex Co., a sustainable period care brand that was founded in 2015, secured a multi-million dollar investment from Kate Upton and her husband Justin Verlander. The Flex Co. sells a variety of products including bamboo liners, discs, supplements, and other products. Beauty Independent 

• Berkeley-based cultivated meat startup Orbillion raised fresh equity funding from The Venture Collective and At One Ventures. YCominator and Metaplanet also participated. AgFunder

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What’s New 🤩

Apparel, Cosmetics, and Wellness

• K18, the biotech haircare brand that Unilever acquired last year, launched a new dry shampoo called AirWash. The new product leverages a technology called odorBIND which eliminates odor while translucent microbeads sponge up oil. PR Newswire

• Rare Beauty, the $2B cosmetics brand founded by Selena Gomez, will launch a new line of powder highlighters called Soft Pinch Luminous Powder Blush. The new line will launch on 3/28 and retail for $26. WWD

• Supergoop is launching a new product — Mineral Unseen Sunscreen SPF 40 — exclusively on the Sephora app later today. Instagram

• Austin-based jewelry brand Kendra Scott released a new collection that features lab grown diamonds. The debut collection includes 19 different designs with prices ranging from $500 to $2950. PR Newswire

• Martha Stewart is launching a new gardening apparel collection exclusively at Tractor Supply. Prices will range from $24.99 to $69.99. Store Brands

• Premium activewear brand Rhone has added Tess Roering, an alum of Athleta and CorePower Yoga, and Jimmy Pitaro, the chairman of ESPN, to its board of directors. Last year the co-founders of Rhone formed a SPV to buy out their private equity partner (L Catterton). Sportico 

• The luxury 222 West line from Birkenstock looks incredible. Instagram

Food, Beverage, and Alcohol

• UK-based rum brand Duppy Share partnered with Old Jamaica Ginger Beer to launch a RTD Jamaican Mule. Earlier this year, Duppy Share partnered with soda brand Ting to launch a different RTD. Duppy Share’s RTD strategy — partnering with much larger brands with a lot more brand equity — is really clever. The Spirits Business

• Manischewitz, the nation’s leading manufacturer of kosher food, revealed a pretty fantastic brand refresh as it looks to reconnect with consumers. Ad Age

• Tilray, the Canadian cannabis and craft beverage company, is launching a new canned water brand called Liquid Love. Love the idea and Tilray does have impressive distribution capabilities, but the finished product seems half-baked. Twitter

• The Dieline breaks down the best of the best from Expo West. My favorites include Best Behavior, Evergreen, Coyotas Organics, Bad Mouth, and Hoptonic. The Dieline

• Jose Cuervo has added Raspberry Colada to its ready-to-serve margarita range. Per IWSR, Jose Cuervo is the largest tequila brand in the world and sold 9.2M cases in 2022. The Spirits Business

• Piermont Brands and Caleb Pressley joined forces to launch Chica Chida Peanut Butter Agave Spirit. Flavored spirits have been killing it and attracting attention from acquirers, but I didn’t expect a peanut butter agave spirit. It’s a good-looking label and Caleb Pressley has a pretty large audience. Instagram

Data 🖥️

• McCormick, the owner of Cholula, Frank’s RedHot, French’s, and other brands, had a pretty solid Q1. Revenue increased 1.9% to $1.6B while operating income jumped to $233.5M from $199M. Nasdaq

Distribution News 🚚

• Vermont-based WhistlePig Whiskey signed a nationwide distribution agreement with Southern Glazer’s.

• Teremana Tequila is launching in the UK, Australia, Germany, Colombia, and the UAE later this year.

• Teen beauty brand indu is launching at Sephora UK in the summer.

• Yerbae is launching at Weis Markets.

• Haus Labs by Lady Gaga launched at Sephora in 12 European markets.