Danone Acquires Huel, Molson Bets on RTD Cocktails 🍸

Welcome back to This Week in CPG, folks. Here’s what we’re covering this morning:

• Advent acquires Salt & Stone 🧴

• Branca International backs ALTR 🍷

• Little Sesame expands team 👀

• MDS teases new flavor 🍫

• PopSips expands at Target 🎯

Deals 💰

Mergers & Acquisitions 

• French dairy giant Danone is expanding its functional nutrition portfolio by acquiring Huel, a UK-based meal replacement specialist. Danone is shelling out $1.15B for the business. Founded in 2014 by Julian Hearn, Huel now offers a wide variety of products including bars, shakes, supplements, on-the-go instant meals, and greens drinks. Revenue reportedly topped £250M in 2025, up from £214M in 2024. Investors in Huel include Highland Europe, Morgan Stanley, Steven Bartlett, Idris Elba, and several others. In 2023, Nestlé acquired nearly 50% of German meal replacement startup YFood at a valuation of €430M. Soylent also traded hands in 2023 albeit on a smaller scale. CNBC

• Molson Coors (NYSE: TAP) is dialing up its presence in spirits-based RTD cocktails by acquiring Atomic Brands, the parent company of Monaco Cocktails. Founded by Don Deubler in 2006, Atomic Brands was an early mover in RTD cocktails when the company launched Monaco in 2012. Today, Monaco is sold in over 70,000 retail doors and has grown to become a top-5 RTD cocktail brand in the U.S. Business Wire

• Estée Lauder is in talks to potentially merge with Puig, the Spanish beauty firm that owns Byredo, Charlotte Tilbury, Dr. Barbara Sturm, Rabanne, and several other brands. Estée Lauder’s share price is down nearly 75% over the past five years and merging with Puig — a savvy marketer with a better nose for deals — would benefit the stagnant beauty giant. WSJ

• Advent International is acquiring a majority stake in premium personal care brand Salt & Stone. Founded in 2017 by former professional skater Nima Jalali, Salt & Stone finished 2025 with $165M of revenue and grew double-digits across all channels. The exit is a big win for Humble Growth which backed Salt & Stone in August 2024. WWD

Fundraising

• Italian spirits firm Branca International announced a strategic investment in ALTR, a Phoenix-based beverage tech startup. ALTR’s Velvet Blade technology removes alcohol at a molecular level while preserving taste. Branca will leverage ALTR’s technology to develop its next generation of beverage products. PR Newswire

• Beer Girl, a purveyor of low-ABV and gluten-reduced beers, secured a $125K investment from Fawn Weaver on Shark Tank. Beer Girl was founded in 2023 and its first beers entered distribution in 2024. Beer Girl is not to be mistaken with Hurray’s Girl Beer which raised $5M a few weeks ago. LinkedIn

Win the Ultimate World Cup Experience — All Expenses Paid ⚽️

Glimpse is an AI-native platform that helps 200+ leading brands unlock trapped cash from retail operations across big box retailers and natural channels. 

Our platform automates the full deductions lifecycle— from capture to recovery to reconciliation:

• Deductions Management: Automatically aggregates and classifies deductions from portals, emails, and EDI

• Revenue Recovery: Identifies invalid deductions and disputes them before deadlines expire (91% recovery rate)

• Cash Application: Matches payments to invoices same-day, syncing directly with your ERP

• Trade Analytics: Reveals where trade dollars actually go at the retailer, SKU, and broker level

Up to 7-10% of your P&L is trapped in invalid fees and manual retail operations. We unlock it.

Building a brand right now isn’t easy. Operators are navigating margin pressure, capital constraints, and nonstop complexity.

If you’re interested in winning two tickets to the World Cup this summer, book some time with us here.

What’s New 🤩

Apparel, Cosmetics, and Wellness

• Salt & Stone is releasing a limited-edition collab with 818 Tequila. The co-branded Amber & Agave body care collection will launch online on Thursday and at Sephora on April 10th. The two companies are also holding an invite-only activation at Coachella on April 10th. WWD

• Ceremonia, a clean haircare brand powered by Latin superfruits, is launching an anti-frizz hair oil called Guava Gloss Drops. The new SKU will be available via Ceremonia’s website and at Sephora later today. Instagram

• Deciem, the Canadian skincare brand that Estee Lauder acquired for $1.7B, is relaunching its once-popular body care brand, The Chemistry Brand. The Chemistry Brand will relaunch on April 2nd after shuttering around four years ago. Business of Fashion

Food, Beverage, and Alcohol

• Little Sesame expanded its leadership team with two key additions. First, Little Sesame added Harmless Harvest alum Alexandra O’Brien as Chief Marketing Officer. Second, the company added Good Culture co-founder & CEO Jesse Merrill to its Board of Directors. Big moves from Little Sesame. LinkedIn

• Whey Water is yet another new protein beverage brand set to hit the market soon. The company will launch its lightly sparkling protein water range in May. Each 12 oz can of Whey Water contains 18g of whey isolate and only 90 calories. It looks like two flavors will be available: Mango Pineapple and Strawberry. Stack3d

• Mid-Day Squares is expanding its fast-growing No Bread PB&J line with a new flavor: Grape. The new flavor is set to debut in May. The No Bread PB&J has already become the brand’s top-selling SKU. LinkedIn

• Influencer and growth guru Brez launched a functional candy brand called Trenchies on March 20th. Trenchies is a productivity-focused hard candy that contains caffeine, B12, L-Theanine, and L-Tyrosine. Instagram

• Lucille, a beverage brand that aims to disrupt senior nutrition with cleaner, more efficacious formulations, is launching later today. The company was founded by Jess Haghani with financing from New Fare Partners and others. Lucille

• The folks behind Laurel Hardware in West Hollywood are opening a high-end grocery store called Laurel Supply in the near future. The building alone is impressive. Excited to check this out. Twitter

• Costco just entered the energy drink category via its Kirkland Signature brand. Three flavors are available and each can contains 200mg of caffeine and zero sugar. A 24-pack retails for the wildly affordable price of $16.99. Stack3d

• UK-based Snooz is apparently bringing a sleep-promoting ice cream to market. The functional ice cream is formulated with chamomile, magnesium, L-Theanine, lemon balm, and fiber. Twitter

Data 🖥️

• Edinburgh-based canned cocktail specialist Whitebox Cocktails has found its groove. In 2025, Whitebox saw revenue increase 100% year-over-year to over $5.4M. The Spirits Business

Distribution News 🚚

• Better Sour launched at Costco in the Southeast.

• PopSips is now available at 800+ Target doors.

• SpikedAde launched at Costco in the Northeast.

• Super Seltzer is launching chainwide at Seasons Corner Market.