Ferrero Chases WK Kellogg, Hershey Names New CEO 🍫

GM and Happy Thursday, folks. Here’s what we’re covering this morning:

• Monster owners buy ice cream brand 🍦

• Hershey doubles down on Fulfil 💰

• Touchland collabs with Crocs 💯

• Caulipower heads to Pizza Hut 🍕

• Force of Nature lands at Publix 🥩

Ferrero Chases WK Kellogg 🥣

According to an exclusive report from the Wall Street Journal, Italian confectionery firm Ferrero is close to acquiring WK Kellogg for around $3 billion. A deal could be announced as soon as this week.

WK Kellogg — the owner of cereal aisle staples like Froot Loops, Frosted Flakes, Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies, and many other brands — is the result of Kellogg spinning off its less valuable North American cereal division in 2023. Kellogg’s more valuable snack division rebranded as Kellanova and was purchased by Mars for $36 billion in the middle of 2024. 

Ferrero is a family-owned business and the third largest confectionery player in the world. The company has been on a massive buying spree since Giovanni Ferrero became sole CEO and Executive Chairman in 2015. 

Ferrero’s biggest swings came in 2018 when they purchased Nestle’s North American confectionery division for $2.8 billion, and again in 2019 when they bought various cookie and fruit snack brands from Kellogg for $1.3 billion. More recently, Ferrero scooped up ice cream manufacturer Wells Enterprises for an undisclosed sum.

Ferrero’s acquisition mandate over the past decade has really been twofold: grow their core confectionery business by purchasing underperforming brands from fellow multinationals, and expand into complementary categories like protein bars, baked goods, fruit snacks, and frozen novelties.

Purchasing WK Kellogg clearly falls into the latter camp, but cereal is a curious choice for Ferrero. According to Circana, dollar sales in the ready-to-eat cereal category were flat in 2024, but more alarmingly unit sales were down 2%. This decline in unit sales was largely attributable to consumers fleeing the category in favor of healthier, less processed, and more functional breakfast items. 

So even though cereal is a certifiably bad category right now and WK Kellogg’s net sales fell 6.2% in Q1, the cereal maker has one really desirable asset: powerful IP. Most of us probably haven’t purchased Froot Loops, Rice Krispies, or Apple Jacks in decades, but we’re all intimately familiar with these brands and likely even associate some fond memories with them.

For Ferrero, this seems like a $3 billion IP play. It might be a steep price to pay for IP, but Ferrero has proven that they can take powerful IP and scale it through product innovation and marketing.

The best example of this is their success with Nerds, one of the candy brands they purchased from Nestle in 2018. Nerds was doing a modest $50 million in annual sales when Ferrero first purchased the brand, but thanks to the launch of Nerds Gummy Clusters in 2020, the brand’s sales are expected to exceed $900 million by the end of 2025. 

More info from the WSJ here.

Deals 💰

Mergers & Acquisitions 

• Hilrod Holdings, an entity controlled by Monster Energy billionaires Rodney Sacks and Hilton Schlosberg, has acquired the Thrify Ice Cream brand from now bankrupt Rite Aid. Hilrod Holdings is paying $19.2M for the assets which include the IP, inventory, machinery, and transportation equipment. History seems to be repeating itself as Sacks and Schlosberg previously purchased another failing business — Hansen Natural Corporation — which eventually became Monster Energy. SF Gate

• Hershey has bought Barry Connolly, the founder of Fulfil Nutrition, out of their U.S. joint venture. For Connolly, this represents another big payday. The Irish entrepreneur launched Fulfil Nutrition in 2016 and sold the business to Ferrero in 2022 for a reported €160M. Connolly cleverly held onto the U.S. brand rights via a joint venture with Hershey that was formed in 2020. The Irish Times

• HumanCo Investments (HCI) sent an activist letter to the Board of Directors at Grove Collaborative, an online seller of sustainable, non-toxic consumer products. Long story short, HCI believes that Grove Collaborative is wildly undervalued as a public company, and the company should pursue strategic alternatives e.g. a sale, merger, or go-private deal. I didn’t realize Grove is quite as big as it is (700K active users and forecasting $185M in revenue in ‘25). Twitter

• After more than doubling the business in two years, AUA Private Equity is selling Western Smokehouse Partners, a leading producer of better-for-you meat snacks, to Monogram Capital Partners for an undisclosed sum. AUA acquired a majority stake in Western Smokehouse Partners in 2023 and significantly expanded production capacity, opening a new facility and embarking on three expansion projects. AUA also facilitated the acquisition of Golden Valley Natural, a premium jerky & meat sticks manufacturer. Business Wire

• Luxmi Group, an Indian tea producer and the owner of Makaibari Tea Estate, has acquired a majority stake in UK-based Brew Tea Co., a leading specialty tea brand. Co-founders Phil & Aideen Kirby will retain a 20% stake in the business. The Economic Times

Fundraising

• ALTR, a beverage tech startup that’s purportedly capable of removing alcohol from beverages without impacting taste, raised $5M in seed funding. Investors include Demeter, Suntory Global Spirits, Bluestein Ventures, FTW Ventures, and a handful of others. PR Newswire

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What’s New 🤩

Apparel, Cosmetics, and Wellness

• Touchland and Crocs just released a stellar collab. The two companies are releasing a limited edition line of hand mist cases on July 15th. Four colorways are available and each case comes with five charms. The word iconic is thrown around too loosely these days, but this is a very well executed partnership. Instagram

• CYKLAR, the skincare brand that The Center backed in early 2024, just released one of its most popular scents, Naked Neroli, as a perfume oil. Instagram

• PAPATUI, the personal care brand founded by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, expanded its range with a Full Body Deodorant Spray. The new spray is available in three scents: Lush Coconut, Cedar Sport, and Sandalwood Suede. PR Newswire

• Pacsun continues to move upmarket as the retailer just revealed its inaugural high-end eyewear collection. The premium eyewear collection follows the recent launch of Field of Study, Pacsun’s elevated menswear label. PR Newswire

Food, Beverage, and Alcohol

• The Hershey Company has named Kirk Tanner as its next CEO. Tanner will replace Michele Buck who’s retiring after nearly 8 years at the helm of the candy company. Kirk Tanner is currently the CEO of Wendy’s and prior to that spent 30 years at PepsiCo. CNBC

• CAULIPOWER partnered with Pizza Hut to bring its gluten-free cauliflower crust to 250 locations across the Midwest. The brand’s foodservice arm has grown considerably and their crusts are now carried at 5,000 restaurants across the U.S. NOSH

• See’s Candies and McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams released three new flavors: Brown Sugar with Milk Bordeaux, PB&J with Peanut Butter Patties, and Strawberry with Strawberry Creams. PR Newswire

• Malfy Gin released another limited edition Missoni bottle. The bottle is available exclusively at luxury spirits retailers in the UK, Italy, Turkey, and the UAE. The Spirits Business

• Freezer aisle favorite Diana’s introduced an innovative new product — Peanut Butter & Strawberry Frozen Banana Bites. Diana’s

• UK-based premium butter brand All Things Butter released a spreadable butter product along with non-organic versions of its standard salted and unsalted butters. FoodBev

• Non-alc aperitif brand Mother Root released a limited edition Rhubard flavor. I really dig the bottle and branding. Sort of reminds me of Mr Black, the now ubiquitous cold brew coffee liqueur brand. Instagram

Data 🖥️

• If Liquid IV was a bottled sports drink, it would be the 4th largest brand behind Gatorade, BodyArmor, and Powerade. For the 52-week period ending on April 20th, 2025, Liquid IV did over $905M in sales. Shout-out to beverage co-packing king Mark Gallo for sharing this. Twitter

Distribution News 🚚

• BFY snack brand Sunnie launched at Fresh Thyme Market.

• RoseBud Ice Cream launched their soft serve pouches at Raley’s.

• Force of Nature Meats launched at Publix.

• Little Bellies launched nationwide at Kroger.