Heineken Reshuffles Portfolio, Everytable Closes Round 💰

GM and Happy 4th of July to all those celebrating. Yesterday was a sluggish news day so today’s newsletter is slightly truncated, but we still have some interesting stuff to cover.

Here’s a preview:

• Heineken sells soft drinks unit 🍻

• Monster x Bang Energy moves forward ⚡️

• Everytable closes on $25m 🥗

• New incubator from beauty veterans 💄

• PRIME X FC Barcelona 💦

• Parch heads to Sprouts 📈

Also, since we have a lot of newcomers to This Week in CPG, some housekeeping: the free version of the newsletter is published every Tuesday morning, while the premium version is published every Thursday & Saturday morning. If you’d like to join premium, you can do so here. Very grateful for all the support 🙂 

Deals 💰

Mergers & Acquisitions 

• Heineken has sold soft drinks producer Vrumona for €300m. The buyer is Danish beverage giant Royal Unibrew. Vrumona is the second largest soft drinks player in the Netherlands, and they produce own brands as well as partner brands. Revenue for 2022 was €200m while EBITDA was €25m, so the deal price presents a 12x earnings multiple. GlobeNewswire

• Monster is moving forward with its acquisition of Bang Energy for $362m. The only remaining obstacle is approval from the bankruptcy court. If the deal proceeds, Monster will own all of Bang’s assets, including their manufacturing facility in Phoenix, AZ. Business Wire

• Single Use Ain’t Sexy, an Australian eco-friendly soap brand, has been acquired by Buzz Products, a company that designs & sells products for travelers. Both companies are based in Melbourne. SmartCompany

• Four Pillars, an Australian craft gin brand that was founded in 2013, was acquired by Lion Group, an Aussie beverage firm and subsidiary of Japanese beverage giant Kirin. Lion Group has been involved with Four Pillars since 2019 when they purchased a 50% stake. Instagram

Fundraising

• Everytable, a California-based restaurant & market chain that wishes to make nutritious food affordable and accessible to all, secured $25m in Series C-2 funding. The company had 50 stores at the end of last year, and aims to have a total of 75 by the end of 2023. The round was led by Dohmen Company Foundation, with participation from existing investors Creadev, Gullspång Re:foods and Kaiser Permanente Ventures. PR Newswire

• Powerscourt Distillery, an Irish whiskey producer behind the brand Ferncullen, closed a $25m loan from PNC to supercharge its global growth. The Spirits Business

What’s New 🤩

Apparel, Cosmetics, and Wellness

• The co-founders of Too Faced Cosmetics, Jerrod Blandino and Jeremy Johnson, who sold the brand to Estee Lauder for over $1.4B in 2016, are back with a new incubator called Toy Box Brands. Toy Box will launch two brands in the very near future — Polite Society, a makeup brand, and Diamond Drunk, a jewelry cleaner. Toy Box Brands

• Sleepwear and intimates brand Lunya has filed for bankruptcy protection. The brand exceeded revenue of $50m in 2021, but revenue dipped to $35m the following year. Modern Retail

• Clean haircare brand Ceremonia’s first-ever store is open in NYC and it’s stunning. Twitter

• Indie eyewear brand VADA opened a pop-up in Austin, TX. Instagram

• Paco Rabanne, the fashion house owned by Puig, will rebrand as Rabanne and launch a new makeup line. In addition to Rabanna, Puig also owns Byredo, Carolina Herrera, Dries Van Noten, and many other brands. Global Cosmetics News

• Mass beauty brands — the elegant but affordable beauty brands that you might find at CVS or Target — are the next wave of beauty M&A according to Business of Fashion. BoF

Food, Beverage, and Alcohol

• Louie Louie, a New Orleans-based producer of cannabis infused seltzers, launched its newest flavor — Ginger Cucumber. Their packaging is terrific. Twitter

• Almost one year after becoming the official hydration partner of Arsenal, PRIME is now the official hydration partner of FC Barcelona. PRIME is also the official sports drink of the LA Dodgers as of March. Insane for a brand that launched in early 2022. YouTube

• Ready-to-eat overnight oats brand MUSH collaborated with Alfred Coffee on a new product — World Famous Vanilla Latte Oats. Love the packaging. Twitter

• Global confectionery player Perfetti Van Melle launched a Mentos beverage across Europe. I’m not very into the idea of ready-to-drink Mentos, but crazier things have resonated with consumers. Twitter

Data 🖥️

• Castore, the UK-based sportswear brand that launched in 2016, is the UK’s second fastest-growing private company according to The Sunday Times. Castore revenue jumped 285% to £115m last year. Fashion Network

Distribution News 🚚

• Non-alcoholic agave cocktail brand Parch is now available nationwide at Sprouts.

• Austin-based Proper Good launched three of their overnight oats products at Walmart.

• Chi Forest, the global sparkling water brand that originated in China, launched at Costco.