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The Honey Pot Co. Finds Buyer, Supplements Stay Hot 🔥

The Honey Pot Co. Finds Buyer, Supplements Stay Hot 🔥

CPG WIRE
January 18, 2024

GM and Happy Thursday, folks. Here’s what we’re getting into today:

CVC buys Sunday Natural 💊
Carlsberg grabs Mikkeller stake 🍻
Freja scores £2M 🦴
Absolut x Ocean Spray collab 💦
DIME heads to Ulta 📈

The Honey Pot Co. Finds Buyer 🤑

Black-owned feminine care brand The Honey Pot Company is selling a majority stake to Compass Diversified, a publicly traded holding company, at an enterprise value of $380M.

Founded in 2012 by Beatrice Dixon, The Honey Pot Co. sells a wide variety of products including tampons, feminine wipes, lubricants, probiotic supplements, and even skincare products.

While the brand made its retail debut at Whole Foods Market, it’s now carried at over 33,000 stores across the country, including CVS, Target, Walmart, Walgreens, and many others.

Per Nielsen, The Honey Pot Co. is the fifth-largest feminine care brand at retail, an impressive feat for a young company operating in a category with deep-pocketed incumbents. In 2023, the company delivered gross sales of $121M.

Beatrice Dixon and the existing leadership team will retain a significant minority stake in The Honey Pot Co., but prior investors like VMG and New Voices Fund will no longer be on the cap table.

Compass Diversified, which trades under the ticker CODI on the NYSE, is a more than capable operator who will likely be a great partner for The Honey Pot Co. as it continues to scale. Over the years CODI has acquired and scaled a variety of consumer brands like Camelbak, Fox, and Manitoba Harvest. Camelbak, for example, was acquired by CODI in 2011 for around $250M, and they sold it in 2015 for just over $410M.

It’ll be interesting to see if CODI can replicate that level of success with The Honey Pot Company.

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Supplements Stay Hot 🔥

This week has been a fruitful one for certain supplement brands.

First, Meaningful Partners led a strategic growth investment in M2 Ingredients, the manufacturer and owner of popular mushroom supplement brand Om. Additional participants in the round include White Road Investments and InvestEco.

M2 Ingredients was founded in 2010 by Sandra Carter, a health & wellness expert with a PhD in Preventive Medicine, and Steve Farrar, a mycologist who has been cultivating mushrooms for over 30 years.

M2 Ingredients launched Om — which was originally marketed as Mushroom Matrix until a rebrand in 2016 — at the end of 2010. Since then, Om has become a major player in the fast-growing mushroom supplement category. They sell a variety of mushroom-based supplements in beverage, capsule, gummy, and powder form.

The brand currently retails at Natural Grocers, Sprouts, Target, Walmart, Whole Foods Market, and others.

Interest in mushroom supplements has skyrocketed lately. Globally, the functional mushroom market was worth around $26B in 2021, and it’s expected to grow at 10.8% CAGR through 2030. Search volume for phrases like “mushroom coffee” and “mushroom powder” have likewise jumped considerably.

M2 Ingredients, with a considerable head start over competitors and the ability to manufacture its own products, stands to benefit from this rapid growth.

Deals 💰

Mergers & Acquisitions

Private equity firm CVC is acquiring German wellness brand Sunday Natural for €800M. Sunday Natural launched in 2013 and surpassed €100M in revenue in 2022. The founder, Jörg Schweikart, will retain a significant equity stake in the biz. Bloomberg
Danish brewing giant Carlsberg has acquired a 20% stake in Danish craft brewer Mikkeller. Carlsberg offered £115M for the entire company but Mikkeller’s investors weren’t ready to divest entirely. The deal will significantly improve Mikkeller’s distribution capabilities. The Drinks Business
Tata Consumer Partners agreed to acquire two Indian food companies: Capital Foods and Organic India. TCP will pay $614M for Capital Foods and $229M for Organic India. FoodBev

Fundraising

L’Oréal has invested in Timeline, a Swiss biotech startup that produces longevity products. Timeline’s proprietary technology, Mitopure, boosts cellular longevity by recycling and renewing mitochondria. The benefits of Mitopure include the reenergization of skin cells and a reduction in wrinkles. Timeline raised a total of $66M. WWD
UK-based bone broth brand Freja secured £2M in funding. Investors include former Unilever CEO Paul Polman, and star footballer Harry Kane. The Grocer

What’s New 🤩

Apparel, Cosmetics, and Wellness

Debut, a L’Oreal-backed biotech incubator that’s raised more than $70M, launched its first skincare brand, Deinde. Deinde differentiates from other skincare brands by using a lab-brewed alternative to niacinamide. Three products are available which will be sold exclusively DTC for the first year. WWD
Skincare brand Eighth Day has named Savannah Sachs as its new CEO. Most recently Sachs served as the CEO of TULA Skincare which was acquired by P&G in 2022. L Catterton invested in Eighth Day late last year. Business of Fashion
Austin-based Kendra Scott and denim giant Wrangler have joined forces to launch a new collection of jewelry and apparel. Yellow Rose by Kendra Scott is a celebration of ranch culture and the Southwest. Awesome collection. PR Newswire
There’s a new supplement brand, The Absorption Company, which has some pretty interesting tech behind it. 84% of the active ingredients in supplements aren’t absorbed by the body. The Absorption Company resolves this problem via a proprietary delivery system that increases bioavailability by 5x. I dig the packaging ⬇️ The Absorption Company

Food, Beverage, and Alcohol

Sweet Nothings launched a new line of Frozen Acai Bowls which will be available exclusively at Sprouts. The packaging is terrific IMO. NOSH
Joolies unveiled a new line of date & nut energy bites called Date Pops. Three flavors are available and the line will be sold exclusively at Target. Joolies has done a fantastic job of expanding the humble date into new categories. Instagram
Absolut Vodka has partnered with Ocean Spray on a new range of RTD vodka-cranberry cocktails. Is Vodka & Cranberry still a popular order at bars? Feels dated by a decade or two. PR Newswire
Pepsi is now rolling out their new logo and visual identity across the globe. An ever so slight improvement. Beverage Daily
Mortal Kombucha partnered with The Feed to launch a new line of hydration products — Mortal Hydration. The packaging is fantastic. The Feed

Data 🖥️

2023 was a massive year for energy drink brands. Celsius sales jumped 139% to $1.69B, while C4 sales increased 67% to $533M, and GHOST sales surged 131% to $468M. Twitter
Per a recent poll, agave spirits are expected to outsell vodka in U.S. bars for the first time ever this year. The Spirits Business

Distribution News 🚚

UK-based healthy cereal brand Surreal launched at Sainsbury’s.
Skincare brand DIME is launching at Ulta Beauty.
Fly By Jing is now available chainwide at Albertsons.
Supergut launched its prebiotic protein bar line nationwide at Sprouts.
Low-sugar candy brand Rotten is now available at select Hy-Vee stores.