Kering Exits Beauty, Era VC Bets on Mushrooms 🍄

Author

CPG WIRE
October 21, 2025

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

  • Glanbia sells SlimFast UK ⚖️

  • Olauto disrupts category 🚗

  • Lil Bucks refreshes branding 😍

  • BERO hits impressive milestone 🍺

  • Nightingale lands at Target 🎯

Deals 💰

Mergers & Acquisitions 

  • After launching its reinvigorated beauty division a little over two years ago, Kering is now exiting the category altogether. On Monday, the owner of Gucci and Balenciaga signed a $4.7B agreement with L’Oreal to offload its beauty division. Kering will outright sell House of Creed while licensing the remainder of its beauty portfolio to L’Oreal for 50 years. The divestment is the opening salvo from Luca de Meo, Kering’s new CEO who took over on September 15th. The move will enable Kering to focus on its core luxury business while allowing it to pay down debt. CNBC

  • Two Australian spirits companies — Top Shelf International (TSI) and Gravity Drinks Co. — are merging to form Blue Sky Drinks Co. TSI entered voluntary administration earlier this year and is teaming up with Gravity Drinks Co. in order to save itself. Mick Spencer, co-founder of Gravity, will be Chairman of the new entity. The Spirits Business

  • After selling SlimFact U.S. to Heartland Food Products Group in September, Glanbia just divested the UK and European division of SlimFast for £20M. The buyer is Supreme Imports which is a UK-based brand operator and distributor. The company’s best known brand besides SlimFast is Typhoo Tea. The Guardian 

Fundraising

  • Era VC just backed Everystate, a functional mushroom wellness brand that launched earlier this year. The brand was co-founded by popstar Ellie Goulding and Gemma Feare, a veteran of the consumer goods industry. Everystate debuted with three mushroom drink mixes in May. LinkedIn

  • London-based beauty startup Yuv scored a record investment on BBC’s Dragons’ Den. The company, which created a Keurig-like hair coloring system for professional hairstylists, raised £500K at a £25M valuation. Investors include Steven Bartlett and Sara Davies. The Industry

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What’s New 🤩

Apparel, Cosmetics, and Wellness

  • Olauto is a new brand disrupting the car fragrance industry with a premium, design-forward take. Three scents are available and each one unfolds over 3+ months with layered notes. Olauto was co-founded by Tyler Handley who previously founded INKBOX (acquired by BIC in 2022). Beauty Independent

  • Mia Park, the co-founder of Sundae School, launched a K-beauty brand called Lazy Skinscience. Park aims to simplify skincare routines with efficacious ingredients and straightforward applications so consumers can be just be…lazy. Sundae School has done a lot of fun stuff — collabs, limited-edition drops, etc. — so it’ll be interesting to see if Park brings that same energy here. Hypebae

  • What’s one way beauty brands can mitigate dupes? Create your own. Australian beauty platform Quick Flick launched a more affordable sister brand called Quick Faced in order to combat lower priced dupes. Beauty Independent

  • HYLI just launched with a line of electrolyte + vitamin cockail mixer drops. The active ingredients are more bioavailable in liquid form and three flavors are available: Margarita, Moscow Mule, and Espresso Martini. Instagram

Food, Beverage, and Alcohol

  • Buckwheat snack brand Lil Bucks just revealed a vibrant brand refresh. The Chicago-based brand is positioning itself as America’s Buckwheat Brand, and the bold new branding ought to help drive that message home. The new look is a home run IMO 👇 Lil Bucks

  • Thomas Straker, one of the chefs and entrepreneurs behind All Things Butter, is launching an Italian olive oil brand called Donna Franca. The aluminum bottle combined with the rich green is a very nice touch. Instagram

  • Roli Roti, a popular Bay Area-based food truck business, is repositioning its fresh bone broth division as a standalone brand. Butcher’s Bone Brother refreshed its packaging and also launched a new website. The fresh and organic bone both brand retails at Albertsons, Costco, Publix, Sprouts, and Whole Foods. PR Newswire

  • UK-based functional beverage brand Goodrays released a new line called Re:Focus. The beverage is formulated to support cognitive performance and daily hydration. Trend Hunter

  • Brookyln Delhi teamed up with Sugar Hill Creamery to release a limited-edition Diwali ice cream. The ice cream features Parle-G cookies, dark chocolate, salted almond brittle, and Brooklyn Delhi’s Date Tamarind Chutney. Instagram

  • VeryVery is a new purveyor of powdered tea drink mixes. The brand currently offers one product, Energy, and will launch two more, Calm and Sleep, in the near future. The branding and brand universe are both pretty fun. VeryVery

Data 🖥️

  • BERO is now the #2 non-alcoholic beer brand at Target. Even more impressively, BERO only launched at Target in January. Instagram

Distribution News 🚚

  • Create officially rolled out at The Vitamin Shoppe.

  • Fazit launched at Sephora UK.

  • Nightingale Ice Cream launched at select Target stores.

  • Tantos launched in the deli section at H-E-B.

  • Arrae launched at over 1,900 Target stores.