L'Oreal Strikes Again, Neutonic Secures Funding 🧠

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

• Marubeni acquires Bubbies 🍦

• Bearded Brothers buys bar brand 🍫

• Oshun launches travel bottles 💧

• Cereal meets creatine 💪

• Throne Sport Coffee lands at WFM ☕️

Deals 💰

Mergers & Acquisitions 

• L’Oreal has agreed to acquire Color Wow, one of the world’s fastest growing professional haircare brands. Gail Federici launched the brand in 2013 and sales are said to be in the $300M range. Prior to launching Color Wow, Gail Federic co-founded John Frieda Professional Hair Care which was acquired for $450M in 2002. After a quiet 18 months, the beauty & personal care categories cannot be stopped. WWD

• Bubbies Ice Cream has been acquired by Marubeni Corporation, a large Japanese investment firm. Bubbies is the #1 mochi ice cream brand in the natural channel and the fastest growing brand in conventional grocery. Marubeni Corporation will leverage its global resources and supply chain expertise to scale Bubbies into a worldwide frozen novelties player. Bubbies originally launched as an ice cream shop on Oahu in 1985. Business Wire

• Austin-based Bearded Brothers has acquired SANS Meal Bar, a fellow purveyor of clean label nutrition bars. Founded by Nathan Gordon in 2018, each SANS Meal Bar contains 14-15g of protein and 7-9g of fiber. NOSH

• Chris Reed, the founder of popular beverage brand Reed’s, has acquired a beverage manufacturing facility in Pittston, PA from Canada’s Joriki Beverage. The facility abruptly shuttered in January BevNET

Fundraising

• Neutonic, a UK-based nootropics brand co-founded by Chris Williamson and James Smith, raised £2.7M in fresh funding. Founded in late 2023, Neutonic sells nootropic energy drinks and effervescent supplements. Chris Williamson and James Smith are both content creators with massive audiences. The Grocer

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What’s New 🤩

Apparel, Cosmetics, and Wellness

• Native, the clean personal care brand that P&G acquired in 2017, finally launched a liquid hand soap line. Four scents are available and P&G really nailed the packaging. Happi

• Fast-growing skincare brand Dr. Idriss launched an inclusive suncare product called Major Fade Disco Block SPF 50. Per the brand, the new SKU has a waitlist north of 10,000. Instagram

• Jukebox, the sister brand of recently acquired Dr. Squatch, just expanded into the body lotion category. Three scents are available: Watermelon Disco, Coconut Dreamin’, and Lavender Fields Forever. Beauty Packaging

• Premium fragrance brand Element Brooklyn launched an all-purpose cleaner in the brand’s best-selling scent, Mandarin Crush. PR Newswire

• Milk Makeup launched a sports drink-inspired lip balm line called Balmade Electrolyte Lip Balm. Seven different shades are available. Trend Hunter

Food, Beverage, and Alcohol

• Oh boy. There’s a new caffeinated potato chip brand called Bangers Energy Chips. Two flavors are available — Barbeque and Paradise — and each 2.5 oz bag contains 200mg of caffeine. The branding is fun but I’m not sure we need caffeinated potato chips. Bangers is currently available at 1000+ ExtraMile c-stores across the West Coast. Bangers

• Oshun, IMO the best hydration product on the market right now, just launched travel bottles and they look great. Linkedin

• Man Cereal, a new high-protein, creatine-infused cereal brand, is launching soon. It sounds like Day Job is involved so we know the branding & packaging will at least look great. Very curious to learn what kind of creatine dosage Man Cereal is launching with. Man Cereal

• Medical-grade hydration brand BIOLYTE just revealed a clean new brand identity. The new look is an enormous upgrade over the previous iteration which you can see here. BevNET

• Casamigos finally pulled the trigger and launched a canned cocktail range. This should come as no surprise for two reasons: RTD sales are booming and Casamigos sales dipped 22% for Diageo in FY 2024. The canned margarita line currently comes in four flavors. PR Newswire

Data 🖥️

• Kiva Dickinson, the founder of Selva Ventures, wrote a really interesting thread on Traction Efficiency Ratio (TER). Twitter

Distribution News 🚚

• Throne Sport Coffee launched at 250+ Whole Foods Market stores.

• Willie’s Remedy+ is launching at select Total Wine & More stores.

• Snack brand Good Eat’n is expanding to 1,000 Walmart stores.

• Adaptogenic skincare brand VERDOIE launched at Credo Beauty.

• Manatee Coffee launched at The Fresh Market.