Molly Baz Launches Ayoh Foods 🥪

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CPG WIRE
November 19, 2024

Welcome back to This Week in CPG, folks. Hope everyone had a relaxing weekend and a productive Monday. Let’s dive in:

  • Goodfood buys Genuine Tea 🍵

  • Shiseido backs Apothékary 🌿

  • David Beckham launches IM8 🧪

  • Oatside bets on protein 💪

  • Huel continues to grow 📈

Deals 💰

Mergers & Acquisitions 

  • Goodfood, a Canadian meal kit company, has acquired a majority stake in Genuine Tea, a Canadian seller of organic tea. Goodfood will now own 81% of Genuine Tea, while co-founders Sarah Wilcox and David O’Connor will own the remaining 19% and continue to run operations. Just Drinks

  • Venture Life Group has acquired Health & Her, a UK-based purveyor of menopause supplements, for £7.5M plus a possible £2.5M performance-based earnout. Health & Her was co-founded by Kate Bache and Gervase Fay in 2018. Femtech Insider

  • Lancaster Colony Corp (NASDAQ: LANC), best known for producing licensed condiments & sauces for the retail channel under brands like Chick-fil-A and Buffalo Wild Wings, shelled out $75M to acquire a 300,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Atlanta, GA. Lancaster’s sustained growth over the years has been very impressive. Business Wire

Fundraising

  • Female-founded wellness brand Apothékary secured around $3M from Shiseido, the Japanese cosmetics giant. Apothékary is based in Virginia and was founded by Shizu Okusa in 2020. The brand is best known for its herbal remedies which just rolled out at Ulta Beauty. Axios

  • According to an SEC filing, haircare brand Crown Affair raised $8.9M in fresh equity funding from undisclosed investors. Crown Affair last raised funding in 2022 when they secured $5M from True Beauty Ventures and Gwyneth Paltrow. SEC

  • Lixir, a California-based purveyor of mead RTDs, raised $570K from the likes of Jeff Church (co-founder of Suja Juice) and James Watt (founder of BrewDog). The company hopes to raise a total of $1.2M. Just Drinks

  • Meatable, a Dutch cultivated meat startup, scored a strategic investment from Betagro, a leading meat processor and food company that operates in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. Betagro’s investment signals confidence in Meatable’s cell-based technology, which is capable of producing pork and beef that mirror the taste, texture, and nutritional profile of conventionally produced meat. Business Wire

  • UK-based oral care brand PÄRLA raised more than £350K on crowdfunding platform Seedrs. The Grocer

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What’s New 🤩

Apparel, Cosmetics, and Wellness

  • Sephora is planning on opening 20 new stores across the UK over the next 2-3 years. The beauty retailer left the UK market in 2005 due to high rents and competition, but they returned in late 2022 and opened two stores in London in 2023. The Industry

  • David Beckham officially launched IM8, a new supplement brand that’s focused on longevity. The brand and its products were developed alongside Prenetics, a publicly traded health sciences company. IM8 currently offers two products — Daily Ultimate Essentials and Daily Ultimate Longevity — which retail for $79 and $75, respectively. The packaging is definitely solid. Forbes

  • Rhode is celebrating founder Hailey Bieber’s birthday on November 22nd with a limited-edition shade of its Peptide Lip Treatment — Cinnamon Roll. Hypebae

  • Gymshark opened a pop-up in New York’s SoHo that will remain open until January. The UK-based activewear brand reported revenue north of $700M in 2023 and plans to open a permanent flagship store in NYC in 2025. WWD

Food, Beverage, and Alcohol

  • There’s a new mayo brand in town and it’s called Ayoh Foods. The company was co-founded by Molly Baz, a renowned cookbook author and recipe developer, and David McCormick, a former partner at Siddhi Capital and EIR at 25madison. Ayoh Foods is shaking up the mayo category with four unique products: Dill Pickle Mayo, Hot Giardinayo, Tangy Dijonayo, and Original Mayo. The brand is backed by Simple Food Ventures. Love the branding and form factor 👇 Fast Company

  • Red Bull is relaunching their resealable aluminum bottles in Australia. They look pretty badass and would definitely stand out amongst a sea of cans. Hope they bring these to the U.S. where Red Bull sales are beginning to dip. Stack3d

  • Over the weekend, TRUFF released a very limited-edition collab with Cactus Jack. The collab was only available to those who attended CactusCon in Las Vegas. Love the label. Instagram

  • Little Latke, a line of shelf-stable potato crisps, opened pre-orders. The product looks delicious and I’ve only heard good things thus far. Little Latke 

  • Santo Tequila, the tequila brand co-founded by Sammy Hagar and Guy Fieri, lost $1M worth of tequila when two trucks were stolen. Brutal. One truck was found and they’re looking for the other. The Spirits Business

  • Singapore-based Oatside launched a new range of high-protein RTDs. Each serving contains 20g of protein. A no-brainer for the fast-growing beverage brand. Instagram

Data 🖥️

  • UK-based meal replacement brand Huel had another strong year. For the twelve months ending on July 31st, Huel’s revenue increased 16% to £214M while pre-tax profit surged 194% to £13.8M. Financial Times

Distribution News 🚚

  • Churn launched three of their butters at 250 Target stores.

  • Le Sauce & Co. launched three products at Sprouts Farmers Market.

  • Non-alc cocktail brand !MPROV launched at BevMo.