Move Over, Cauliflower 🍕

Welcome back to This Week in CPG, folks. Before we dive into any of the headlines, some housekeeping:

There won’t be a premium newsletter on either Thursday or Saturday since I’ll be on vacation. If you’d like to stay on top of what’s going on in CPG, I’ll be updating our Twitter and Instagram throughout the trip. We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming next Tuesday 🙂 

Now, here’s a preview of what we’re getting into this morning:

• Yough officially launches 🆕

• JDE Peets buys another brand ☕️

• Milliways scores funding 💰

• Happy Viking unveils rebrand 😍

• Rémy Cointreau bounces back 📈

The Big Story 📰

Something miraculous happened roughly seven years ago. Cauliflower, once the neglected stepchild of the produce section — a vegetable so maligned that parents had to cajole and prod their children into eating it — became popular all of a sudden. Seemingly overnight there were cauliflower chips, crackers, crusts, puffs, pizzas, and so on and so forth. Consumers couldn’t get enough cauliflower.

This is in large part due to Gail Becker, the clever founder of CAULIPOWER, who took her homemade cauliflower pizza crusts and launched them at Whole Foods Market in 2017. By 2020, CAULIPOWER trailblazed its way to over $100m in revenue. Soon thereafter, a number of other brands like Real Food From The Ground Up followed suit and built big businesses by pushing cauliflower into new categories like salty snacks.

Now another startup, Yough, is attempting to replicate the success of CAULIPOWER albeit with an entirely different ingredient — Greek yogurt. Yough, which was co-founded by childhood friends Haleigh Rosa, Jason Miller, and Mike Rolland, launched yesterday with three frozen pizzas and one general purpose dough.

Remarkably, all of Yough’s products utilize Greek yogurt as a base. This is important for a few different reasons. By using Greek yogurt as a base, Yough’s products contain more protein and less carbs than both cauliflower and chickpea crusts. Another trendy differentiator is that Yough’s products contain gut-friendly postbiotics which purportedly have a number of health benefits.

There’s obviously no guarantee that Yough achieves even a fraction of the success of CAULIPOWER, but given that consumers are always seeking guilt-free ways to enjoy traditionally carb-heavy foods like pizza, Yough might just knock it out of the park and build a very big business.

Deals 💰

Mergers & Acquisitions 

• JDE Peets, the American-Dutch coffee & tea giant that owns Gevalia, Intelligentsia, Peet’s, Stumptown, Mighty Leaf, and many other brands, acquired Brazilian coffee & tea brand Maratá. While JDE Peets has considerable distribution in southern Brazil, their distribution capabilities in the north are anemic. Maratá fixes this for JDE. GlobeNewswire

• Ferrara Candy Company, an American candy manufacturer and a subsidiary of Italian confectionery firm Ferrero Group, purchased Brazilian candy manufacturer and brand owner Dori Alimentos. Dori is one of the leading sweets & snacks manufacturers in Brazil. Their brand portfolio includes Bolete, Disqueti, and Pettiz. Business Wire

Fundraising

• Milliways, a plastic-free & sugar-free gum brand based in the UK, scored $3.9m in fresh funding. Investors include private equity firm KLT as well as Leon Amram, the co-founder of Intergum, and David Morris of Blandford Capital. Milliways launched in 2021 and is carried at over 6,000 retailers across the UK. Just Food

• Better-for-you cereal brand Seven Sundays secured $6m in funding. Sidekick Partners, Clover Vitality, GRT SHT Ventures, and a number of angels participated. Minnesota-based Seven Sundays currently retails at Costco, Sprouts, Whole Foods Market, and Natural Grocers. Food Business News

• Supply Chain Capital, a new venture firm focused on food tech, ag tech, supply chain tech, and enterprise software, closed $40m for its inaugural fund. The fund was founded by Shayna Harris and Noramay Cadena. Their portfolio includes Agua Bonita, Aqua Cultured Foods, Compound Foods, Partake Foods, and many others. TechCrunch

What’s New 🤩

Apparel, Cosmetics, and Wellness

• Happy Viking, the nutrition & meal replacement brand founded by Venus Williams, unveiled a sleek brand refresh. They did a terrific job. Instagram

• LA-based luxury lifestyle brand L’OBJET opened their first flagship store in Paris. L’OBJET opened a store in New York’s Upper East Side in November. More stores could follow. WWD

• Gap has appointed a new CEO for activewear brand Athleta. Taking the helm is Chris Blakeslee who formerly served as the President of Alo Yoga. PR Newswire

Food, Beverage, and Alcohol

• Chicago-based hard kombucha brand Luna Bay Booch launched a new line of Sparkling Hard Teas. Three flavors are available: Cran Breeze, Sunrise Smash, and Transfusion. Instagram

• Non-alcoholic craft brewer Best Day Brewing introduced a limited edition Mexican-style lager — Electro-Lime Cerca de Cerveza. Great-looking can. Twitter

• Silver Circle Distillery, a Welsh distillery known for its small batch gins & vodkas, launched a RTD Bloody Mary. A gorgeous, nostalgic label. The Spirits Business

• Low-sugar candy brand Blobs launched with three flavors: Orange Peach, Pineapple Passionfruit, and Pomegranate Apple. $20.99 per six-pack. Yikes. Candy Industry

• Nut butters brand Fix & Fogg introduced a new Choc Nut Butter made with real chocolate. I haven’t tried this one yet but their other products are great. Instagram

Data 🖥️

• Rémy Cointreau — the French spirits firm that owns Cointreau, Mount Gay Rum, The Botanist Gin, and other brands — posted solid FY results with revenue increasing 10.1% to €1.55B. Gross margin also increased to 71.3% from 68.6% the prior year. The Spirits Business

• Zero sugar soda brand Zevia missed Q2 net sales by a good margin. The company posted net sales of $42m versus an outlook of $48-51m. Business Wire