New Leader at Diageo, CAVA IPO Roadshow 🥗

CPG WIRE
June 06, 2023

Happy Tuesday and welcome back to This Week in CPG. Here’s what we’re covering this morning:

Deals 💰

Mergers & Acquisitions

Skeleton Optics, a Florida-based performance eyewear brand, was acquired by Stronger Leadership, LLC for an undisclosed sum. Skeleton Optics was founded by Mark & Lori Llano in 2015. PR Newswire
Arcadia Consumer Health, a fast-growing consumer healthcare firm that’s backed by Bansk Group, acquired Avrio Health which owns a number of wellness brands like Betadine, Colace, and Senokot. PE HUB
UK-based Montezuma’s Chocolate was acquired by Paramount Retail Group for an undisclosed sum. Montezuma’s was founded by Helen & Simon Pattinson who sold it to Scottish private equity firm Inverleith in 2018. As part of the Paramount Retail Group deal, Helen & Simon Pattinson will return to run the brand. Just Food

Fundraising

Uncaged Innovations, a New York-based biomaterials startup that’s developing sustainable leather alternatives, secured $2m in pre-seed funding. The round was led by InMotion Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Jaguar Land Rover. Other investors include VegInvest, Stray Dog Capital, Alywn Capital, and others. Business Insider
Fast-casual Mediterranean restaurant chain CAVA will begin its IPO roadshow this week. If the unprofitable restaurant chain prices at the higher end of its range, it will be valued at $2.2B. Another unprofitable chain, Sweetgreen, is now only valued at $1.18B, so CAVA might be dreaming. WSJ

Apparel, Cosmetics, Home, and Wellness

IGK Hair partnered with Chamberlain Coffee on a very fun Matcha Dry Shampoo. Such a fun collaboration. Twitter
Vegan skincare brand Youth To The People opened its first-ever retail store. Youth Gallery UK is now open at Old Spitalfields Market in East London. YTTP was founded in 2015 and acquired by L’Oreal in 2021. The Industry
Herbal skincare brand Botnia unveiled a terrific and more eco-friendly packaging refresh. Beauty Independent
Cookware brand Made In opened their second retail store in Austin, TX. It’s located at The Domain in North Austin. PR Newswire
Eco-friendly apparel brand PANGAIA expanded its plant-based activewear range. Their sweatshirt collection is beautiful. Fibre2Fashion

Food, Beverage, and Alcohol

Loverboy, an alcoholic beverage brand founded by Bravo star Kyle Cooke, launched an exciting new flavor — Limoncello Spritz. What a great-looking can. Instagram
Debra Crew has been appointed interim CEO of spirits giant Diageo while Sir Ivan Menezes recovers from emergency surgery. Crew was poised to become CEO of Diageo when Menezes officially retired at the end of this month, so this isn’t much of a departure from the original plan. Wishing Ivan Menezes a quick recovery. The Spirits Business
There’s a gorgeous new premium soda brand from Australia called Ordinary Soda. Launching next month. Instagram
Food & Wine released its 2023 Game Changers List. Congrats to De La Calle and Dia Simms of Pronghorn for making the list! Food & Wine

Monster Energy and Red Bull are both experiencing flat sales. Monster sales were down 0.8% while Red Bull sales increased by 1.6%. This could be due to persistent price increases or insurgent brands like Celsius, C4, and Ghost grabbing market share. Twitter
Clean fragrance brand Skylar continues to perform well. Their most recent fragrance, Boardwalk Delight, sold out online and at Sephora within ten days. Skylar currently has 10 SKUs at Sephora. Business Wire