The Equity Studio Backs TRIP 🧘

Author

CPG WIRE
January 11, 2025

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

  • Unilever bets on India again 💰

  • Charlotte Tilbury opens flagship 💄

  • Slate ups the protein 💪

  • Partake Brewing drops a hop water 💧

  • JUNKLESS heads to Target 🎯

Deals 💰

Mergers & Acquisitions 

  • Italy’s Santa Margherita Wine Group has acquired Marsh Estate, an Oregon-based grape grower. The estate spans over 21 hectares and will be used to produce pinot noir and sparkling wines. Just Drinks

  • Valeo Foods Group, a leading European manufacturer of sweets and snacks, has completed its acquisition of I.D.C. Holding, a Slovakian producer of various confectionery products. I.D.C. does almost €200M in annual revenue. Business Wire

Fundraising

  • UK-based investment firm The Equity Studio made a multimillion pound investment in TRIP, a purveyor of wellness beverages and supplements. TRIP was co-founded by Daniel Khoury and Olivia Ferdi in 2019. In the first week of Dry January, TRIP sold 2 million cans of its CBD-infused beverage. WWD

  • Unilever Ventures led a $5M Series A investment in RAS Luxury Skincare, an Indian beauty brand that launched in 2021. Other investors include Sixth Sense Ventures and Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund. Cosmetics Business

What’s New 🤩

Apparel, Cosmetics, and Wellness

  • Carhartt WIP opened a 4,000-square-foot flagship store in New York’s Soho neighborhood. The minimalist store was designed by Creative Director Salome Faeh and Milan-based architect Andrea Caputo. Carhartt WIP operates one other retail store (in Los Angeles). Retail & Leisure International 

  • Serial consumer entrepreneur Jaimee Lupton partnered with celebrity hairstylist Laura Polko to launch yet another haircare brand. Dubbed Laura Polko Los Angeles, the new haircare line is available exclusively at Target. I spotted their endcaps at Target over the weekend and they looked really good. NewBeauty

  • Charlotte Tilbury opened an impressive and very on-brand flagship store in London’s Covent Garden. They spared no expense and opened a pretty stunning retail space. The Industry

Food, Beverage, and Alcohol

  • Functional beverage brand Slate expanded its lineup with a new 32g protein shake. The macros are pretty impressive: 1g of sugar, 2g of net carbs, and 150 calories. The new can is a big improvement too. Love the aggressive protein callout. Instagram

  • Canadian non-alc brewer Partake Brewing launched a sparkling hop water called Hop Twist. Good-looking can IMO. LinkedIn

  • Preme is relaunching with a range of gut-friendly hydration drink mixes. The company originally launched in 2022 with a line of premium pudding products that supported gut health. NOSH

  • Secret Aardvark expanded beyond hot sauces with two new products: Spicy Mayo and Serrabanero Ranch. They look great. Owner Stacy Moritz shares some background on how difficult it is to bring products with higher COGS to market. LinkedIn

  • Even Peet’s Coffee is tapping into the protein craze with three high-protein lattes. Patrons can now order a vanilla latte, golden latte, or matcha latte featuring 20g of protein. PR Newswire

  • Bang Bang Bakehouse and Zab’s collaborated on a product that honestly sounds delicious — Miso Hot Honey Cornbread Rum Cake. Love the co-branded label too. Instagram

  • RAGU and HOT ONES joined forces to release a spicy pasta sauce line. The 3-pack is available online and at select Kroger stores. HOT ONES must have pretty serious licensing revenues at this point, right? PR Newswire

Glimpse x Lil Bucks

Lil Bucks has grown super quickly in the natural channel, and with that came some of the weirdness of working with big distributors. 

Maybe you've wondered the same things as Lil Bucks CEO Emily Griffith:

  • Why are KeHE and UNFI taking so much money from me? 

  • What do these strange chargeback codes mean?

  • How can we possibly keep up with this as we scale the business?

The Lil Bucks team heard about Glimpse and after speaking with Glimpse CEO Akash Raju, it was a no-brainer to automate the entire deductions workflow to future-proof the business.

Now Lil Bucks can spend their time on higher-value work, while Glimpse does all the work of importing and reconciling each deduction, as well as checking every single chargeback and proactively disputing any that are invalid. 

In the first 6 months, Glimpse got the Lil Bucks team $27K back from distributors, as well as saving the team 10 hours a week. This represents an 8-10x ROI. 

No wonder more than 80 challenger brands have partnered with Glimpse since they launched just 8 months ago!

Learn more about Glimpse here or schedule a demo here.

Data 🖥️

  • Tilray’s craft beverage division continues to perform with revenue increasing by 36% in Q2 2025. The company also posted record Q2 revenue of $211M and gross profit jumped by 29%. Tilray

Distribution News 🚚