Unpackaged Goods

Kroger approved Bakeful for a nationwide listing before they'd had a single meeting or phone call. Tony Davis, founder and CEO of Bakeful, on rebuilding the sweet baked goods aisle. Plus this week in CPG: Constellation's SpikedAde earnout, PepsiCo's split year, and the deals where control was the point. IN THE NEWS (every story is in The Deeter Digest) - Constellation buys SpikedAde...

This week on Unpackaged Goods: why Oura walked away from an IPO with demand to spare, plus Kimmy Pace, founder of Afternoon Toast, on building a brand on nights and weekends. In the news: - Oura postpones its IPO despite orders reportedly 4x the shares on offer, and why profit buys you the right to wait - Wella's debt and Shein's rough public debut - Dose, Manucurist and Stride: selling...

This week in CPG: Graza hires Lazard to explore a sale, Costco launches a Kirkland electrolyte, and the Whole Foods LEAP class is announced. Then Nick Foreste, founder of Marrō, on making the first cold, canned, sparkling bone broth. IN THE NEWS (every story is in The Deeter Digest) - Graza hires Lazard and is reportedly seeking up to $600M - Costco turns electrolytes into a Kirkland product, and...

What does it take to turn a product trusted by athletes into a brand more consumers discover on the shelf? Jonathan Deeter sits down with Marc Seguin, CEO of NextFoods, the company behind Cheribundi and GoodBelly, to unpack the decisions behind their next stage of growth. Marc explains how Cheribundi built its sports-team business, why availability matters as much as awareness, and how NextFoods i...

Nature's Bounty is in more than one in five American households. It's the second-largest vitamin brand in the country. Nestlé just sold it, plus six sibling brands, for less than a year of their combined revenue. Two days later, a company that didn't exist two years ago raised at seven and a half times revenue. Plus: an interview with Ally Mamalider, the second-generation CEO of Org...

Pre-alcohol supplements have existed for over a decade. Walk into any 7-Eleven in Tokyo or Seoul and you'll find racks of them. Nobody in Asia needs convincing. So why does nobody at your fantasy football draft take one? Kevin Mai's answer is that the category solved the problem and then packaged it wrong. Vials, shots, and jars of pills make you the buzzkill at the party. UNDO built a g...

Five weeks ago I said the Van Leeuwen trade dress ruling was the most important thing that happened in CPG that month. Rebel Creamery filed for Chapter 11 on August 14, twenty-nine days after the judgment. The filing lists $13.78 million in assets against $23.85 million in liabilities, and the judgment is essentially all of it. A packaging design decision made in 2018 ended a company in 2026. This...

Two brands ended this week. Purely Elizabeth spent seventeen years building and was acquired by Ferrero. Alex Cooper's Unwell beverage line lasted less than two years and is reportedly shutting down after Halloween. Cooper has one of the biggest audiences in podcasting. Elizabeth Stein has granola. Only one of those businesses is still standing. THIS WEEK IN CPG Ferrero agreed to acquire Pure...

Celsius posted record revenue last week and the stock fell 17%. The reason is in the breakdown. Plus: an interview with Belle Robinson, the London nutritionist who invented the functional ice cube. THIS WEEK IN CPG P&G agreed to buy Thorne for $3.8 billion. L Catterton took it private for $680 million in 2023. And roughly a quarter of Thorne's revenue reportedly comes from creatine, an in...

The growth in alcohol has left alcohol, and this week the whole industry admitted it at once. Two celebrity-linked spirits brands were sold in seven days. A whiskey family turned down $15 billion for the second time in three months. And beer companies are buying everything except beer. Plus: an interview with Rachel Krupa, founder of The Goods Mart and Krupa Consulting. THIS WEEK IN CPG Brown-Form...

I just spent three days at the Summer Fancy Food Show at the Javits Center. Then I sat down with Jess Haghani, founder of Lucille Health, the senior nutrition brand building for a consumer most CPG brands completely ignore. Then I break down Danone spending $2.55 billion on functional nutrition in a single quarter, and three companies bidding $4 billion for Thorne. This week on Unpackaged Goods: S...

Second Nature Brands just acquired Tillamook Country Smoker — $175M+ in sales, two manufacturing facilities, and fifty years of heritage. Nobody covered it. Nobody tweeted about it. And that's exactly why they're winning. Plus, we sit down with the co-founders of Milly Pepper, the brand revolutionizing a common spice into a premium experience through direct sourcing, freshness, and story...

The three largest dairy companies in Europe are all acquiring functional nutrition brands in the same year. Over $2 billion in deals in two weeks. And David sold protein ice cream for $90 a six-pack and sold out in 28 minutes. This week on Unpackaged Goods: Nestlé is buying yfood at €450M — first acquisition under the new CEO. Lactalis acquired Protein Works at $75M in sales. Danone already bought...

The $40 billion beauty mega merger is dead. Lionel Messi's hydration brand shuttered. And a PB&J brand with zero celebrity co-founders just became the official PB&J of the NFL. This week on Unpackaged Goods: Puig and Estée Lauder merger talks ended without a deal. We tracked this for over a month — exploratory talks to serious conversations to founding families at the table to nothing...

A woman started a granola brand with $5,000. Seventeen years later it might sell for $600 million. In the same week, BTS launched 30 products at Walmart on day one. Two playbooks. Both might work. But only one was built to last regardless of whether the founder stays famous. This week on Unpackaged Goods: Purely Elizabeth exploring a $600M sale — founded in 2009 with $5K in savings by holistic nut...

Two weeks ago I said every beauty and wellness founder should have their deal room ready. This week Unilever spent $1.2 billion on a supplement brand that didn't exist three years ago. Called it. This week on Unpackaged Goods: Unilever acquired Grüns for $1.2 billion — its first acquisition since merging food with McCormick and pocketing $15.7 billion in cash. Founded in 2023, Grüns scaled to...

She co-founded Hims & Hers in 2017 and helped build it into a $4 billion telehealth company. Now Hilary Coles is back — and she's coming for your morning coffee. This week on Unpackaged Goods, I sit down with Hilary Coles and Emily Boschwitz, the co-founders of POCA — portable, zero-sugar coffee and matcha syrups that are reinventing how we flavor our drinks. Hilary co-founded Hims &...

Every major story this week is about deciding what you want to be when you grow up. McCormick and Unilever are in talks to merge food divisions — Hellmann's, Knorr, Cholula, Frank's Red Hot under one roof in a deal worth tens of billions. Danone paid $1.15 billion for Huel because meal replacement was a billion-dollar category all along. L Catterton is shopping Thorne for up to $4 billio...

The firepower is real this week. David Protein gets hit with a class action lawsuit claiming 83% more calories than labeled — but the internet completely missed the science. Coefficient Capital closes $530M across two funds. PepsiCo launches meat sticks and proves they read the Bain insurgent brands report. Hims & Hers goes from GLP-1 victim to GLP-1 distributor in 14 days. George Clooney appl...

This week I sit down with Bar, the founder of BoostCous — a gluten-free couscous packed with protein and fiber that's rethinking one of the most overlooked staples in the grocery aisle. We talk about how he came up with the concept, the challenges of reformulating a centuries-old product, and what it takes to build a better-for-you brand in a category nobody's innovating in. This week in...

This week the business world officially lost its mind. A TikTok creator became Chief Creative Officer of a German candy company, Kraft Heinz reversed a billion-dollar corporate split to invest $600M in growth, and someone created probiotics that flush forever chemicals from your body. In this episode: [0:00-2:00] Intro: Are We Living in a Simulation? When TikTok creators become C-suite executives...

This week the CPG world officially lost its mind. Willie Nelson built an $80 million cannabis beverage empire in under 12 months, someone paid $400 million for barbecue sauce, and a baby food company is now trading on the NYSE next to Apple and Tesla. In this episode: [0:00-6:00] The Week CPG Broke Reality Once Upon a Farm's $198M NYSE debut proves baby food is Wall Street material Willie Nel...

This week I took over The Shelf NYC for a special edition of "The Humans Behind the Hustle" - diving deep into the stories of five incredible food founders who are building authentic brands through relentless execution and genuine passion. In this episode: [0:00-29:00] This Week's CPG Chaos Former poker player Brian Tate raises $45M for Oats Overnight after hitting $200M revenue Ben...

This week in CPG was absolute chaos. Tom Brady's selling protein powder, Beyond Meat launched beverages, and someone raised $10 million for alcoholic sports drinks that taste like Gatorade. Categories officially don't exist anymore. In this episode: [0:00-25:00] This Week's CPG Madness SpikedAde's brilliant $10M sports drink cocktail thesis Tom Brady and Mike Repole's NOBU...

Episode 12: The $500 Million Cottage Cheese Economy L Catterton just valued cottage cheese at half a billion dollars. Sprouts put THC drinks next to kombucha. Parents paid $15M to hide vegetables in waffles. And someone put mushrooms in fake martinis. Welcome to CPG in 2026. IN THIS EPISODE: [2:30] - Why Good Culture's $500M+ valuation actually makes sense [10:30] - How Sprouts just legitimiz...