the Joshua Schall Audio Experience

The “COVID-19 Effect” created health concerns to the highest levels I can remember in my lifetime and created economic hardships to the highest levels since the Great Depression. These will no doubt have major impacts on every aspect of the supplement industry for years to come. Fact is, this isn't a socioeconomic set-up that looks very appealing to most entrepreneurs, unless you operate within th...

Race to the bottom this, race to the bottom that. Listen to a group of active nutrition CPG industry professionals long enough and eventually they will blame the race to the bottom as a main reason causing their assessment of the deterioration within the industry. But, is it really as bad as everyone seems to think it is? While the “race to the bottom” has several meanings depending on its socio-e...

What does Spotify have to do with Kraft-Heinz? Before you guess, I’ll give you a hint, it has nothing to do with new remix of Nigerian dancehall recording artist Ketchup by DJ Mustard. Odds are when you think about the music streaming and podcasting company Spotify, you don’t easily connect it with the almost 150-year-old CPG conglomerate The Kraft Heinz Company, the owner of iconic food and bever...

Can you imagine running a company that’s so massive that you have a segment called “other” on your financial statements that will do more than $20 billion in revenue this year? For those wondering, that would make the “other company” aka Amazon’s Advertising business segment around the 150th biggest American company. At that size, its bigger than all of Kohl's, two Ebays, or three Simon Property G...

A common question I get asked by supplement brand owners is if third-party certifications are worth the investment? While my answer differs depending on the brand’s nuisance, I always mention one prediction that has marketing bending potential. What is this market bending potential and how likely will it happen? The answer to the latter part of that question might surprise you just how far along i...

Every industry has its behemoths. In packaged non-alcoholic beverages, it’s really a head to head battle between The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo, but this isn’t a piece of content about the war between Red & Blue. It’s a piece of content about when any of the CPG industry behemoths enter a nascent functional category through internal product development of new offerings. Should this be seen...

In today’s dynamic interconnected economy, it only takes playing the business version of the game six degrees of Kevin Bacon to know that huge shifts in one area, can result in huge (mostly unintended) countereffects to just about any other sector of the economy.   In the case of restaurant food delivery, COVID-19 accelerated an already in-motion trend. I believe that trend is, has been,...

If you would've asked me what’s one of the hottest functional CPG brands that the general mainstream market probably hasn’t been paying attention to yet, I would have said Laird Superfood. Fact is, that's all about to change because Laird Superfood recently filed their S-1 paperwork with the SEC for a projected $40 million IPO. Laird Superfood is an emerging consumer products platform focused on m...

Who cares that an 85-year-old American vitamin retail business is going to be acquired through bankruptcy by a Chinese company, right? Well it seems a few powerful and loud voices have stepped up to share their thoughts on the GNC bankruptcy sale. One such voice is Marco Rubio, who has requested a full review of this transaction by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)....

Cash rules everything around me (or in this case CPG brands)…C.R.E.A.M.…get the money…dollar dollar bill y’all! Confused? That's likely because you aren't a classic hip-hop fan or ever heard the 1994 record C.R.E.A.M. by the Wu-Tang Clan. What I'm talking about from a CPG business strategy perspective is that cash conversion cycle, which is a measure of how many days it takes for a business to tur...

How is the American economy doing? According to the Federal Reserve September 2, 2020 Beige Book, the outlook remains uncertain and volatile, but what about specifically for the CPG industry?   You might be asking yourself WTF is the Beige Book and why should I care about what it says about the economy?    The Beige Book is a Federal Reserve System publication about current economic...

After more than 18 months "in the dark", MusclePharm Corporation (MSLP) filed a collection of late earnings reports on 8/25/2020. On this podcast episode, I'll breakdown the most important key year-end financial data and explain why the sports nutrition brand hasn't filed any financial reports to the SEC in more than 18 months. Additionally, I catch you up through a collection of publicly-disclose...

The four largest pure-play specialty retailers in the active nutrition category have struggled immensely to retain market relevancy at the least and business continuity at the most. With the active nutrition product categories consistently reaching high single-digits CAGR over the last decade, what is happening? Where is all that buying power going? This is what is dubbed the Wal-Mazon Effect. &nb...

FitLife Brands fought one of those perfect storm level quarters that they likely wouldn’t have survived a few years ago. Why are things different now? It starts so casually. You land a large customer, your products hit the shelves and it starts to pull off shelf well. You break out the champagne. Soon, that customer is 30% of your business. Then 50%. Then 70%. No one can say no to them anymore. Bu...

What does Linens n Things, Dressbarn, Pier 1 Imports and Modell's Sporting Goods have in common beyond their retail downfall? They have all been acquisitions by a little-known investment firm called Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV) that was founded last year. Maybe that doesn’t seem too odd, but what if I told you REV was run by a former NASA scientist that founded a successful dating app and Tai L...

Any press is good press, right? I guess not when you consider a bankrupt specialty retailer in the midst of one of the most challenging periods in American business history. In this podcast episode, I want to tackle 3 areas; (1) top-level financial data from GNC Holdings 2020Q2 earnings report that was released last week (2) cover any updates on Chapter 11 bankruptcy news since the last podcast ep...

Is it time for Glanbia Performance Nutrition to go “over the top” in its strategy as it continues to slip in importance of the overall Glanbia portfolio? Glanbia is a global nutrition company that owns various nutritional supplement and sports nutrition brands. These brands include names like Optimum Nutrition, BSN, ThinkThin, Isopure, Amazing Grass, ABB, and Slim Fast. I'll use the recent earning...

A fast-paced and busy lifestyle is pushing consumers to switch to quick and healthy meal options. This has resulted in the penetration of RTD protein shakes that promote active lifestyles. In this podcast episode, I'll utilize the recent quarterly earnings report and conference call for BellRing Brands to update you on the growth of the portfolio's consumer brand Premier Protein. Additionally, I'l...

Even with a cloudy forecast, it’s liftoff time for Celsius Energy Drinks in 3…2…1! Can Celsius become more than just an impulse purchase and become a key part of a health-minded consumer’s daily lifestyle? I will use the recent Celsius Holdings earnings report and conference call as the backdrop to talk about broader functional energy beverage categorical and strategic insights. Additionally, sinc...

Are greener pastures ahead for The Vitamin Shoppe now that their main competitor filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy? The Vitamin Shoppe 2020Q2 earnings report that was released 8/6/2020 under its owner Franchise Group Inc. While the financial information in the report continues to be relatively small, I was able to collect insightful information on the quarterly performance from the Franchise Group c...

Should the sports nutrition industry finally embrace its more mainstream active nutrition future? When I started in the industry more than a decade ago, the only acceptable term used to describe brands like MusclePharm, Cellucor, Optimum Nutrition, or even today’s hottest brand Redcon1 would be sports nutrition...but, that isn’t the case anymore! While the terms sports nutrition and active nutriti...

In the first half of 2020, a huge tectonic shift occurred within the energy drink space, one that will have lasting implications for years to come, and no I’m not talking about COVID-19! Up until last year, the top 3 energy drink brands in the U.S. had gone unchanged since 2004. That was until Bang Energy blasted past Rockstar Energy in the summer of 2019 to become the #3 energy drink brand in the...

It makes sense that an organization founded on first-person shooter video game content would embrace the saying “You can be the hunter, or you can be the hunted.” At a time when investment in the gaming category by sports nutrition brands is growing, what happens when the script is flipped and an esports team invests in a sports nutrition startup? That is exactly what happened when the most popula...

From buying a sewing machine and screen printer for just over $1000, to having your business be valued at over $1 billion and a potential exit in 8 years is just plain wild. The business that I’m talking about is Britain’s fastest-growing fashion brand Gymshark. In this podcast episode, I will share a bit about the inspiring founding story, current financials, and areas I believe Gymshark knocked...

Monster Beverage Corporation is finally considering a portfolio strategy that doesn’t solely focus on energy drinks, but is that the right move? In June 2019, Monster Energy CEO Rodney Sacks said the beverage company had an appetite to look at alternative brands and to develop more beverages in the nonalcoholic…as well as the alcoholic market. With the non-compete just ending, will we see Monster...