A Ketchup Drought & Protein Pulled From Air: CPG News, Week of Apr 5-9
Contents
Unioncrate's curated weekly round-up of CPG & supply chain news. This week's news features supply chain hiccups in the condiment space, new factories for Beyond Meat and Oatly, and a new way to do animal-free protein.
investments-acquisitions
Investments & Acquisitions
Target will invest $2B in Black-owned businesses by 2025. Grocery Dive
MissFresh, an ecommerce food service company based in Beijing, is considering an IPO in the US. Bloomberg
AppHarvest is investing in AI after having acquired AI robot harvesting business Root AI. AgFunderNews
Cultivated fat food tech company Mission Barns has raised a $24M Series A. Food Dive
Brynwood Partners has acquired De Wafelbakkers, a maker of frozen pancakes and waffles, for an undisclosed amount. Food Dive
Impossible Foods has launched a national ad campaign titled, “We Are Meat.” Progressive Grocer
Condiment and beverage brand Acid League has closed a $4.75M funding round. BevNet
Plant-based seafood brand Gathered Foods has raised a $26.35M B-2 bridge funding round. Food Dive
Protein from plants, protein from cells, protein from… air? Solar Foods has raised €10M to make protein out of air. Don’t believe me? Read the article from The Spoon.
Asia’s most funded retail agritech startup, Trax, has raised an additional $640M in its Series E. AgFunderNews
Tortuga wants to automate harvest season, and they’ve raised a $20M Series A to do so. AgFunderNews
Whole Foods has launched its Sourced for Good program, which puts a seal on certified-sustainable products. Supermarket News
products-partnerships
New Products & Partnerships
Recess has launched Recess Mood, a line of its sparkling waters augmented with magnesium L-threonate. Food Dive
NoPigNeva, a Boston-based vegan food retailer, has launched an online site for nationwide delivery. VegNews
Yasso has launched a product line called Yasso Poppables, marking another foray into the snacking space. Consumer Goods Technology
Chloe’s Fruit has launched three new flavors of its frozen dessert line. FoodBev
Plant-based frozen dessert made from olive oil? It's a reality with freshly launched brand Wildgood. Food Business News
Molson Coors expands past beer, launching Jimmy’s Iced Coffee and two other brands. Beverage Daily
Forager Project, originally a juice brand, has launched a line of plant-based ice cream. BevNet
Bitcoin-enabled kiosks for Southeastern Grocers? That’s now a reality. Progressive Grocer
supply-chain
Supply Chain News
Beyond Meat has opened a factory in China—its first outside of the US. AgFunderNews
Oatly is building another factory, too—this time in partnership with Singaporean beverage maker Yeo’s, which the oat milk brand hopes will expand its presence in Asia. AgFunderNews
Cargill is predicting a “mini supercycle” due to China’s crop-buying spree keeping supplies tight. Yahoo Finance
Amazon has converted up to 25 failed malls into distribution centers. Chain Store Age
Egyptian authorities aren’t releasing the Suez Canal ship until they pay upwards of $1B in compensation. The Wall Street Journal
Walmart is aiming to “decarbonize” its supply chain. Here’s what it had to say to investors. WWD
It seems that US retailers will continue to binge order through summer. JOC
Cosco Shipping, China’s largest container shipping company, has projected bullish sales, sending stocks surging. The Wall Street Journal
With most restaurants deploying takeout to make it through the pandemic, that also means there’s been a high demand for ketchup… which means that there’s currently an American ketchup shortage. The Wall Street Journal
Hitachi has acquired GlobalLogic for $9.6B in an effort to help industries go digital. The Wall Street Journal
Softbank has bought a 40% stake in Norwegian automated warehouse company AutoStore. The Wall Street Journal
Chewy is acquiring new warehouses and retrofitting existing distribution centers in order to boost production over the next two years. Supply Chain Dive
good-reads
Good Reads
We all know that there’s a plant-based boom underway in the protein world… but are meat sales actually going down? Read more in The Counter.
Parents often find the labeling on fruit drinks confusing. Food Dive
Nestlé predicts that the food trends we’ve adopted over the course of the pandemic are here to stay. Food Dive
Mars Wrigley has crafted a dessert through AI. Consumer Goods Technology
About Unioncrate
Unioncrate is an AI-powered Integrated Business Planning (IBP) platform that delivers demand forecasts with unmatched accuracy, collaborative visibility, and actionable intelligence—enabling CPG brands to plan and execute agile supply chain strategies at the click of a button.