Peter Gialantzis

Not quite West Coast or New England–style, the reemerging label is confusing at best … For a long time, two regionally termed IPA subcategories have dominated U.S. beer cans: “West Coast” signaled clear and bracingly bitter with a piney, citrusy, resinous hop profile, and “New England” meant juicy, hazy and sweeter with tropical hops. Suddenly, however, a label that’s maintained alower profile since craft beer’s early days is showing up on more tap lists … muddying that understanding: “American IPA.” What even is this style? The name suggests some overarching combination of the two coastal substyles, a less-than-helpful and vague umbrella term, or, potentially, its own new thing. The answer, it seems, is all of the above. From the late 1970s into the 1990s, brewers started making IPAs based on their knowledge of English IPAs, but with an American twist. Thus “American IPA” made sense. But two things happened to erode that simple definition. For one, American craft beer took off, and American-brewed IPAs overtook English-style ones. For another, West Coast and New England substyles appeared, further delineating the category. “American IPA” all but disappeared as a label. Now, we’ve started to see the ‘American IPA’ return as a ‘style.” Yet did it ever really leave? While it’s agreed that an American IPA should not be hazy or as sweet as a New England IPA, an American IPA can still capture certain NEIPA notes with tropical fruit characteristics. “It can embody the West Coast’s visual clarity while incorporating the hop profile typical of the East Coast,” says Daniel Sickmen, head brewer at Virginia’s Lost Barrel Brewing, where an American IPA is a menu staple. The “American IPA” label leaves the door open for people to explore some range in terms of bitterness, sweetness, malt character and hop character, and learn what they like. For that reason, American IPA might at this point be more of a vibe than a style. It’s an IPA living in the middle of the tropical-sweet and piney-bitter extremes, open to brewer interpretation as well as to consumer discovery. It’s big, it’s bold, it’s intense. And you know it when you taste it. “The best IPAs are ones we drink with friends.” — Stephen Carter King Read the entire article at: Punch Drink .com Cheers🍻! #ConsumerBehavior #EmergingTrends #BrandAwareness #BusinessIntelligence #Beer #CraftBeer #IPA #AmericanIPA #Microbreweries #Pubs #Taprooms #Brewpubs ✦✦✦ Stephen Carter King Chief of Growth and Marketing and Strategy • Beer Market Analyst • Beerconomy & Co. CEO • Thought Catalyst • Sherpa • Advisor & Speaker sharing beer market trends, insights, forecasts and scoop via The Beerconomist

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SAFE NOTES ARE NOW UNSAFE... OK so what is going to happen to the money that was poured into CPG Brands via these supposed SAFE Notes? Issue is that no priced round took place and now it is likely if it did happen it would be at a fraction of the valuation that was contemplated leading to massive dilution for the founder. Many have a cap...few have a floor. and unless they are converted it will be impossible to raise new money at any valuation. #cpg #safenotes #fundraising

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9 Comments

UNFI just reported a surprisingly good Q3. Everyone in our industry should be celebrating. Their earnings call outlined how their larger Natural/Organic/Specialty accounts (WFM/TFM/GFH) are performing well. It’s a good thing, that these accounts are continuing to perform well and showing consumer resilience against persistently high pricing. This opens more innovation into more doors, and allows for the transfer of market share from Big CPG to emerging brands. It’s also a good thing their simplified fee structure (SSA) is paying off and producing more sustainable EBITDA rates for them because the stability of their supply chain network is important for retailers. There’s a nascent cottage industry built around helping small brands navigate UNFI’s “deduction” process. It’s important to understand that this 7% “Inside Income” forms the basis of their core profitability model. Nobody is going to “outsmart” or “outhustle” that 7% model long-term. Every brand signs the Policies and Procedures document and the details are all in the minutiae there. It’s important to understand that UNFI does not make its profits selling product…they earn more than 100% of their EBITDA by BUYING product. Their fees aren’t “predatory” they are just optimized for mature, larger brands who make up more than 80% of their sales. If you want a simplified no deduction model, and you don’t want to have to patchwork together 5-10 smaller distributors to reach national scale, you should work with us instead. We only make money when we sell product and we only work with emerging, growth brands. ALL of our fees are posted on our website, and we explain them to every brand that onboards with us in a 30 minute call. We can onboard you by the end of the day today if you want. Otherwise, UNFI is a very competent incumbent, and they are here to stay. Pod Foods #innovation #unfi #grocery

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“Growing a CPG company, especially in the food and beverage space, ‘is astronomically harder today,’. ” Paul Voge you said it, man. So many truth bombs dropped in this article about the challenges and difficulties growing and scaling a CPG brand in today’s world. The cruel reality is that it takes a whole lot of money or a whole lot of time (and most times both) along with a fair amount of luck to have a chance at making it. If you dont have a ton of money then you better have a ton of time, some good fortune, and a product that can withstand many changes of the seasons (and "trends"). For most emerging brands today its all about survival and just finding a way.  There are lots of traps out there– lots of shiny objects– lots of vanity metrics hoping to be noticed and cared about–but at the end of the day sometimes its just about living to see another one. Here’s to all you day-to-dayers and week-to-weekers out there that are all just finding a way. Keep finding it.

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A simple quote from Mike Tyson and one of my favorites of all time: "Everybody has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth." It rings true in the day to day battles of business, especially in CPG. Here are some examples many CPG founders go through or ones I've personally battled: 🥴 You launch a product, did all the research for R&D, focus group testing, and reviewed the packaging thousands of times before launching, but still something went wrong either with shelf life, negative consumer/retailer feedback, or weak sales on shelf 💰 You had cash flow projections in place and expected that with X amount raised, it would last you for Y Months, but ran short of runway and were scrambling to raise more cash to keep the company going in difficult times 🤝 Formed partnerships, only disappointed to find out the partner backed out, or it wasn't the partnership you envisioned and now you are doing damage control and it's causing emotional pain to be with this person 🚛 Brought on a distributor thinking they would push the brand and it would be an estimated cost, but they didn't do their job, and the costs ended up sky-rocketing from chargebacks, thus losing money on every unit 😲You release a great product, and then a competitor comes up with a version of yours that is a lower price point and they have all the marketing dollars in the world to out-compete you. I can go on and on, but in this business, like any business, you have intentions when you go into it, and many times, it doesn't turn out the way you envisioned. What's your story of getting punched in the mouth?

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Interesting take on the battle for consumers during months like Sober October and Dry January from Stephanie Cain 👇 Her commentary below with link in comments 🍻🥂🍹 The wine industry has launched an assault on #SoberOctober and non-alcoholic beverages as if the sole existence of the booze-less category is to put a hit against wine. With its new campaign, Come Over October, wine folks are declaring you should grab a glass instead of going sober, because wine brings people together. Instead, #wine should really be looking at their core messaging because that's why wine is declining. At the #ComeOverOctober kick-off party, I had a conversation with a salesperson of a wine distributor. He attempted to be ok with the evolution of wine by explaining that ready-to-drink, single-serve wine brand, BeatBox, marketed to the 21 to 25-year-old set, was crushing the market. He was all for it. While the brand has wacky flavors like blueberry lemonade wine, he felt that every wine consumer “starts somewhere.” It was promising to him because he said they would “continue their wine journey” and start “drinking real wine.” So many problems here but here is the big one: They don’t often continue the wine journey. News flash, wine people! Consumers don’t have time. We don’t desire it. We want to build connections, not spend the evening only discussing what we want to drink. We have jobs and travel and bills to pay and kids and dogs and aging parents and hell, we just want to buy a house. We have no job security. We have been hit with recession after recession. Right now, inflation is making our groceries cost some 40% more. You really think we are jumping at the time-consuming task of learning about wine? Get real. We’ll grab a #Martini. And start ranting. Which is exactly what I'm doing in today's The Mad Ones 👇 Link in comments. #health #wellness #marketing #alcohol #alcoholfree

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I’ve been a part of hundreds of NPD and innovation sprints throughout my career...and it seems to never fail that a CPG industry colleague asks me about my personal flavor preference. If they knew my favorite childhood pop growing up was Squirt or that I probably ate my weight in orange and lemon Starburst...it would be a silly question to ask! Even as an adult kid…my go-to powdered supplements, hydration beverages, or energy drinks usually center around citrus flavors. I’m mentioning all this because you’d think, a citrus lover like me, that I would be acutely aware of Matt McLean and his company Uncle Matt's Organic. But with the decadelong massive proliferation of products/brands across the different functional CPG categories that I deeply analyze…it unfortunately creates blind spots. Though that’s the great thing about these conversational content pieces… I get to find those fascinating individuals that are indirectly related (but pivotal) to my core functional CPG categorical focuses. And I think you’re going to love hearing Matt’s inspiring entrepreneurial story that spans a quarter-century… - family farm side hustle that grows into a national CPG brand - gets acquired by Dean Foods - buys Uncle Matt’s Organic back several years later during the Dean Foods bankruptcy Moreover, Matt explains how he "leads from the front" to push the citrus industry forward...whether that's: - helping solve the citrus greening disease challenge - organic and regenerative agriculture practices - innovation product in a "health and wellness consumer era" But these are just some of the interesting topics we chatted about in this episode... #strategy #trends #markets #fmcg #cpg #beverages #juice #organic #agriculture #leadership #sustainability #sportsnutrition #supplements #wellness #nutrition #innovation #marketing #branding #productdevelopment #retailing #merchandising #retail #grocery #business #businessintelligence #entrepreneurship https://lnkd.in/gFGvzGeq

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Check out the latest buzz at Semper Foods with our very first blog post by the talented Laura Zinger! 🌟 Dive into the insights and updates straight from the heart of our team. Click here to read: #SemperFoods #BlogLaunch #TeamUpdates #IndustryInsights

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HUGE deal: PepsiCo is acquiring Siete Foods for $1.2 billion. Before you doubt that valuation, I’ll say it:  Siete earned their price tag. CPG is hard.  Fundraising in this economic environment is hard. Disrupting stale categories (beans, tortillas, salsa, sauces) is hard. Challenging multi-brand, billion-dollar companies is very hard. Winning market share in salty snacks (chips) is very very hard. Building a multi-category food brand is very very very hard. Getting acquired by your biggest competitor – near impossible. All of those accomplishments are a legacy to be proud of. But the hardest work is just beginning. Because now it’s the family of founders’ job – all 7 of them –  To protect the legacy that they’ve built. To preserve the values that made this brand what it is today. To fight for what they believe when literal billions are at stake. Siete Family Foods x PepsiCo, Keep fighting the good fight. #food #innovation #mergers #acquisitions #marketing #finance

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It’s only getting about 2% of the media coverage of the Kroger/Albertson’s merger, but if the rumored Alimentation Couche-Tard acquisition of 7-Eleven actually happens, this is a HUGE impact on our industry. I think there is a very good chance that we will look back on this in 10 years as a major inflection point in CPG. There are a lot of complexities to this, given that it is a Canadian acquisition of a Japanese company, with the majority of stores in America. (Details in comments) There would be divestures galore, especially in FL and TX, but the combined entity would still control more than 10% market share of the convenience store channel. Convenience stores are a big part of the future of our industry. Grocery stores have gotten smaller while convenience has gotten larger. Store design is converging on a mid-size format with a robust grab and go assortment (including fresh). Most importantly the food is actually going to be GOOD. Anyone who has been to a Lawson’s in Japan gets the idea, but this is America so the stores will be bigger, and potentially better once this evolves and matures. The CPG retail innovation engine of the next decade might be where you least expect it. Pod Foods Flowspace Total Quality Logistics Craig DeMarco Jac Moskalik #innovation #circleK #grocery

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This is a great post from Arshad Bahl and some really interesting commentary. Check it out Food for thought: Since Private Label has done more and more to mimic what consumers love about emerging brands… What if emerging brands gave PL a taste of its own medicine and mimicked PL’s supply chain advantages (longer centralized production runs, efficient packaging/supply purchases inbound frieght efficiencies, reliable shelf placements, etc, etc.) Total Quality Logistics Flowspace Pod Foods

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Coke vs. Pepsi? Not so fast.   For the first time, Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. has now claimed the #2 soda spot in America, surpassing PepsiCo, who had held the position for over two decades. Their innovative marketing initiatives and unique blend of flavors have truly set them apart from the competition. I had the chance to discuss Dr. Pepper's remarkable rise with The Food Institute, emphasizing their strategy and how they have particularly resonated with the younger demographic, who crave diverse flavors beyond traditional cola.   In the article, I mentioned: "Dr. Pepper has distinguished itself through effective marketing campaigns that emphasize its unique flavor and individuality. This strategy resonates particularly well with younger demographics seeking alternatives to traditional cola drinks."   With Dr. Pepper's leap to the #2 position, do you think they have a shot at dethroning The Coca-Cola Company from the #1 spot? In which other categories do you think a shift like this is possible? Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/g572y5jv   #MarketingStrategy #BeverageIndustry #Innovation #DrPepper

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Time will tell if there is any kernel of truth to these rumors about UNFI going private. The natural/organic CPG industry has been so inextricably intertwined with a publicly traded UNFI supply chain for so long, it’s hard to predict what kind of secondary/tertiary impacts this would have. Any instability on a scale this large could cause some ripple effects. A privately held company can have very different motives and KPIs from a publicly traded one. What we’ve always said at Pod Foods is that the duopolistic national supply chain needs to evolve in order for innovation to flourish. We built a national distribution model to coexist with UNFI’s (and others) not to compete with it, directly. The best approach for the industry as a whole is to diversify, away from putting too many of the eggs in one basket. Strategic National secondary distribution benefits CPG innovation, protects retailers, and maintains speed to shelf of differentiation. #cpg #innovation #diversification Flowspace Simon Huntley Wayne Bennett George Milton

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Big news in the confectionary industry - Mondelēz International reportedly looking to acquire The Hershey Company This would clearly be a significant move for Mondelez and would gain them a leading share in the North America market where their current brands (Cadbury & Milka) do not have a large presence. Hershey had also just undergone a significant cost cutting round, making the chocolate maker more profitable despite rising costs. As prices of cocoa and other raw materials rise I believe we will see a lot more manufacturers in similar industries coming together. #grocery #omnichannel #foodandbeverage #foodindustry #foodandbev #digitalcommerce #ecommerce #cpg #cpgindustry #fmcg #fmcgindustry https://lnkd.in/e-mDiUNr

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I have to believe the Mondalez/Hershey's acquisition will go through this time around, and we'll have another $50BN CPG behemoth on our hands. This is as much about the response to the Mars/Kellanova deal as anything else. Mondalez needs to do this to keep up with the competition, especially in light of demand uncertainty with GLP-1 continuing to gain momentum. On the surface, this is VERY bad for innovation. It looks like we're progressively moving toward a Duopoly in snacks and confections, where "innovation" will consist of an Oreo dipped in Hershey's chocolate, or an oversized Ritz Cracker sandwich with duct taped to a Hershey's kiss. ...But looks can be deceiving. This company will no doubt generate far more EBITDA than Kroger and Albertson's combined, but somehow it is the retailers who draw the ire of the FTC instead of big CPG. Retail grocers are understanding more and more that they need differentiated product from one another if they want to thread the needle and compete with WMT and AMZN. For any truly innovative brands (or investors) out there looking for where to lean in...I would recommend going straight to the core of the Mars/Kellanova/Mondalez/Hershey's miasma and make something new and BETTER in these categories. Consumers are ready to buy it. So are retailers. We're ready to deliver it. Pod Foods #innovation #grocery #mondalez

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WHOLE FOODS MARKET vs. KROGER 2025 Food Trends. (And also some MINTEL, see comments below). In mid-October, Whole Foods Market released their 2025 Food Trend predictions. Two weeks later, so did Kroger. Predictions are just that, but they can validate what consumers and what we in CPG are seeing, or what we should take note of, possibly build innovation against, or simply buy to try. A side by side of five (5) food-specific #trends, from each #grocery chain, is compiled below, with G&Co. sentiments on the five. Of interest to me: • That Whole Foods Market visibly supported the #alcohol industry 🍺🍷🥂 in their list, while Kroger did not. And if you track alcohol sales as I do, the industry and those brands needs all the support they can get. • That Kroger plugged #privatelabel directly, with their “Food Dupes” trend, while Whole Foods Market integrated their own private label into brands that fit into trends. What they agree upon, I cite below. And I also flag the lists’ incongruity. Again, this side by side is food-specific, and does not weigh the packaging and sustainability trends called out by Whole Foods. #cpg #foodandbeverage #2025trends #foodtrends Mintel

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The #coffee prosumer market is evolving. "#Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages in the world. In fact, in the National Coffee Association USA’s most recent 2024 National Coffee Data Trends report, 67% of US adults said they drank coffee the previous day – marking a 20-year high for #coffeeconsumption in the country. The report also found that US specialty coffee consumption was up by 7.5% on the previous year, with #espresso-based drinks leading the trend. So as the global specialty coffee market grows, so too does consumer knowledge and interest – especially alongside a huge focus on #consumereducation following the pandemic." This article has great insights and data you can't miss. Matthew Hill spoke with Josh Hockin, Head of Coffee at Eight Ounce Coffee Co to learn more about how the coffee prosumer market has changed and how it could evolve further. https://lnkd.in/e3gi-_J6

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𝗪𝗵𝘆 "𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝘂𝘁" 𝗶𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝘂𝘁. The decision to sell a brand like Siete Family Foods to a company like PepsiCo isn’t about giving up—it’s the culmination of years of hard work, vision, and brand building. For some founders, a generational family business makes sense, but for others, the goal is to grow, scale, and ultimately realize the value of what they’ve created. Selling to a global player doesn’t diminish that; it amplifies it. As for the $1.2 billion price tag? It’s reflective of more realistic revenue multiples in today's M&A landscape. Gone are the days when brands could command 6x revenue valuations like we saw with RXBAR. PepsiCo itself trades at about 2.5x its revenue, and Siete's growth trajectory far exceeds the pace of their more mature business. In that light, $1.2 billion feels very reasonable. By adding grain-free tortillas, salsas, and snacks to their lineup, PepsiCo is meeting the consumer shift towards healthier, more authentic options head-on. This deal is not just about product—it’s about adapting to cultural and consumer trends that are only gaining momentum. What’s your take on this deal? Could your favorite better-for-you brand be next in line for acquisition? Read more about the Siete Foods acquisition here: https://lnkd.in/ge-cMEYT #MergersandAcquisitions #PepsiCo #FoodandBeverage #BetterForYou

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In the CPG industry it's not about how many doors/stores you get into it's about the quality of stores you get into. I look forward to building relationships with every retailer/buyer. Even though you may not be in a large bix box store at the moment focus on building relationships with independent retailers first then go from there. Building a personal brand helps out a lot in business. This is crucial to let buyers know about you and your products and why you started your business. #retail #growth #business #sales #mindset #businessgoals #businessrelationships #connection #integrity #cpg #startup

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