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Off to a flying start 🦋 Great first week transitioning into the food and beverage manufacturing market, big thanks to the team Andrew Jackson Daniel Mather Chris Baldwin James Keane for all their support. So what have I learned this week about the food and beverage Sector? 🥖 Nature's Bakery is building a $237 million facility in Salt Lake City, Utah. The 339,000-square-foot plant will create more than 190 new jobs. 🥖 Nature's Bakery, which Mars acquired in 2020, has become the eighth best-selling and fastest-growing granola and snack bar brand in the $4 billion-plus category, according to the brand. 🥖 Conagra Brands is working with country star Dolly Parton to develop a new line of food products. The items will include frozen, refrigerated, grocery and snacks inspired by down-home comfort cuisine. 🥖JDE Peet's JDE has signed a licensing deal to manufacture, market and sell Caribou consumer and foodservice coffee products. The $260 million transaction, which excludes Caribou coffeehouses, is expected to close in the first quarter of this year. Looking forward to the year ahead. 🍓 #fmcg #foodandbeverageindustry #weeklynews #flyingstart

This week feels big. Wandering Bear Coffee is launching our expanded 32oz organic cold brew line in five regions (200+ stores) of Whole Foods Market. It’s the first expansion of our retail distribution since we pulled back from grocery growth in March 2020 -- as our office coffee business went into sudden, deep hibernation -- so we could re-build Wandering Bear as an e-commerce led brand. #dtc was <1% of our sales at the time. Today, it’s nearly 75%. Scaling online helped create this opportunity. So did luck, persistence and the hard work of many. Brand building is a team sport. The team for this win extends far beyond our payroll. In an attempt at chronological order, THANK YOU... Elly Truesdell for foraging and giving us our initial "homework" to sell-in to a few stores... teams at WFM Tribeca, Bowery and Columbus circle for taking a risk in 2016... John Lawson for your trust when we launched the current product line and for your thoughtful advice... to the team at Dora's Naturals, including Christopher Psuik and Sean Hurley, for busting a** every day to keep us looking great on shelf… Kadijah Wellons for taking a 15-min meeting over donuts and to Charlie New for truly engaging... with us, with the data and with our vision for the future of the #coldbrew #coffee category. This is just the beginning. I referenced it, but to be explicit, this is our second time beginning an expansion of our #grocery business… we’re on page one of a new chapter. We have some stories to tell, some lessons learned the hard way, and plenty of thoughts on how to grow “the right way”. If this is at all of interest, please follow and comment. I’m feeling compelled to share as this part of our story begins.

⬇ Not had time to catch up on recent retail news? We've got you covered with a summary of this week's top stories: 🍕PizzaExpress is hoping to capitalise on the fast-growing frozen pizza category with its latest range extension. It has launched a quartet of frozen pizzas exclusively into Tesco. The launch comes after independent research commissioned by the British Frozen Food Federation revealed last month that two in five consumers were buying more frozen food than they did a year ago. 🍷Pernod Ricard has unveiled a new wine brand designed to provide “the perfect match for gourmet fast food”. Two variants – a Luscious Red made from shiraz and grenache, and a Big Buttery Chardonnay. The Greasy Fingers range would challenge “traditional boundaries of wine and food pairings” and was targeted at younger craft beer and wine drinkers with “a high frequency of ordering gourmet fast food at home”, Pernod Ricard said. 🍺Diageo has confirmed it has retired its Guinness Cold Brew Coffee Beer after fewer than 18 months. It had previously been sold in retailers including Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons. The beer – which was rolled out in April 2022 in a bid to recruit new adult drinkers to the Guinness brand – is no longer available in the UK. 🧃 “Fentimans Ltd has launched a functional still soft drink, that uses a combination of vitamins and minerals to support your body’s metabolism and digestion, it goes great with food and comes in three flavours – Cherry, Lemon, and Apple" a spokesman for the brand said. 📈Marks and Spencer is set for its ‘biggest ever’ month of store openings, in an £80m investment in bricks & mortar retail. The retailer will open nine stores throughout November – the most it ever has in a single month. The nine will include six new stores along with the reopenings of the latest three to have received a makeover in M&S’s store renewal programme.   #latestnews #newstoday #podtalent #supplychain #recruitment #london #manchester

Now that Starbucks has a new CEO from Chipotle, can we expect half-empty lattes and frappuccinos? Or smaller cups but the same prices? Apparently, this has been Chipotle's MO 😂 ----- Fans of Chipotle Mexican Grill are seeking an off-menu item to pair with their burrito bowls—a scale. Chipotle is struggling to shed scrutiny on its portion sizes, and whether stores are failing to dish out a full four ounces of meat. A crowdsourced website “Stop the Skimp!” is tracking locations that serve beefier portions. Some customers are filming workers as they craft meals to try to guarantee more rice and guac. The most extreme are weighing Chipotle orders to determine whether they are getting shorted at certain locations or by ordering online instead of at the counter. For the pinto-bean police, the saucy stunts help channel their broader rage at food prices and shrinkflation. Zackary Smigel, a 28-year-old YouTube creator from Hermitage, Pa., started filming his Chipotle orders this year, weighing 15 burritos and 15 bowls over 30 days at three different locations in Pennsylvania and Ohio. What he found became fodder for a documentary posted on YouTube—burritos ordered online were skimpier 70% of the time, he says. Source: WSJ (non-paywall link below) #starbucks #ceos #retail #chipotle #marketing #fooddelivery

The supply chain of Chick-fil-A is an integral part of the company’s day-to-day operation; through it, the over 2,900 restaurants of the brand get the supply of ingredients and other items that they need to serve customers. Chick-fil-A began in 1967 when Truett S. Cathy opened a chicken-based quick service restaurant (QSR) in the food court of the Greenbriar Shopping Center in Atlanta. Since then, the brand has expanded its operations to other cities in the United States and has grown internationally to countries such as Puerto Rico and Canada. Chick-fil-A’s expansion has equally broadened its customer base. Chick-fil-A’s management structure, its highly effective marketing strategies, and customer-centric operations have contributed greatly to the continued profitability of the company. Currently, in 2023, the company employs over 170,000 individuals cutting across its restaurants, corporate office, and supply chain. Within the United States, Chick-fil-A has been recognized as the largest quick-service chicken restaurant chain based on annual system-wide sales. This has been possible due to several factors, the major one being that the brand has been America’s favorite fast-food chain for nine consecutive years since 2004. Thus, the brand records the highest same-store sales compared to other QSRs. Read about the supply chain process and issues of Chick-fil-A at https://lnkd.in/gXsV-AMQ #Business #chickfila #supplychain #PPBlessing

Despite rising prices, business remains good at Chipotle. For me, a lunch or dinner for two approaches $25.00. It could be less, if we forgo the outrageously priced guacamole but it's rare that we do! Customer loyalty in the fast casual food business (Chipotle created this market by the way) is critical and CMG nails it with many customers eating at its stores multiple times a week. In recent memory, the chain faced the PR nightmare of any restaurant: people got sick from their food. The stock nearly halved in price and leadership dug deep to fix the causes and over time customers came back. When things go wrong, it's best to own it like Chipotle did, commit to changes and realistically set expectations to key stakeholders (customers, shareholders, regulators and employees). Instead of rushing to get back on track, some menu items were not offered until the company was confident it could do so with the greatest of confidence of safety. It's a lesson to be learned for many leaders. With new menu items, loyal customers, and the crisis squarely in it's rear view mirror, the black or pinto bean counters at the company are happy as are shareholders.

"New Store Concept Launch by Whole Foods Market" Read the full article below..

Sweetgreen, Chipotle and other fast-casual chains are bucking the consumer slowdown : Chipotle Mexican Grill provided their customer over-sized portions per order verse other fast-casual chains : customers tend to have higher income and are benefiting from the perception that they’re a better value : Value counts --Chipotle and other chains have also gotten a boost from consumers’ perception of their value with over-sized portions per order verse other fast-casual chains as the cost of Big Macs and Whoppers rise “You can see that fast casual is just a superior value for that consumer, given the quality of what they’re getting” Chipotle’s quarterly same-store sales grew 7%, fueled by a 5.4% increase in foot traffic : burrito chain has a strong perception of value among diners--improve their “throughput” an industry term that refers to how many bowls or salads their employees can make : focus on efficiency means their restaurants’ service is getting faster — leading to more transactions--Mediterranean fast-casual chain Cava first-quarter results May 28TD Cowen’s Charles said he’s expecting a stronger quarter for Cava, given its competitors’ performances : High-income consumers helped Chipotle Mexican Grill, Wingstop and Sweetgreen customers of fast-casual chains tend to have higher incomes than those of the fast-food sector : Wingstop saw its same-store sales soar 21% 

Higher costs and inflation-weary consumers are starting to erode sales across much of the U.S. restaurant industry. Traffic last year, while 1% higher than in 2022, remained 8% below pre-pandemic levels, according to market research firm Circana. Many Chipotle customers, though, are still willing to pay. The California-based chain’s same-store sales grew 8.4% last quarter, outpacing rivals including McDonald’s and Starbucks’s U.S. operations. Chipotle has reported better-than-expected earnings for four straight quarters, according to FactSet. It is one of the industry’s fastest-growing chains, with plans to build around 300 new locations this year. #growth #inflation #prices #chipotle

Good insights