Big Bets on Beans and Bone Broth. Plus, Olipop Glows Up

0:04Monica Watrous:Welcome to the CPG Week podcast by BevNet and Nosh. I'm Monica Watrous, here with my co-host, Brad Avery. If you're enjoying the show, please subscribe on your listening platform of choice. Here is the latest in food and beverage industry news. Brahmi has raised$33 million in a funding round led by VMG Partners. The new cash will primarily be used to scale up the company's supply chain for its hero lupini bean ingredient. The company has been on a meteoric growth trajectory since launching its protein pasta products in 2021. The pasta contains two ingredients, semolina durum wheat and lupini bean flour, while packing 21 grams of protein and 9 grams of fiber per serving.

0:51Monica Watrous:Brahmi will also use the new capital to scale up its production methods at its Italy-based factory. The brand was founded in 2016 with the idea of building a market around snackable lupini beans. The brand still sells its resealable pouches of brined and flavored lupini beans at Whole Foods, but pasta has since become the star of its portfolio. Founder Aaron Gotti told Nosh earlier this year that the product resolves two major growth challenges that the pasta category has traditionally faced. The empty carb guilt association with traditional pasta on the one hand, and the taste, texture, and value challenges of ultra low carb or gluten-free pasta on the other hand.

1:34Brad Avery:Monica, how does this relate to the overall trend we've seen in the pasta category with competing products like Bonza that uses chickpeas and other alternatives that are either gluten-free or added protein, going for these alternative ingredients seems to be something that's popular in the space.

1:54Monica Watrous:Definitely. And I think that Brahmi stands out in a couple of ways. One is that this is not a gluten-free pasta. It is made with semolina durum wheat flour. So that is an important distinction. The other thing is it's a simple formulation. It is just two ingredients, whereas bonza and some of the other bean-based pastas on the market may contain some extra gums and stabilizers and ingredients that those who are seeking truly clean labels may not be excited about. So I think Brahmi is really winning on that simple formulation. And lupini beans are a very nutrient-dense ingredient. I mean, you saw the, or you heard the numbers there, 21 grams of protein and nine grams of fiber for the pasta serving.

2:39Monica Watrous:So it's a really powerful growth story. And Brahmi is obviously in a position to continue scaling it with its new capital in hand.

2:48Brad Avery:Well, we know Brahmi is in Costco and some other mainstream outlets. I'm curious to see whether this leads to a bigger conventional push, you know, and what their distribution ambitions are.

3:00Monica Watrous:Absolutely. And of course, we'll continue to cover that journey on Nosh.com.

3:04Brad Avery:Olipop is unveiling its first major brand refresh since it launched in 2018, debuting an updated label design as part of a new marketing and creative initiative, positioning the brand as the feel-good soda. The redesign is limited to its shelf-stable product lines and formats. Its refrigerated 9-gram fiber line will remain unchanged. But the move aims to amplify the familiar elements fans already love, to borrow the phrasing of the company, and drive, quote, distinction within the functional soda category. If you recall last year when PepsiCo bought Poppy, it positioned Olipop as the new independent leader in the modern soda set.

3:46Brad Avery:But talks of acquisitions with the Coca-Cola company and Red Bull are reported to have stalled. And most recently, Axios reported that Olipop raised around$200 million in financing. So this is a big push for the brand to continue competing, continue staying relevant, and begin getting itself into more households. In addition to the refresh, the company is also launching a national advertising campaign themed around this feel-good soda slogan, and will begin with a commercial spot named A Good Start that's scheduled to air on Disney +, Hulu, Peacock, Amazon Prime, and other streaming platforms.

4:24Monica Watrous:This strategy appears to mirror a similar one that Poppy adopted before its PepsiCo acquisition, which was that it kind of took a step away from this gut health positioning and really oriented itself around this modern soda idea. The feel-good soda might resonate with more consumers, whereas prebiotic soda might be a little bit more clinical sounding and not quite as resonant. So I'm wondering how much that played into that decision and if this will lead to potential reformulation opportunities where Olipop doesn't have to carry the same fiber load that it has in its current formulations.

5:00Brad Avery:I had a similar thought. It certainly seems to be like Poppy did with moving away from prebiotic as the leading ingredient. However, it doesn't seem to be moving away from fiber. There's some reformulation that's going on with this refresh, but it's all centered around levels of carbonation or just flavor balance. They've renamed their Ridge Rush flavor to Citrus Rush. That is their kind of Mountain Dew style citrus soda. None of it, though, seems to be moving away from fiber. What I think it is doing is keeping the functional benefits that it's had, but just repositioning the message. It's reframing this as feel good so you can get that health attitude in there.

5:42Brad Avery:You know, feel good, feel better, feel healthier, but also just enjoy the soda. It's flavorful. It tastes like soda. So I think they're in a way trying to bridge those two worlds, you know, make it a little less medical and how it sounds when you start talking about gut health and fiber. But also for the consumers where that was the draw, you know, it's still the brand that is argues that it's more efficacious and argues that it works. And so I think there is a way here where they are able to have their cake and eat it too.

6:18Monica Watrous:In your opinion, does this set up the business to be more acquirable or less acquirable?

6:25Brad Avery:Perhaps. In the long run, it seems like it's a big mainstreaming play. Not that the brand hasn't already become a major player in the soda set. It's reported to now be drawing more than $600 million in annual sales from retail and Amazon. So it's already a brand that has managed to make a name for itself. The question is now whether it can continue to grab consumers in a way that turns it into a household name or makes it more desirable for an acquirer. We don't know what happened with the talks between Coke that were rumored to have occurred last year or the more recent rumors that Red Bull was interested as a potential buyer.

7:13Monica Watrous:Those reports suggest that, you know, that's not going to happen, at least not in the immediate

7:19Brad Avery:future. But this is a lot of, you know, anonymous source reports. So we don't know. From one functional beverage to another, Kettle and Fire announced a leadership transition

7:33Monica Watrous:as part of a broader push to scale the bone broth brand into a significantly larger wellness platform. Sam McBride, executive chairman and investor in the company, will become CEO and replaces Brian Hack, who will transition into the role of president and CFO. The move builds on momentum sparked last year when McBride's firm, Ulter Ventures, led a$43 million round focused on building consumer demand and investing in supply chain and manufacturing, as well as buying out earlier backers in the brand. Speaking with Nosh this week, McBride framed the leadership transition as less of a reset and more of an acceleration of existing traction.

8:16Monica Watrous:He told me that the company's primary focus is to keep doing what we're doing and just double down. And he pointed to strong retail performance and growing household penetration that occurred under Hacks leadership. Last year, the company opened its first manufacturing facility in Lancaster, Pennsylvania to support long-term scale and innovation. And that facility has become a central part of the company's growth strategy. McBride told me that supply limitations have constrained the business for years and described the inability to fully meet demand as the, quote, best worst problem for a food company.

8:52Monica Watrous:But now they're going strong and they're focused on getting more consumers on board with the idea of bone broth, not just as a cooking ingredient, but as a sippable functional beverage. Now McBride brings a pedigree that is well revered in the consumer packaged goods landscape. He previously oversaw operations and sales at RxBar and helped scale that business from$2 million to$225 million in revenue through to its eventual$600 million acquisition by Kellogg Company. Kettle and Fire appears to be borrowing from that same category creation strategy as it works to push bone broth beyond a niche pantry staple into a mainstream wellness product.

9:37Monica Watrous:Kettle and Fire is distributed in 22 ,000 retail outlets, and so they are fully distributed. And when I asked McBride where the growth opportunity truly lies, he told me that it's increasing household penetration. Currently, Kettle and Fire has about 3 % household penetration compared to the roughly 60 % to 70 % that Campbell-owned Swanson has. For context, the bone broth category in the U.S. is valued around$400 million and expected to continue to grow strongly as brands like Kettle and Fire and other nutrition-focused emerging brands in this space continue to drive this product to the mainstream.

10:23Monica Watrous:It's also benefiting from a number of tailwinds, including GLP-1-influenced eating patterns, high protein, whole food nutrition, and even our federal government is touting the consumption of more meat products. Also, bone broth is a natural source of collagen, which fits in with this beauty from within trend that we've been reporting on both BevNet and NOSH.

10:48Brad Avery:The category is only$400 million?

10:50Monica Watrous:Yeah, it's kind of hard to believe. You'd think that it would be bigger. It's small. In the U.S. from a decade ago before we started seeing people drinking this stuff out of cartons, out of Tetra packs. And it was just, you know, something that you cook with. You know, it already has seen a lot of growth. But McBride believes that there's a lot more potential ahead.

11:13Brad Avery:Well, it also signifies that there's plenty of room for a leader to really establish itself in the space. if we're only talking$40 million for an entire segment, if one company can take a big share of that, there's a huge opportunity to be the ownership.

11:32Monica Watrous:And Kettle and Fire is really setting itself up to do so. That new facility that opened last year really eliminates a lot of the supply constraints that the brand has faced since the COVID era. And now they can start meeting the demand that they've been building.

11:49Brad Avery:Turning to the kefir space, after its attempts to buy the company outright were rebuffed, Danone is preparing to exit Lifeway Foods, selling its stake in the U.S. kefir leader. In a statement sent to Just Food, a Danone spokesperson said that the decision to sell its roughly 22 % stake in Lifeway came, quote, following extensive discussions with Lifeway Foods and having explored all options regarding our existing holding. Per a press release last week, they'll be selling more than 3.4 million shares for roughly$19.50 each. The sale will conclude a tumultuous relationship between the French CPG giant and Chicago-based Lifeway.

12:29Brad Avery:When Danone made multiple bids to purchase the Kefir brand in 2024, Lifeway's board repeatedly rejected offers, saying that they were undervaluing the company and then thought to resume negotiations last year. The on and off M &A discussions also led to some lawsuits involving the two companies. Danone filed a suit against Lifeway in March 2025 for awarding CEO Julie Smolianski shares as part of an alleged, quote, value-destroying gifting program. But since October, both companies have been back in good standing after issuing stays on their respective litigation and entering a cooperation agreement that includes an orderly refreshment of Lifeway's board of directors.

13:12Brad Avery:Boosted by the momentum from GLP-1 drug users and surging demand for protein, Lifeway has delivered the strongest quarter in its history in Q1 fiscal year 2026. The kefir and cultured dairy producer saw net sales jump 36.7 % year over year to$63 million, the first time the company has surpassed$60 million in a quarter. This is after a string of repeated record quarters.

13:39Monica Watrous:So we've got kefir, we've got bone broth, we've got feel-good soda, and we've got lupini bean pasta. I feel like this episode was really brought to our listeners by the letters GLP and the number one.

13:56Brad Avery:Absolutely. This is what's driving the market. I mean, at the very least, it's what's driving interest in the market. And I think we're seeing the long-term evolution of Better For You and health consciousness. You know, GLP-1s really were a game changer, but this is the longstanding effort of industry players and startups going back years to move, whether it's away from sugar, you know, before that was away from fats. It's, you know, now it's, you know, focusing on whole and clean ingredients. And the brands that we've been talking about on this show and on this episode in particular all fall into that bill as part of this kind of long journey.

14:42Brad Avery:And I think GLP-1s really were the supercharge for, you know, getting it to the next step, getting it to that, if not middle stage, that, you know, definitely that important mainstream stage.

14:56Monica Watrous:Absolutely. This is something that has accelerated trends that were already in the making, and I'm excited to see what happens next. Here are some other notable bits of news from the week. English muffin maker Stone & Skillet has closed a$5 million Series A round led by BFG Partners. Park & Suites is expanding into Costco with new backing from Taste Tomorrow Ventures and GRT SHT Ventures, signaling growing retailer and investor confidence in the premium indulgence category. And finally, vertical farming food tech company Oishi announced the first closing of its$150 million Series C round. For these stories and more, become an insider at BevNet and Nosh.

15:41Monica Watrous:That wraps up this edition of CPG Week by BevNet and Nosh. Thank you to our audio engineer, Joshua Pratt. Our director is Mike Schneider. And our designer is Aaron Willett. If you enjoyed the podcast, please subscribe on your listening platform of choice. and we will see you next time.