Mid-Year News Quiz

0:04Welcome to the CPG Week podcast by BevNet and Nosh, your source for the latest food and beverage industry News. I'm Monica Watrous, Managing Editor of NOSH, here with my co-hosts Brad Avery, Lucas Southard, and Jeff Kleinman. If you're enjoying the show, please subscribe on your listening platform of choice. Hey, guys. What was your favorite snack this summer? Black coffee. Oh. Fresh picked blueberries. Lucas, what about you? I actually picked an actual CPG product. So I picked Boom Chicka Boom, Angie's Boom Chicka Boom popcorn, which had been a big hit in my house. It's not called Boom Chicka Boom.

0:48It's called Boom Chicka Pop. Boom Chicka Pop. I don't know. I don't have it in front of me. I mean, I probably should. But yes, it's a big hit. Kids go crazy for it. And the adults love it, too. So, you know, who doesn't love popcorn? In the office, we've had the Mavericks cookies, which are very tasty. And those are a good summer snack that I could not stop eating. And I think they are all gone now. Are they the Transformers ones that they just released? They're the little lightning bolt ones. And they're the birthday cake flavor. So I was on vacation last week. And you do do a lot of blueberry and peach picking when you're on vacation with the Cladmans.

1:30But I did bring an awesome bag of Fancy Pants, Baking's, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, which were, wow, early for the season, very delicious and great for snacking. How early is too early for pumpkin spice? I think pumpkin spice is fine. I just don't need to be deluged with it in a season, right? Like, there's nothing wrong with pumpkin spice in February or July. I'd do pumpkin spice chicken, given half the chance on a grill. I'm looking forward to trying. We have the Poppin' Bottle new pumpkin spice latte, and I want to check that out. I think it's nice. Pumpkin spice is nice, and it got a bad name because, to be fair, it got a little oversaturated.

2:16I'm a pumpkin spice hater. I'm just going to say it. It's not that there's too much pumpkin spice. I just don't like pumpkin as a flavor. I don't really like pumpkin pie, so anything pumpkin spice is not not in my wheelhouse i think pumpkin is delicious yeah psl for life well monica what's your snack of the summer uh my snack this summer was huckleberry licorice that i picked up at yellowstone when i was there with my sister in july and everything there in idaho and montana and wyoming is huckleberry flavored i'm still not sure what Huckleberry is. It seems like it had kind of a like a blueberry type profile, but yeah, it's really good.

2:58What does a Huckleberry look like? Does it look like a blueberry? I think it looks like Wyatt Earp. So a sweet mustache? Yeah, yeah. It's a berry with a mustache? Yeah, because you know, you're my Huckleberry. Oh, well, on that note. So today We are talking about the biggest hits of the summer in terms of industry news and other highlights. Jeff, why don't you kick us off? This time we thought we'd do a quiz, right? So I'm going to kick it off. One of these four things is not real. Usually I'm the one asking this question, so it's kind of fun to be on the other side of it. Okay, well, are you ready, Monica?

3:50Oh, yeah. You're my huckleberry. I thought I was your huckleberry. You could have more than one huckleberry, Lucas. They grow in a bush. There's many. There's many. Brad, maybe my huckleberry next. One of these four things did not happen. There was video of an Olympic athlete being held hostage on social media by chocolate ganache muffins. There was a statue of rookie WNBA sensation Caitlin Clark crafted entirely of butter located in Ohio. Not the state she plays it, by the way. There was a gymnast posing with a Parmesan wheel. And there was a giant statue of Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelsey made entirely from Throne Sport coffee cans as a tribute from founder of Throne Coffee, Patrick Mahomes, to his favorite pair of hands.

5:07oh uh yeah that last one is not a thing i know i knew i know specifically of the other things that you named and that last one you made up kansas city on the phone here but i i mean i think it's really amazing how ingrained in sporting life food is and and it's just uh incredible that we have these sort of under-the-radar stories involving food that immediately hop over the radar, like the wheel of cheese. But wasn't there also a butter statue of Mahomes? I don't think there was one in the Ohio State Fair this year, but I haven't seen pictures of every single butter statue. I do know that there was a Butter Buckeye, the Ohio State mascot at one point.

6:02But I believe that they're all sports stars this year. So, you know, Madame Tussauds got nothing on the Butter statue. I personally loved that swimmer, the Norwegian swimmer who was obsessed with the chocolate ganache muffins at the Olympics. Yes, held hostage, though. I remember seeing something about like tied up by muffins or something. Yeah. At one point he was like he appeared like tape over his mouth, like his hands taped and the muffin at the other end of the room holding him hostage. There's a recipe out there, by the way, for the muffin, not for the swimmer. For the hostage taking muffins.

6:42Yes. Yes, yes. I'm kind of surprised that didn't result in any controversy, given how much hostage situations and athletes in foreign prisons have been in the news lately. You'd think there would be a little bit of a taste issue there. Yeah, no, it's true. But, you know, I guess butter and muffins conquer all. I guess if muffins are doing it, it sort of defangs the issue. you. Speaking of food and sports, Pop-Tart had a big year as the sponsor of the Florida Citrus Sports Pop-Tart Bowl in January. Y 'all remember that? Yeah, absolutely. The winners got that giant Pop-Tart. Pop-Tart has been having a really big year between the Pop-Tarts Bowl, the movie Unfrosted on Netflix, which we've discussed on this podcast a couple of times, and now the most recent thing the pop tart party pastry that folks in chicago could buy apparently is 73 times the size of a standard pop tart meant to feed 73 but let's face it i mean yeah that's like when they tell you that like uh bag of chips has uh six servings in it it's like that's one yeah no it's like the box of mac and cheese yeah if you can't reseal it that's one serving that's my rule yeah you can't put the jam back in the tart yeah so we're gonna need uh four uh mega pop tarts ordered to this office now i i think that's why the deal happened honestly was so that mars could get a hold of kelanova's giant pop tart capacity perhaps you know my my quiz question for you guys though and it's actually not multiple choice so it's a it's open-ended What was the original name of Pop-Tarts?

8:38Ooh. Oh. And I saw that damn movie, too. Yeah, I know. I know. Seinfeld Squares. Nope. Toaster Pastry. That's the generic name. Yeah. Yeah. Toaster Strudel. that's a different product that's the other product yes i know used to beg for toaster strudel oh they're so good brad do you have a guess nah uh totting pots i don't know fruit scones ah yeah which is strange because they're not really a scone yeah and to be fair it's not really fruit yeah scones don't have like a stuffing like a fruit jam stuffing you put jam on top. Yeah, a highly sophisticated name though. Well, Pop-Tart's definitely a big part of our zeitgeist and really just the pop culture of the past 60 years.

9:44But to your point, Jeff, Pop-Tart's also involved in the biggest deal in food and beverage in recent history with the proposed Mars acquisition of Kelanova for$35.9 billion. To put that in perspective, that's about the size of the last three biggest transactions in Food & Bev. When you look at Danone and White Wave and the PepsiCo acquisition of Quaker Oats in 2000 and General Mills buying Pillsbury in 2001. So it's a big deal, but it also brings together a number of iconic brands across confectionery and snacks. And I don't know. I mean, what do we think this is going to do for the rest of the industry?

10:33Is this the beginning of a big wave of M &A and consolidation? I don't know. I think there's, as one analyst told me that this was sort of a, hey, you take it kind of surrender deal on the part of Kelanova, that the idea was they weren't getting the kind of return out of it that they thought it could generate, so let's turn it over to someone who's really well-managed, not to say that Kelanova wasn't well-managed, but someone who might be able to find a better approach. I also think the brand combination possibilities are mouthwatering, if you could imagine M &M Pop-Tarts or Pop-Tart-filled M &Ms.

11:23There is the larger issue of consolidation. And I'm curious, I think a lot of it's going to depend on how the election goes, but we've seen the Democrats speak out more about consolidation in the beverage industry, in large part because of the rising consumer prices and the inflation of the past few years. Kamala Harris recently called out specifically the Kroger Albertsons deal by name, which is currently on pause. So it's interesting that in this period where we talk a lot about how investment and M &A is down, we are seeing a number of mega mergers. And we also just had that offer for the Circle K owner to acquire 7-Eleven, which the U.S.

12:06doesn't really even have a role in because those are international companies. Yeah. There are a lot of issues that are rolled into that. Certainly, the idea of monopolistic behavior is a concern. I don't know that the Mars-Kelanova deal is going to create a snack monopoly, whereas something like the Kroger - Albertsons deal is combining, I think, the second and fourth largest grocery chains in the country. You know, look, there are different approaches to, you know, sort of evaluating pricing in a political sense. And we know that the Biden administration has been really fired up about cost to consumer.

12:54I just think that there are two approaches to price gouging. Like one is a legal definition and one is more of a sort of implied, you know, connotative definition. I think people are really looking into things from that second lens. You know, prices are up because of supply chain issues and inflation, but also are people taking a little extra because of the opportunity to raise prices? And I think that's something that's been discussed both at the big corporate level and also at the supermarket level and at the small company level. But I also think it's just it's a red meat issue that's going to come up during a period where inflation has been a concern for a lot of people and where both sides are blaming the other for higher prices.

13:59well speaking of red meat i've got a trivia question for you all this one's also a little open-ended this is if you haven't heard brat summer as a ushered in by charlie xcx what sausage maker was the brand to capitalize on it with a bratwurst billboard in that lime green black font text of the Charlie XCX album. Tell me it was You Singers. No. And you know, here's a hint. It's plant-based. Oh. Ooh. Impossible? Nope. Field Roast? Yes, it was Field Roast. Wow. Nailed it. Those clever farmers at Field Roast. Just over a month ago, they went all in on social media and with a billboard. You can read about it in Adweek, the billboards in Toronto, featuring the Bratwurst summer.

15:04And we were saying earlier before the recording about how did brands not immediately jump on that? And Field Roast, it seems, did. So props to them for taking what is probably the most obvious marketing opportunity around a homophone. Yeah. Summer versus broad summer is, yeah, I can't believe you singers didn't come up with it. My question is a little bit pivot away from CPG food, but in the food realm. And it's looking at how we've kind of just seen the broad reach of influencer culture and celebrities in just putting their names behind food and beverage. And my question is, this is multiple choice.

15:56What food icon has been announced as the subject of an upcoming biopic? A, Guy Fieri. B, Clarence Birdseye, founder of Birdseye Frozen. C, Anthony Bourdain. Or D, Colonel Harlan David Sanders. Want to call him Saunders for some reason. Colonel Sanders. Colonel Saunders. Colonel Saunders. Anyway, the answer is C. It's Bourdain. Anthony Bourdain. Oh, yeah, that would make sense. You know, I would watch the heck out of a biopic about Guy Fieri, though. That dude fascinates me. I thought they all kind of sounded like good ones. Yeah, no, I think they are all worthy subjects, although the Clarence Birdseye one has already been done.

16:43It was called East of Eden. I think you should do just a maudlin, depressing Guy Fieri biopic, like really hammer in the dives and just at his lowest point, eating just the most disgusting burger is known to man. Yeah, what happens after he records and him spitting out all the things that he has to eat. You could have the moment where he first puts his hair in that style, twisting the little spikes, and it could just be this really slow montage. It's right after he gets that horrible moment where he gets honked at at the drive-thru. Yeah, I would do it. It's like the Joker movie with Waheed Phoenix, and it's like he's putting on the makeup for the first time.

17:29It's Guy Fieri for the first time putting on the sunglasses. Painting on the bleach into his goatee. Wait till they get a load of meat. I mean, I have to say, as much as I, as a former chef, was a big admirer of Anthony Bourdain, I don't know how I feel about a biopic with him. It kind of depresses me for some reason. I don't know if I'll be able to watch it. It's a really sad story. And so much of his identity was through his show that I don't know if we need a fictionalized version when you can just go back and watch his show if you want to learn about him and his life. His whole life is documented.

18:05He wrote books. There's everything. You have the story in front of you. Yeah, yeah. On the other hand, Guy Fieri, it's more like a behind the music than any kind of necessary movie. Behind the tragedy. Behind the grease. Behind Flavortown. But Flavortown's a place in your heart. Is Colonel Sanders brat? Ooh. Yes. He's bad for you, kind of, but delicious. I think that's brat. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Finger looking good? Brat. Thanks, guys, for all the yucks and yums. And looking forward to returning to the studio next week with more of the industry's latest news. That wraps up this edition of CPG Week by Bevna and Nosh.

19:03Thank 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.