M&A Isn't Slowing. It's Getting More Focused.

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0:51Mike Schneider:Hello, friends, and thanks for tuning into Taste Radio, the number one podcast for anyone building a business in food or beverage. I'm Ray Lateef, the editor and producer of Taste Radio, and I'm with my co-hosts John Craven, Melissa Travers, and Mike Schneider. In this episode, we break down two of the latest CPG acquisitions making headlines, explore how brands are building awareness from stadium concessions to grocery store shelves, and share our product picks of the week, including indulgent twists on coconut water, granola globally inspired dips and non-alcoholic cocktails the city is new york the date is april 16th the event is can't miss taste radio's nyc meetup is coming up fast and i mean less than two weeks away from 5 to 7 30 p.m at the offices of engine in times square networking live podcast interviews, libations, and light bites.

1:55Mike Schneider:It's your opportunity to meet with your colleagues, your peers from across the food and beverage industry. Founders, investors, experienced operators, consultants, and of course, some of the best service and supplier partners in the industry will be at the event. A huge thanks to our partners for the meetup, Vibrant Ingredients, Belay Solutions, Anchin, Next Foods, which is the maker of Cherubundi and Goodbelly, and of course, Corner Market Communications. We are thrilled to be partnering with these companies. They are the best in the business. Now we want the best of you. Register for the event at tasteready.com slash meetups.

2:34Mike Schneider:Only registered attendees of the event will be allowed to join. So sign up today. It's free. It's going to be a blast. It's free. Did I mention that? How many times have we mentioned this? Nothing that's free anymore. Nothing that's free. I mean, it's also, have you seen Wolf of Wall Street? Yes. I mean, April 16th at like a CPA office. It kind of has to be like. It's got to be party time. It's got to be like that. I mean, no offense, Hanson. But, I mean, they got to blow off some steam, right? That's some energy. Extensions aside, yes. It's going to be a big day for them. The day after tax? Yeah, get your taxes done and get your butts to New York City to hang with us.

3:14Mike Schneider:Time to party. I would not be surprised if bottles are popping like the kids say, right? They say that. Yeah. I think they do. Yeah, they do. Where's Jackie? Oh, Jackie. Jackie would be like, they don't say that, Ray. In Thailand. We can just call her now. Yeah, let's phone a friend. Yeah. Somehow I don't think she's going to pick up. I don't know. She's Jackie. We're going to have to try it one of these times. She'll think you're in jail and you need her to get her out. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Maybe we want to save that call. Get you out. I wonder who would be my first call if I were to go to jail.

3:44Mike Schneider:Jackie wouldn't be a good one. She wouldn't be a bad one. I'm going to go with Adam Stern. Adam Stern. I'm going to go with Mr. Stern, yeah. Adam Stern might be. Because you in jail, I'm picturing you did some real, real shady stuff at some, like, I don't know, some bar. Like, bought everyone a steak dinner and then just ditched out the back door kind of thing. It's possible. And Adam would, I truly believe this, he would put up his Volvo, his treasured Volvo, for sale or auction to pay for my bail. Guy, you know I love you. Yes. Let's turn. And that's what happened. Guy. Guy. It's in the shop, though, Guy.

4:18Yeah. My Volvo's in the shop.

4:20Mike Schneider:I told Adam to come to the NYC meetup, but I think he's... Prior engagement, yeah. Prior engagement. He's planning to be sick that day. Oh, geez. Well, we do already have a lot of people signed up in limited space. Yes. So don't delay. Do not delay. Can it be sold out if it's free? It can be at capacity. Yes, capacity. So once people get there... Show up on time. Show up on time. Get there. Hang out with us. We're looking forward to seeing you. Absolutely. Yeah, definitely register. Tasteradio.com slash meetups. I want to reiterate that you do need to be a registered attendee to join us. Certainly, this is not the first time we've talked about the meetups on the podcast.

4:59Mike Schneider:It probably won't be the last time we talk about the NYC meetup on this podcast. And it won't be the last time. I'm almost positive about this. We talk about acquisitions in CPG in 2026. Would be weird if it were the last time. It would really be weird. It'd be bad for the industry, probably. Yes. Where would it be going on? Yeah. Well, last week it was Huel, Monaco Cocktails, and Dirty Shirley that were all acquired. In the past few days, two more companies were bought. So Good, So You, which is a maker of organic wellness shots and energy drinks. And Hop Water, the brand of hop-infused sparkling drinks, which was purchased by Constellation Brands.

5:37Mike Schneider:a beer and spirits giant that, like many others, is exploring opportunities to reach new consumers via non-alcoholic beverages. Let's start with hop water. It's spelled H-O-P-W-T-R. And the O is actually a drop of a water with a hop inside. I don't think anyone needs to use vowels anymore. They just want to avoid vowels in any form. You know, I don't know. I think brands that have no vowels try to do that. It doesn't usually work out that great. But when you have one vowel... At least. Yeah. It's okay. Like hop water, mud water. Like, yeah, it's cool. For sure. You just got to have one. Yeah. They were probably playing Wheel of Fortune in the beginning.

6:14They didn't have a lot of money, so they could only buy one vowel.

6:16Mike Schneider:Well, a lot of people are buying hop water. A lot of people are buying hop infused drinks. This is six years. This acquisition was announced six years after the launch of hop water. Founded in 2020 by Jordan Bass and Nick Toronto, both LA-based entrepreneurs. zero calorie non-alcoholic sparkling water is infused with hops, adaptogens, and nootropics. Constellation made their initial investment in hop water in 2021 through its venture division. And I think it's paid off for both companies. I'm not surprised by this deal. And I'm really excited for the category, at least a segment of hop infused drinks.

6:51Mike Schneider:And you know, they may be drinking it alongside alcoholic beverages, zebra striping, as it were. You know, the bottom of their can, the bottom of Hopwater's can actually kind of looks like zebra stripes. Oh, God, I almost dropped my laptop. If only... Better than you dropping a Hopwater on your laptop. Good Lord. It's a sudden suggestion. Yeah. Well, John, you drink a lot of hot water, don't you? I mean, I've gone through stretches. Yeah. And, you know, again, I think this is, I feel like a broken record here, but it's another one of those product types that when it came out it was like man this is kind of a dumb idea this is gonna go nowhere and you know here we are it seems like a pretty damn genius idea some of that again is just the timing of when you start out and when these ideas come out and obviously there were a few other brands that got into this category hoplark obviously obviously one of our new bear would show down yeah it It started before Hopwater did, but really to some extent what no one maybe knew at the time was just the trajectory, the negative trajectory for beer and alcohol.

8:01So I don't know. You know, it seems like at this point, almost hard to believe that it's only been six years. I mean, probably feels like an eternity to the guys working on it. But man, that's, you know, that's pretty fast. Yeah. And it does seem like a product that to some extent I would say is really just getting started. It's just a product that continuously improved over time too. The first iterations were good. And then it just got so close to being a beer replacement. The way that it's flavored, the way that it's hopped, you could close your eyes and swear you were drinking a beer. And for a lot of these products now, particularly hop water.

8:39And I think that's what makes it just so attractive. Like, oh, I can have a zero calorie full flavor beer. Yeah, I'm in.

8:46Mike Schneider:Yeah, the bitterness of the hops really does make you feel like you're having a substitute for alcohol versus a spin drift or something like that. And that's something I always look for in an alcohol alternative, something that makes you feel like you're having something adult. Definitely. And I don't necessarily know if this is a one-to-one replacement. I don't think consumers look at this as a one-to-one replacement for beer in general terms. I think Mike and Melissa, you've had that experience. But what's great about hop water is that it feels like an adult beverage, right? an adult non-alcoholic beverage that you can have at any time of the day.

9:17Mike Schneider:If you don't want something sweet, if you don't want a soft drink, this is a real good viable option. And I think one that has been incorporated into people's drinking occasions throughout the day, a product like this and hop waters in general hadn't been on the map, you know, until what, seven, eight years ago. And so now if somebody wants a carbonated drink, that's not a sparkling water, not a soda, they have this other option. And I think more and more people, especially for lunch or, you know, that afternoon occasion, they say, well, I don't want something sweet and I don't really want like this flavored sparkling water.

9:52Mike Schneider:This is another option. But also, you know, there's a lot of great non-alc products out there right now in the beer space. So you've got, you know, everything from Lucky Saint to Athletic, of course, and anything in between. And, you know, we've tried so many of those. And this is, it's interesting because before the hop waters came out, there wasn't like a super low calorie beer replacement. And then these come out and it punches like a beer. And so like, it fills this new opportunity space that now we have it and we can have all the options. And it's great. Like you want full flavor, you want, you know, you want those calories, you have it, but if you want just something crushable that tastes like a beer, you can have that too.

10:37Mike Schneider:That's an excellent point, Mike, because hop water is zero calorie, it's zero sugar, it's zero carbs. And some non-alcoholic beers obviously have calories and have a few carbs as well. So this is definitely an option for folks who are looking to avoid, looking to go zero across the board. So yeah, it remains to be seen if we're going to have additional interest among strategics when it comes to hop waters and hop beverages. Who knows? I mean, this might be the exception to the rule in this case. I think maybe it's just really working well for this particular brand and Constellation just got on board really early on.

11:11Mike Schneider:But I do think it is a little bit of a proof point for what people want out of their everyday drinks. And again, avoiding the sugar and the calories that you see in so many other beverages. Innovation, again, it's just one simple thing. The idea of hop water was pretty easy to understand. And the biggest innovation is, all right, look, full flavor, no calories. Yeah. Now, So Good, So You, which I mentioned, once again, is a maker of wellness shots and most recently, organic energy drinks. It's a Minnesota-based company founded by Rita Katona and Eric Hall. They founded the company in 2014 and a private investment group called Banks, the Banks Group, B-A-N-S-K.

11:58Mike Schneider:Am I pronouncing that right? Banks? Sure. Banks? I don't know. I don't pronounce it. I don't think it's Banks, but Bansk. Bansk? Bansk. I'm sorry. Bansk. Bansk Group. It's better if it's called Banks. Yeah, it'd make more sense. Yes. The Banks Group. Banks. I'm never going to get that right. No. They acquired SoGoodSoYou last week, or at least announced the acquisition last week. So Good, So You, has been a quiet category leader, or at least a category anchor in this set of wellness shots. Obviously, you have brands like Vive Organic, Suja with their wellness shots, Core. I mean, there's a bunch of brands.

12:35Mike Schneider:Of course, Salty. How could I forget Salty? You couldn't. Yes. And I was actually really surprised. I mean, I knew they were doing well. But according to the article written by Martin Caballero, the managing editor of BevNet, the brand, so good so you that is, showed sales in excess of$90 million for the trailing 52-week period ending on March 13th. That's according to data compiled by Sir Kana. I knew they were doing well. I just didn't know they were doing that well. And it just goes to show the power of sort of head down, really focusing on what you do and doing it well. And congratulations to Rita and Eric.

13:13Mike Schneider:They've done just an amazing job with that company. I've always been a huge fan. I put this on LinkedIn. I've always loved their shots. What's also interesting and differentiated about these products is their package. The wellness shots in particular, they almost look like that little medicine bottle where they have that wide closure and a plastic bottle. I think it's two ounces, but it's very clear that this is a different product and a different brand than the other ones out there. This is pretty high praise because I feel like your product depth is unmatched, but your juice love is... Strong.

13:46Your love of juice is ridiculously strong. Well, look, I mean, I think it was interesting times in that cold-pressed juice craze of, I don't know, the 2014 timeframe frame where you had a bunch of brands that tried to be real flashy, tried to do brick and mortar, tried to raise boatloads of money. And these guys kind of took a different path, right? I mean, cold press juice from Minnesota. It's not like all the other brands that were mostly like SoCal or New York City based. And they obviously just, as you pointed out, were kind of heads down doing their thing. It probably was a brand that, you know, when that news posted about it being acquired, like I bet there's plenty of people out there who looked at it and they're like, I kind of know that brand, but it's not, again, it's not like this flashy thing that was ever like out there chest pounding or whatever.

14:43So it's kind of cool when you see brands like that, that have just managed to find like this white space or niche that they obviously have done pretty well with.

14:52Mike Schneider:I always think of them as being really intentional and strategic in a few different ways, certainly with distribution strategy. You know, it doesn't always have to be about Erwan and Sprouts and Whole Foods. And I remember talking to their team about skew rationalization, which is something that they focused on really heavily, and they were really careful to make sure that they were going with the skews that were selling and doing well, innovating, and then, you know, maintaining the skews that were doing well from there and so on and so on. And that's really how you build a business. Oh, I love killing products so much.

15:24Like when they don't work, it's great to just be like, okay, see you later. Focus on the products that are good. Continue to double down on that and then figure out what you can do next. But you can't make all the products. So that's just, that's really good business.

15:36Mike Schneider:And it can be hard to do as a founder and an entrepreneur, but when you... Especially if it's your favorite. Yeah, I know. I know. I know. But if it's not everybody else's favorite, then it's got to go. Also, I mean, SoGoodSoYou makes solve their own products. They have a manufacturing facility that, according to the article written by Martine, is powered by 100 % renewable energy. I think that certainly has been an advantage for them in being able to innovate quickly and get product to their retail partners in a really efficient way. I don't know this for sure, so don't quote me on this. And I'm not saying this as a fact whatsoever, but it would seem that So Good So You also supplies Trader Joe's with the wellness shots that they sell in their stores because they use the exact same package type for those wellness shots.

16:28Mike Schneider:And if that is true, if that is the case, that money is not included, that revenue is not included in the$90 million that I referenced. So that is another huge chunk money that they're generating every year. So once again, just really, really tons of praise and admiration for So Good So You. Congrats again to Rita and Eric. Now, today is the day that we published one of my favorite interviews that came at Expo West. I mean, I really loved all of them. This one kind of threw me for a loop, which is why it was one of my favorites. It was an interview with Paul Reese and Michael Meadows. They are the 20-something founders of a brand called Protein Pints.

17:10Mike Schneider:Protein Pints, as you might guess, is a maker of high-protein ice cream. And that brand has done incredibly well just over the past year. They went from 14 stores last year, 14, to over 10 ,000 stores right now. And they're predicting that by the end of the year, they'll be in 12 ,000 stores. You know what the initial investment in this company was? $7 ,000. $7 ,000? Not too shabby. $7 ,000. And one of the most poignant moments or parts of the interview was when Paul and Michael talked about the amount of time that went into preparing for this brand and preparing for the launch. They did all the leg work, all the homework that they could possibly do to make sure that they were as buttoned up as possible when they went to market.

18:01Mike Schneider:And I think it's helped them quite a bit. Michael, in particular, learned about the dairy business. He learned about the ice cream business. It was clear throughout the interview that that has been a strategic advantage for them, that that has given them a leg up on being able to create new flavors, to understand texture, to understand costs in a way that I think most founders may not. And again, these guys are in their mid-20s. They're really ambitious, but they're really focused on being as deeply involved in the business in all aspects as possible. Of course, as they reiterated this point many times, it's the people.

18:40Mike Schneider:And they've been able to recruit really experienced, intelligent people to help them grow. So I hope I haven't given away the entire interview because it's a really good one. Please listen to it today or when you can this week. And Protein Pines was in the news again this week. They didn't tell me this, So I'm a little miffed about this, but yeah, they're partnering with the San Diego Padres in our own backyard, the WCB, our West Coast branch. Yeah. So they're partnering with, this was an article in NOSH. They're partnering with the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. They are going to be selling their protein pines in the concession program over there.

19:21Mike Schneider:And, you know, I thought this made so much sense for them, especially because they are in so many retailers. They're in Target, Kroger, Ralph's, Sprouts, Albertsons. And I think a partnership like this especially makes sense when consumers can then leave the game and then go into their favorite retailer and see it right on the shelf. I think it's a marketing play, obviously, as much as it is a selling product play. But it's a great venue to reach consumers. Everyone's there together, sharing the experience, eating together in the stands and things like that aren't as common as they used to be.

20:00Mike Schneider:People are a little bit more isolated than they used to be. And being together in a shared experience and having sort of an emotional attachment to the food, I think, is a really great way to build brand loyalty. Of course, it's difficult as well because there's limited space. So it's, you know, really hard to get in. It has to be about driving velocity elsewhere. wear. But yeah, I think it's a great play for them. I have questions about the brand though. You should listen to the interview. I can't wait to hear the interview. It's all in the interview. Protein pints though. Yes. Could it have been a beer?

20:33Could you mistake it for a beer if someone's talking about protein pints? And then also at concession, if you order protein pints, are you expecting to get a pint? Is it a cup, protein pints? What if you get a cone of protein pints? Is there a whole pint in your home? Can I get a helmet Sunday? That's what I really want. Yeah, on Sunday.

20:53Mike Schneider:Anyway, I mean, this all is important for brands to get the awareness is clearly what we're trying to point out here. It's just where are they going to get the biggest bang for their buck? Where is it going to make most sense to really stand out and make sure that people see your brand, know your name? Because we've talked about this a million times and you recently talked about this on the Non-Base podcast, how difficult it is to stand out in that frozen aisle where every single time you have to open a door to actually get to the brands and the products. So I was talking to Shireen Kara from Hey Hunger.

21:25Mike Schneider:She makes those amazing veggie patties. I'm not a vegetarian, but I would eat them all day long. So good. And Asha Abulisha from Mason Dixie. I did a non-based podcast with them called Frozen Warriors because you really do have to be a warrior to live in that category and succeed in that category. I mean, they were talking about all of the challenges, things that I wouldn't have even thought of, like Asha was talking about how now there are these energy saving lights in the frozen aisle that turn off when the customer leaves, like just little things like they turn the lights off in the frozen aisle, never mind things melting on the loading dock and all that stuff.

22:01Mike Schneider:Keep them in the dark. Keep them in the dark. But yeah, Asha was giving Shireen some really amazing tips and information, things like how to build a distribution strategy that minimizes your risk, figuring out how to take your niche audience, figure out where else they're shopping and use that to map out where you're going next, polling consumers so you know exactly what to call out on your packaging. Because, I mean, this is obviously true for everywhere in grocery, but in Frozen, you probably have half a second to call out, if they can even see through the frosted glass. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, there's some really, really fantastic information that Asha shared, and certainly helpful for Frozen brands.

22:41Mike Schneider:But no matter what your brand is, there are some really great learnings there. I will say this. I would listen to or watch any piece of content with Asha. And Shireen is also incredible. But Asha in particular, with her experience in the industry, the directness, the transparency, the knowledge, the insights that she always shares. The breakfast burritos. The breakfast burritos. She just always brings it. And she is always trying to pay it forward. Always. And Melissa is such a great storyteller, too. So you just painted it as those going into the freezer house like an annaarctic expedition get me out of here my biggest uh challenge with asha is trying to pull clips because there are so many good ones yeah like everything she says it's a three-hour clip it's a great clip yeah a three-hour soundbite it's true when i've done podcast interviews with her before and i'm like okay great quote great quote and i end up with like 25 great quotes i'm like okay what do i do for social media here but yeah i would definitely listen to that podcast twice.

23:36Mike Schneider:The answer is twice. Two weeks of social media. There you go. Duh. Yeah, absolutely.