Caroline Bader

Hey CPG Fam– If you know me, you know I love connecting and empowering members of this community. In that spirit, I will be regularly sharing resources and insights that other entrepreneurs have found valuable. My team and I have met with hundreds of CPG leaders to explore the benefits of equipment financing. This topic can be complex, and I've noticed many people share similar questions. Given that, I thought it would be helpful to use this forum to shed light on the ins and outs of equipment financing. I shot the video below during my weekly grocery shopping at Whole Foods Market. Walking through the aisles and seeing our clients' products on the shelves, knowing we played a part in getting them there, is always so rewarding! In this week's video, I discuss the two financing structures we offer (sale leaseback & drawdown funding) using WILDE CHIPS and Om Mushroom Superfood as examples. Check it out and let me know in the comments if you found it beneficial or if you have any other questions I can address. As always, feel free to reach out to me directly if you want to discuss your business needs one-on-one. Stay tuned for more! #CPGCommunity #ConsumerGoods #EquipmentFinancing101 #BusinessGrowth #FinanceSolutions  #IndustryInsights #WholeFoods #ClientSuccess  #FoodIndustry #RetailSuccess #FinanceTips

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I'll be at 👉 (https://lnkd.in/geS8v3aq) the NielsenIQ C360 conference in Phoenix - May 13-16 as The CPG Guys. Will you be there as a senior leader to discuss today's important #cpgindustry topics? 1.) Total store optimization in a post pandemic world? 2.) What does today's truly #omnichannel shopper journey look like? Have #retailmedia networks changed full funnel #omnichannelmarketing? 3.) Of course, all about #artificalintelligence 4.) #innovation - most large brands temporarily slowed it down over the pandemic - now its back to the mayhem. Shelf space is not unlimited - who wins, who loses and who doesn't belong on the shelf in the first place. Watch Liz Buchanan (NA, president), Jamie Clarke (NA retail), Andrew Criezis (President, #ecommerce) and so much more.

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#FMCG companies aim to divest their way to growth Divesture value has been exceeding acquisitions value for the world largest #CPG players since 2023, and it is likely to continue considering recent announcements (Unilever Ice Cream) & on-going rumors (Kraft Heinz & Oscar Mayer...) Few reasons for this: 1) Pressure is on to get back to mid-term guidance on top-line which is often hard in a post price increase context (>50% of the top 50 listed FMCG companies missed their topline guidance in Q4 2023) while recovering pre-COVID profitability (at end 2023 >70% failed to do so) 2) Divesture is often the fastest/ easiest way to improve organic growth & profitability footprint especially when companies have a large business with much lower growth, much lower profitability & that comes with limited di-synergies in case of carve-out 3) If leverage level for the top 50 FMCG companies is on average at an acceptable level (x2.7 at end 2023 vs. the generally accepted x3 level), some FMCG companies exceeds the threshold (AB InBev, Kraft Heinz, Nestlé, Mondelēz, General Mills, Danone, HEINEKEN, Asahi, CCEP...) 4) At a time top-line growth is becoming tougher, shares buy-backs are increasingly leveraged to drive EPS growth. So the proceeds of divesture can really help there especially for the companies with the most constrained B/S 5) Finally, high ROI M&A remain scarce because of the rarity of quality (mid-size, same categories than acquirer's, strong growth track record, complementary to acquirer's portfolio, scalable growth model that could benefit from GTM synergies) & well-priced assets PE funds & public markets (thru IPOs) will be most often the exit scenarios for those divestures. If large FMCG carve-out assets can sometimes deliver better results under (partial) private ownership (cf. Froneri), not all end up being a success. So caution prevails Exciting times ahead on divesture and M&A front in the FMCG industry in 2024 To read our full perspective: FMCG CEOs: M&A Q1 2024 In Review - A New Bottom & Four Reinforcing Trends 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: https://lnkd.in/efD5RNWX 𝗧𝗼 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗸, 𝗽𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗧𝗼 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀, 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝘂𝘀/ 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗙𝗠𝗖𝗚 𝗖𝗘𝗢𝘀 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿: https://lnkd.in/ea4gy65y #strategy #mergersandacquisitions Frederic Fernandez & Associates

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Great time with Elanie and Kay from the Renegade Nutrition Podcast! Their content is always so timely related to changes in the science of nutrition, it's impact on our wellness, and how we can all be better at 'biohacking'. We discussed the importance of polyphenols in the diet for longevity, data from blue zones, and Goode Health. Give it a listen (if you have an hour or listen at 1.75x speed) and follow Renegade!

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Why is this the smartest thing Walmart has ever done in Private Label? During the pandemic, Walmart experienced unparalleled growth across demographic profiles, but as inflationary pressures entered the equation the past couple of years, Walmart has experienced nearly all or in some cases their entire growth (depending on the category and dept) from High income shoppers. And, it wasn’t from just shoppers already in the box—it was from channel shifting coming from the broader retail landscape. What makes that shopper unique is their participation in Private Brands at their former retailer of choice, more upscale Private Brands at Target, Kroger, HEB, Publix etc. With that shopper now in the Walmart stores, and the fact that these inflationary pressures won’t last forever, how do you keep them? How do you elevate the Private Brand experience for that shopper group and over-deliver on what an elevate private brand can be? And, as we continue to gain knowledge on how food can be the driver of our health, how do you also provide more access to healthy, life-giving foods to all income groups and demographics? How do we address the fact that many people experience lactose intolerance and have a dietary need for non-dairy products in their everyday lives? Or, that many children and adults suffer from dairy, egg and other food allergies that require them to access foods without these ingredients? Have a family member that are lactose intolerant or a milk allergy—why should they not have access at the best possible prices to incredible, delicious, non-dairy products that address those needs? Enter Bettergoods. It addresses so many of these questions and is just getting started. This is one more reason why Walmart is for every shopper, every income group, and every demographic profile. This launch demonstrates Walmarts strategic thought leadership, being aware of what is happening with the shopper in their box, and being willing to meet the needs of these shoppers. I can’t wait to see how far this brand goes and how many people are positively impacted by it. Kudos to Denise Wright for being the visionary leader and to her team for bringing this opportunity to life for Walmart. Well done. #Walmart #PrivateLabel #BetterGoods #NonDairy #Culinary #ChannelShifting

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Did you ever think of shopping as a team sport? Our #pepviz Hispanic Shopper Insights reveal that 79% of Hispanics go shopping with someone else. This makes them twice as likely to shop with others than shoppers in general and also 77% more likely to like and engage with store displays. This is why it’s so important for us at PepsiCo to innovate products and create new campaigns to engage with all of our customers and consumers.   Learn more interesting Hispanic Shopper behaviors and findings here: https://bit.ly/pepviz-data   Kate Garner, Antonio Escalona, Esperanza Teasdale, Erin Ness Cathey, Shannon Amundson, Ryan Sexton, Aracely (Cely) Moreno-Mosier, Valeria Rivas, Monica Bauer Mengelberg

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🌎 PepsiCo is steamrolling ahead to meet their 2030 targets after reaching their water-use efficiency goal in high-risk areas a whopping two years ahead of schedule. With this achievement, PepsiCo: -has seen a 25% improvement in operational water-use efficiency in high water-risk areas -is at the top 0.5% of the 21,000 companies CDP, a global environmental non-profit, scored -has and is implementing new #bioreactor technologies at manufacturing sites in high #waterrisk sites to purify process water, allowing sites to reduce their freshwater demands by an average of 70% 🚀 Reaching sustainability targets ahead of schedule demonstrates PepsiCo's dedication to innovation and environmental responsibility, hopefully inspiring other corporations to shift their focusses towards sustainable action! #sustainability #sdgs #sustainableaction #circularity #water https://lnkd.in/gQx6hkcq

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🌎 PepsiCo is steamrolling ahead to meet their 2030 targets after reaching their water-use efficiency goal in high-risk areas a whopping two years ahead of schedule. With this achievement, PepsiCo: -has seen a 25% improvement in operational water-use efficiency in high water-risk areas -is at the top 0.5% of the 21,000 companies CDP, a global environmental non-profit, scored -has and is implementing new #bioreactor technologies at manufacturing sites in high #waterrisk sites to purify process water, allowing sites to reduce their freshwater demands by an average of 70% 🚀 Reaching sustainability targets ahead of schedule demonstrates PepsiCo's dedication to innovation and environmental responsibility, hopefully inspiring other corporations to shift their focusses towards sustainable action! #sustainability #sdgs #sustainableaction #circularity #water  https://lnkd.in/gQx6hkcq

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Why do Duopolies tend to dominate in so many aspects of modern business and what does this mean for emerging CPG? The news last week was that The Walt Disney Company and HBO are teaming up to offer a massive streaming bundle to complete with Netflix. It seems like a very predictable cycle unfolded here…After a few years of disruptive innovation, investors started to lose patience with negative EBITDA, which results in waves of consolidation until we have a De Facto Duopoly in streaming media. Nilesh Sharma wrote an interesting article on how this is common across many industries(link in comments)…there are so many examples: Coke/Pepsi, Apple/Android, and in national retail grocery distribution UNFI/KeHE is obvious. If not for antitrust regulations, these duopolies would more often than not eventually merge into monopolies until some disruptive force comes along to change the paradigm. 👉CPG brands: take a look at national market share in the subcategory you operate in. There is a good chance that it is dominated by two brands, and if not, there is at least trend toward this outcome. 👉Is your product different ENOUGH, to break this cycle? 👉Retailers, in any given metro market, who are the dominant two mainline grocery chains in your market by total share? 👉Are you differentiated ENOUGH from them to compel consumers to change their habits? We all have one thing in common as innovators: we’re trying to break the cycle and acquire market share from what tends to be the natural order of things. In order for us to disrupt, we need to think outside the box. Slightly better versions of what already exists won’t get it done. Pod Foods has been able to take so much national share in the past few years, BECAUSE it is so radically different from the inbumbent model…the same thing is true for ANY disruptive brand. I’ll be at Sweets & Snacks Expo this week and looking forward to seeing a lot of you there. What I’ll be looking for is the product that is the MOST different from the status quo and how we can reach early adopters with it. #disruptiveinnovation #Disneymaxbundle #emergingcpg #podfoods Flowspace Total Quality Logistics Green Spoon Sales Melissa Pashko Caroline Grace https://lnkd.in/d7dYis2C

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Did you know Kroger owns one of America's largest private label networks? The Kroger Private Label Team has partnered with #ECRMRangeMe to source #privatelabel capable suppliers within #Nutrition, #Supplements, #SportsNutrition, #Vitamin, & #WeightManagement. Suppliers interested in becoming part of Kroger's private label network must be capable of meeting the rigorous standards set by the Simple Truth brand, which includes avoiding over 101+ unwanted ingredients. If suppliers are interested in submitting their products for consideration, they can do so before July 9, 2024, using this link: https://lnkd.in/gFGUY9Bq Also check out, the Simple Truth Unwanted Ingredients List: https://lnkd.in/gGJuUjzW

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Great to share our insights and talk with Stacey Fowler, EVP of R&D at Schwan's Company and Suzy Monford, CEO of Food Sport International on the value conscious consumer American Frozen Food Institute and FMI- The Food Industry Association's FrozenIQ Conference earlier this week. One conclusion: nearly every US consumer is now value conscious - and while value goes well beyond price, price seeking behavior is accelerating across consumer segments. #alixpartners #fmi #affi #cpg https://lnkd.in/gyjUHnH6

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How I almost screwed up Betty Crocker - a 2 part tale of failure and redemption Many years ago (too many) I was an innovation associate at General Mills in the convenience division. That meant my job was to take our awesome brands and create new items in convenience stores. The current playbook most successful companies were using was to take well established grocery items and make them bigger - super size it baby! The convenience channel wasn’t typically one where consumers spent a lot of time browsing - the average in and out time was less than 5 minutes. That’s gotta be just small thinking right? So I launched Betty Crocker Devils Food Bites and Cookie Bars. These things tasted amazing and I committed nearly every innovation sin in the process. I say nearly because they did taste great - thanks R&D team! So where did I F up? 1. There was no frame of reference. Consumers weren’t buying these items at their grocery store so they couldn’t walk in to a c-store and say ‘wow, how cool for me to be able to get these here’ - I was relying on a consumer to discover something new in a channel that was already more $$ where they were time constrained 2. We wanted to be in the confection set because these tasted like ‘sweet rewards’ - problem is Betty wasn’t known for confection, we didn’t have any relationships to get them in there so we ended up in the warehouse set with things like Chips Ahoy. This meant we were now a fish out of water. Future me would have stopped right here when we found out it was a no go. But I was new with an MBA so why let that stop us. 3. The brand fit was off. Berry is known for accessible, easy to make, homemade treats. These were already made and seemed fancy. Not the traditional offering so even for Betty super fans it was a stretch. We even had fancy gold packaging. So… suffice to say. It didn’t work. It was short lived and I learned a lot. 1. It’s hard to break channel and category norms. If you want to break from the pack you need a lot of time, $, and a dash of luck. 2. If you can’t land in the aisle you need to, it’s going to be an uphill battle. Don’t just take distribution to get it. Not all distribution is good and the turns data for like items in the space should have stopped us from shipping out of the gates. 3. If you’re going to take a 100 year old brand and extend it to a new channel - start by doing a job it does well. And then, maybe only then, get fancy with the gold packaging. :) Stay tuned tomorrow for how I learned my lesson and made it up to Betty Crocker. But first, I can’t be alone here. What innovation sins have you made and what did you learn. Comment 👇🏽 ----- Enjoying these posts? Don't miss out! Click the 🔔 on my profile, I post every day around 7 central. And be sure to follow me for the latest and greatest. #innovation #consumerproducts #brandbuilding #brandidentity #positioning

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Every day consumers are feeling more empowered to create café-inspired coffee experiences at home. This category evolution into the “fourth wave of coffee” speaks to consumers desire for personalization, creativity, and convenience. Nestlé Coffee Partners is meeting this demand with exciting innovation in both hot and cold coffee beverages.   One of my favorites is Starbucks by Nespresso for Vertuo, which was recently recognized as a top 10 food and beverage product in Circana's 2024 New Product Pacesetters Report. The offering combines the signature café taste and quality of Starbucks coffee with the premium at-home coffee experience of Nespresso across core and regional roasts – and most recently, flavors.   Innovation is key to winning new consumers, new occasions, and building the category. As a critical focus area for Nestlé Coffee Partners, it’s exciting to get recognized for our work in the space. Congratulations to all involved; I know there’s so much more you’re working on that will empower consumers to create their perfect cup.

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This is what I have been talking about. Mondelez says consumers shifting to value retailers: TJ, Lidl, Aldi, Costco. Mondelez International executives expect inflation-weary US consumers to respond to short-term price promotions and shift to more cost-friendly retail channels as they adjust to elevated pricing across food categories. ‘Wow, I used to think this costed so much, and now it costs a lot more.’ And they start to think a lot more (about) what to do. So it’s clearly a change with the consumer in the US.” Three years ago, Mondelez had 60% to 70% of its product range selling below $3, whereas now that price point stands at $4, Van de Put said. “We are underrepresented in discounters,” Van de Put said. “It is clearly a channel where we are growing faster than the rest of the business because we’re catching up on where we are. So it helps us in the short term also to focus on these channels.” Larry Finis Ryan Gomes Lauren Anderson Holly Newberry Shawn Berg #nynjfoodguru https://lnkd.in/e5YTGgia

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In today's Taking Stock, we discuss how PepsiCo falls short on quarterly revenue as snack and beverage sales slow due to a series of price hikes and increased competition from private-label brands. PepsiCo's shares dropped 3.4% to a nine-month low of $158.03. The company now expects fiscal 2024 organic revenue to grow by about 4%, down from prior expectations of at least 4%. For more on this and other market updates, click here https://lnkd.in/dcsqmxjM #SasfinWealth2024 #TakingStock #Markets #Pepsi

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- Walmart's new premium private brand, bettergoods, targets younger, health-conscious consumers with innovative flavors, plant-based options, and dietary accommodation at affordable prices. -Early insights suggest bettergoods shoppers are more likely to be Gen Z, seek natural/organic foods, and have dietary restrictions, with significant online purchasing behavior. -Bettergoods demonstrates promising performance with high repurchase intent, perceived value, and potential for cross-category sales. This may open up opportunity for Value priced brands to partner with Retailers to help stem additional Leak to Walmart. https://lnkd.in/eTga9nTx

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