march madness 2017 biz buzz - constant contact
TRANSCRIPT
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TheConsumerBizBuzz News That Makes Teeth Whiter, Clothes Brighter, and Life Just Plain Better
TransactionNews
Some of the best players thesedays are one-and-done.
The Consumer Biz Buzz
is written and published by
Dave Hardie of
Herbert Mines Associates
Executive Search Consultants
www.herbertmines.com
© 2017 Herbert Mines Associates
212 652-0336
■ Kraft Heinz wanted to pay $143 billion forUnilever. Then they remembered they knownothing about home and personal care, sothey backed off.
■ Reckitt Benckiser is buying Mead Johnsonfor $16.6 billion. The Enfamil maker willbe their biggest acquisition ever.
■ Mars is paying $7.7 million for VCA, achain of animal hospitals and labs. As a funfact, pet is now the biggest Mars business.Yep, bigger than candy.
■ L’Oreal is paying $1.3 billion to ValeantPharmaceuticals for the CeraVe, AcneFree,and AMBI skincare brands.
■ Heineken is paying $1.1 billion for Kirin’sbeer business in Brazil. It makes them the#2 brewer in the world’s #3 beer market.
■ Coty is paying $600 million for 60% ofYounique, a seller of beauty productsthrough social media.
■ Kellogg used their Eighteen94 Capitalventure fund to invest $4 million in KuliKuli, an early stage snack maker. AndGeneral Mills used their 301 Inc. fund toinvest $6 million in Rhythm Superfoods.
■ While not a transaction, activist investorNelson Peltz and his Trian Fund bought a$3.5 billion stake in P&G. It is their biggestinvestment ever, so pressure will follow.
Private equity firms buy companies tosell companies:
■ HIG Capital is selling Ready Pac Foods toBonduelle, a French producer of cannedand frozen vegetables. The price is over$400 million.
■ Gryphon Investors sold C.B Fleet, the makerof Summer’s Eve and other personal carebrands, to Prestige Brands. The deal isvalued at $825 million.
■ Brynwood Partners sold Lightlife Foods, amaker of plant-based protein products, toMaple Leaf Foods. The price is $140 million.
■ NexPhase Capital sold Dr. Fresh, a leadingtoothbrush company, to Clayton Dubilier& Rice. They will integrate it into HighRidge Brands.
Other private equity firms started thecycle anew:
■ Riverside invested in Nustef Foods, aCanadian maker of Italian waffle cookiesand artisan crackers. Reko is their brand.
■ JMK Consumer Growth invested in Miyoko’sKitchen, an early stage maker of non-dairycheese and butter alternatives.
March Madness 2017
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■ Advent International formed Sovos Brands toacquire and build food and beverage brands.Their first deal was for Michael Angelo’sGourmet Foods, the $100 million maker offrozen Italian entrées.
■ AUA bought Love & Quiches to add it totheir Indulge Desserts platform.
■ ARX Equity Partners is buying Deva fromDanone. The Czech company makes babydesserts and drinks.
■ VMG Partners bought a minority stake inDrunk Elephant, a hot skin care business.
TransactionNews
Continued.
■ A woman sued Anheuser-Busch for usingher photo without permission in NaturalLight ads and promotional material. She isshown drinking beer while wearing a fakemustache, and apparently the photo wassubmitted through a Facebook contest.
■ Craft Brew Alliance faces a class action suitfiled in California. Allegedly we have allbeen tricked into thinking Kona Brewingbeers are from Hawaii, when in fact theyare brewed here on the mainland.
■ Coca-Cola and the American BeverageAssociation were sued by a nonprofit group.The claim is they misled consumers aboutthe health risks of sugary beverages.
Courtrooms andBureaucracy
Thank goodness the lawyers are here to protect us.
Expanding andContracting
Pretty much everyone prefers the former.
■ Hershey announced plans to cut 2,700jobs, or 15% of their total workforce. Mostwill be hourly roles outside the US.
■ After considering 20 locations, Nestlé willmove their US headquarters (and 750 jobs)from Glendale, California to Arlington,Virginia. Getting $16 million in state andcounty subsidies helped make the decision.
■ In a sad reminder of the downside ofdownsizing, Altria is investigating whetheremployees put metal pieces in cans ofsmokeless tobacco. They work at a plantthat will be closed next year.
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People News
Time to update your brackets for the upsets, sleepers, and
last-second winners.
CEOs
■ Margo Georgiadis joined Mattel as CEO.She was president of the Americas forGoogle, and earlier was at Groupon,Discover Card, and McKinsey.
■ Dave Ritterbush joined Quest Nutrition asCEO. He was at Popchips, Premier Nutrition,Red Bull, and Dreyer’s Grand.
■ Jeff Dunn joined Juicero, the maker ofcold-press juicers for home use, as CEO latelast year. He was at Bolthouse Farms, UbiquityBrands, and Coca-Cola.
■ Mikel Durham joined American Seafoods asCEO. She is on Tyson’s board and hasworked at PepsiCo, Cadbury, and Diageo.
■ Sarah Robb O’Hagan is joining FlywheelSports, the chain of spinning studios, asCEO. She was at Equinox, but we carebecause she ran Gatorade at PepsiCo.
■ Todd Lachman joined Sovos Brands, a foodplatform owned by Advent International, asCEO. He was at Mars, Del Monte, Heinz,and P&G.
■ David Colo joined SunOpta, an organicfood company, as CEO. He was atDiamond Foods.
■ Frank Carpenito is now the CEO ofBigMouth, a maker of outdoor lifestyle andnovelty products. He was at Dancing Deer,Fairfield Farm Kitchens, and UNFI.
■ Kirk Trofholz joined Nielsen-MasseyVanillas as CEO. He was at Dawn Foods,Barilla, and P&G.
■ Nick Vlahos joined Honest Company asCEO. He was at Clorox for over 20 years.
■ Lori Gonzalez joined Twin-Star, a maker ofdecorative heaters and other consumerdurables, as CEO. She was at Jarden.
A couple of moves failed to utilize ahighly-skilled executive recruiter.Or our competitors:
■ Tyson promoted Tom Hayes to CEO,up from his position as president.
■ Bacardi promoted Mahesh Madhavan,a 20-year company veteran, to CEO.He replaces the retiring Michael Dolan.
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People News
Continued.
Presidents and GMs
■ Todd Tillemans is joining Hershey aspresident of the US business. He was atUnilever for 23 years.
■ Luc Mongeau joined Weston Foods aspresident. He was at Mars for years.
■ Tim Brown is joining Chobani as presidentand COO. He started at P&G and was atNestlé for nearly 30 years, including beingthe CEO of Nestlé Waters.
■ Tim Kilpin is joining Activision as CEOof their new consumer products division.He was at Mattel and Disney.
■ Laurent Kleitman is joining Coty as presidentof the beauty business. He was at Unileverand LVMH.
■ Scott LaPorta joined Neurobrands, themakers of Neuro functional beverages, aspresident and COO. His CPG workincludes Bolthouse Farms most recently.
■ Alejandro Pena joined Keter, a maker ofresin-based garden and household products, aspresident of North America. He was at Jarden.
Other moves failed to support the vitalheadhunter sector of our economy:
■ Hershey promoted Steven Schiller to presidentof international. He was running theirbusiness in China and Asia.
■ PepsiCo promoted Seth Kaufman topresident of the North American nutritionbusiness. His successor as CMO of NorthAmerican beverages is Greg Lyons.
■ Unilever promoted Rob Candelino from VPof hair care marketing to chairman ofUnilever Thailand. He is succeeded byPiyush Jain.
■ Clorox expanded Dawn Willoughby’s COOrole to cover the entire company. Previouslyshe was focused on cleaning, international,and strategy.
■ Constellation Brands promoted BillNewlands to COO, a newly-created role.He now has responsibility for beer too, inaddition to wine and spirits.
■ Hasbro promoted John Frascotti topresident. He joined as CMO and wasmost recently president of Hasbro Brands.
■ L’Oreal promoted David Greenberg topresident of professional products. Theyalso promoted Ikdeep Singh and Tim Coolicanto brand president roles.
■ Yum Brands promoted Kevin Hochman atKFC from CMO to president. We mentionit because he was at P&G for 20 years.
■ Treehouse Foods promoted Rachel Bishopto president of snacks. She was the chiefstrategy officer.
Sales and Marketing
■ Greg Schlafer is joining J.R. Simplot, thecompany best known for foodservicepotatoes, as SVP of sales and marketing.He was at ConAgra and General Mills.
■ Janda Lukin joined Campbell Soup asVP of marketing for beverages. She wasat Mondelez.
■ Carla Hassan joined Toys “R” Us as globalCMO. She was at PepsiCo and Kellogg.
■ Linda Wells joined Revlon as chief creativeofficer. She was the editor of Allure, aCondé Nast beauty magazine.
Yada yada about promotions from within:
■ Coca-Cola named Francisco Crespo totheir new chief growth officer role. Itbrings marketing, sales, and strategyunder one person.
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Other Functions
■ Fareed Khan joined Kellogg as CFO. He wasat US Foods, United Stationers, USG, andMcKinsey.
■ David Robson joined coffee companyFarmers Bros. as CFO. He was at PIRCHmost recently.
■ James Christl joined JAFRA Cosmetics asCFO. He was at Cole Haan most recently.
■ Rahmyn Kress is joining Henkel in thenewly-created role of chief digital officer.He was at Accenture.
■ Catherine Locker joined DDB NorthAmerica as chief of staff for their 17agencies. She was at Coca-Cola.
■ Moe Alkemade is joining Treehouse Foods aschief strategy officer. He was at Walgreensand Kraft.
■ Stephen Hsu and Etienne von Kunssbergjoined Perricone. They are the new CFOand chief supply chain officer, respectively.
■ Meg Newman joined Keurig Green Mountainas chief HR officer. She was at severalretailers.
■ Marc Macdonald joined Lowe’s as SVP ofHR in Canada. His CPG work includesDAVIDsTEA and Keurig Green Mountain.
Enough with the internal moves!
■ Coca-Cola named Robert Long as chiefinnovation officer. This elevates the R&Dhead to report directly to the CEO.
■ Hormel named Mark Coffey as VP of supplychain. He was VP of affiliated businessunits, where Mark Morey succeeds him.
People News
Continued.
Board of Directors
■ Joergen Vig Knudstorp is one of three newmembers of the Starbucks board. He isLego’s executive chairman.
■ Sharon McCollam is joining Hallmark’sboard. She was the CFO of Best Buy andWilliams-Sonoma.
■ Gary Rodkin joined McCormick’s board. Heis the retired CEO of ConAgra.
■ Russell Weiner is joining the Clorox board.He is the president of Domino’s USA.
■ Benno Dorer is joining the board of VFCorp. He is the CEO of Clorox.
■ Franck Moison is joining the board of UPS.He is a vice chair at Colgate-Palmolive.
■ Debbie Carosella is joining the board ofLandec, producers of Eat Smart brandedvegetables and Breatheway packaging. Shewas most recently the CEO of MadhavaNatural Sweeteners.
Obituaries
■ Ross Johnson died at 85. He was the CEOwho initiated the 1988 auction of RJRNabisco. He lost to KKR’s bid, as chronicledin Barbarians at the Gate.
■ Brenda Barnes died at 63. She waspresident of Pepsi-Cola North America andthen the CEO of Sara Lee before sufferinga tragic stroke in 2010.
■ James May died at 80. He founded WisdomNatural Brands and its SweetLeaf sweetenerbrand. He is known as the “Father of Stevia”for bringing it to the US.
■ Lorenzo Servitje died at 98. He and fourothers founded Grupo Bimbo, which is nowthe world’s biggest bakery company.
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■ Tyson will stop using antibiotics onchickens used for Tyson brand products.The change will be complete by June.
■ Mondelez is launching Véa, a new lineof crackers and snack bars. They do notcontain artificial ingredients orGMOs.
■ Hasbro rocked our world bychanging out three Monopolygame pieces. The thimble, boot,and wheelbarrow will bereplaced by a T-Rex, rubberducky, and penguin.
■ Meanwhile, Mattel rocked ourworld by making an AmericanGirl boy. That creates a restroomissue in certain states.
■ Goodyear replaced their last blimp with asemi-rigid dirigible. But they are still calledblimps, since it’s very hard to say: “Look, it’sthe Goodyear Semi-Rigid Dirigible!”
■ Daniel Lubetzky, the CEO of Kind snackbars, will give $25 million over 10 years tocreate a group called Feed The Truth. It willfight what he calls the food industry’s undueinfluence on public health.
■ Kellogg is eliminating the DSD system forcookies and crackers, and will go throughretailer warehouses instead. The bold movewill save lots of money, but they will losedisplays (and volume) to DSD competitorslike Nabisco and Pepperidge Farm.
■ The US craft beer industry added 826breweries last year, bringing the total to5,301. Words to the wise: you can’t drinkall day if you don’t start in the morning.
Marketing & Strategy
At some point, you’ve got tojust suit up and play.
■ That’s a lot of dry powder. PitchBook saysPE firms raised nearly $270 billion last year(up 3%) but faced a slower M&A market.As a result, they have $754 billion to spend.
■ In the “Can’t Make This Up” category, TrumpWinery applied to hire 29 foreign workers.They cannot find US workers.
■ If you own a Lamborghini, check to see ifthe engine is on fire. They have recalled5,900 cars.
■ After all the CPG holidays, we worked atotal of six days this quarter. Our favoritesincluded Bubble Bath Day (1/8), CheeseLovers Day (1/20), Peanut Butter Day(1/24), Bubblegum Day (2/3), WorldNutella Day (2/5), Margarita Day (2/22),Dog Biscuit Day (2/23), Cheese DoodleDay (3/5), and International Whisky Day(3/27).
Free Thoughts
Banal and bemused bits ofbuzzer-beating banter.
January 8
February 22
March
27
March 5
February 23