Reporting

Does Size Matter? A Look at CPGs’ Largest Warehouses

By Shefali Kapadia About 60 miles west of Chicago, bricks are being laid for a 775,000-square-foot building. That facility, in 2025, will be home to a Kraft Heinz distribution center. The maker of Lunchables and Mac & Cheese deemed the facility “one of the largest automated CPG distribution centers in North America,” when it announced its $400 million investment to construct the warehouse.… Read more
3 CPGs That Bucked Widespread Volume Declines

By Shefali Kapadia Grocery baskets are looking a little emptier these days. The majority of large food and beverage CPGs reported volume declines as they shared their latest quarterly financial results. Volume sales were down 2% YOY in mid-July across food and beverage, and average basket units were down 4.3% YOY, according to a Circana… Read more
Hershey’s Work Model: Deep Work Mondays and Pizza Wednesdays

By Shefali Kapadia HERSHEY, Pa. — On a Thursday at Hershey’s headquarters these days, the building is neither empty nor full. A group filters into a small conference room for an in-person meeting and fills every chair. A bank of cubicles on the upper floor sits largely vacant, and the handful of employees sitting there speak to… Read more
A Look at PepsiCo’s Journey Inside Web3 and the Metaverse

By Shefali Kapadia CHICAGO — One morning in 2007, Kelly Ripa and Regis Philbin were hosting their TV show on ABC, discussing the debut of the iPhone. Talking on the phone through an iPod? “Ridiculous,” was Philbin’s conclusion. That bit was comedic then, and it still is now, but for a different reason. The TV… Read more
Costco, BJ’s Are ‘Winning With Consumers.’ Is That Also a Win for CPGs?

By Shefali Kapadia A hallmark of every Costco location — aside from food court hot dogs — is the club retailer’s immense grocery section. Multipacks of tortilla chips, jumbo boxes of cereal and big stacks of flavored water line the aisles. In today’s economy, the grocery section at club retailers has become even more popular due to… Read more
What’s Next in Mondelez’s M&A Spree? 5 Possibilities

By S.L. Fuller, Shefali Kapadia Word on the street is Mondelēz International has cash to burn, and it might be looking to burn it on M&A. But which CPG would be the Oreo maker’s main target? Axios reported — after observing an investor conference in Florida — that Hostess Brands “stands out as an attractive… Read more