Weekly Roundup: General Mills invests in Pots & Co, Plant-based NPD booms in UK

16 Apr 2021 --- This week in industry news, 301 INC, the venture capital arm of General Mills, led a multistage investment of up to US$20 million in Pots & Co, a London-based food company. Darling Ingredients’ EnviroFlight brand revealed plans for an R&D center in North Carolina, and internationally acclaimed actress Scarlett Johansson joined Snow Days, a frozen comfort food brand, as creative director. Meanwhile, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) tapped a consortium led by Cargill to improve livestock management and combat the threat of zoonotic diseases.

In brief: Business moves
General Mills’ investment into Pots & Co is supported by increased retail distribution in the US focused on the West Coast and Rocky Mountain region. Pots & Co will initially supply both its range of unique potted desserts and has longer-term plans to offer its new savory, Mezze-style dips range. The expanded retail distribution of select Pots & Co products marks a significant expansion effort in the US. This investment will also enable the business to explore manufacturing capabilities in the US and invest further into marketing and distributing the brand.

Snow Days launched in March 2021 to take all the unnatural things out of pizza bites and replace them with organic, grain-free ingredients.EnviroFlight, a wholly-owned division of Darling Ingredients, announced a new R&D and Corporate Center in Apex, North Carolina, US. This area has a strong focus on agriculture technology and agriculture research, and is considered an ideal location to meet a growing regenerative agriculture business’ needs conducting highly technical research on black soldier flies and their larvae. Groundbreaking on the new facility starts this month, and EnviroFlight expects to be in the facility in early 2022. 

Snow Days, the brand bringing a health-forward approach to frozen comfort food, announced a partnership with US actress Scarlett Johansson. In addition to becoming an investor in HumanCo, Johansson will also be joining Snow Days as creative director, bringing her insights and ideas to product development and continued brand growth. 

In brief: Plant-based NPD
Richmond, part of Kerry Foods, is expanding its frozen range with the launch of seven new frozen offerings, launching in frozen food supermarket Iceland. They cater to families looking for more varied yet accessible options at mealtimes, tapping into the growth of meals-at-home and shopper demands for easy and crowd-pleasing frozen foods. For the first time, Richmond is launching new flavor variants of its Pork Sausages in BBQ and Mexican flavors. The brand will also be expanding into new formats with Richmond Sausage Patties. 

Livekindly Collective’s plant-based products from the brands of Fry’s, Oumph! and LikeMeat are now available at almost 1,000 Iceland and The Food Warehouse stores across the UK. The portfolio expansion follows the recent announcement of Livekindly acquiring No Meat, Iceland’s vegan meat alternative brand. 

Kulmbach-based spice business RAPS is bringing more variety to the market with its new vegetarian-friendly concepts. With recipes based on pea protein, RAPS offers functionality and flavor from a single supplier and addresses manufacturers’ demands to expand their barbecue range with diverse, plant-based applications. These include meat-free versions of barbecue classics such as burger patties, coarse and fine grilled sausages, meatballs, barbecue skewers and cevapcici.

In brief: Partnerships
National Flavors, LLC, Bonnie & Don Flavours, ULC and GSB Flavor Creators have joined forces under a new name, FlavorSum. The three companies became members of the Riverside Flavor Platform in 2020. As FlavorSum, the unification expands its ability to provide the flavor solutions, expertise, responsiveness and infrastructure that growing F&B companies need to accelerate success.

In brief: Other highlightsRichmond, part of Kerry Foods, has announced an expansion of its frozen range with the launch of seven new frozen offerings.
The USAID has tapped a consortium led by Cargill and including Ausvet, Heifer International, and the International Poultry Council (IPC) to improve livestock management and combat zoonotic threat diseases to both human and animal health. The five-year, US$33 million Transformational Strategies for Farm Output Risk Mitigation (TRANSFORM) consortium will harness innovation to sustainably improve animal health, strengthen animal agriculture production systems in Asia and Africa and enhance global health security. As a farm-based initiative, TRANSFORM will prioritize efforts to decrease the risks of antimicrobial resistance and zoonoses. The group will also consider transboundary animal diseases (TADs,) such as foot-and-mouth disease and African swine fever. 

Agropur Cooperative is closing its fluid milk plant in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada to optimize its fluid milk manufacturing operations. The plant’s operations will be transferred to other Agropur fluid milk facilities in Western Canada. A total of 48 employees will be affected by the closure, planned for September 24. Given current market conditions, Agropur made a strategic decision to concentrate its fluid milk manufacturing operations for Western Canada at three other facilities, located in Burnaby and Victoria in British Columbia and Edmonton, Alberta.

CP Kelco has launched a multimedia resource spotlighting its capabilities in action. “Innovation… Powered by Nature” aims to help manufacturers in the food, beverage, home and personal care segments understand market trends and navigate a changing industry landscape through problem-solving and collaboration. Using nature-powered innovation, CP Kelco's portfolio is evolving to help meet consumer expectations – from clean label and sustainability to the plant protein megatrend and even the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Jack Daniels has partnered with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Duck River Electric Membership Corporation and Nashville-based solar power producer Silicon Ranch to provide the Tennessee whiskey maker’s Lynchburg distillery with 20 megawatts of solar energy. TVA signed a long-term power purchase agreement with Silicon Ranch to build, own and operate the solar facility just a few miles from the world-famous distillery in Moore County, Tennessee, pending environmental reviews. 

By Elizabeth Green