Unpackaged Goods

Jonathan Deeter
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Investing

Keep a pulse on the people and news shaping retail, health, wellness, and consumer packaged goods.On Unpackaged Goods, Jonathan Deeter talks with the founders, operators, and investors behind consumer brands—and breaks down the industry’s latest news, deals, and trends. From the decisions that get a product onto shelves to the forces changing what consumers buy, the show connects the stories behind the brands with the business around them.For anyone building, backing, or simply curious about what’s next in consumer goods.Presented by Deet’s Eats Media, a Pickle Advisors company.

  1. 2d ago

    From Locker Rooms to Retail: NextFoods CEO Marc Seguin on Cheribundi & GoodBelly

    What does it take to turn a product trusted by athletes into a brand more consumers discover on the shelf? Jonathan Deeter sits down with Marc Seguin, CEO of NextFoods, the company behind Cheribundi and GoodBelly, to unpack the decisions behind their next stage of growth. Marc explains how Cheribundi built its sports-team business, why availability matters as much as awareness, and how NextFoods is bringing two brands together under one team. They also explore GoodBelly’s innovation pipeline, college-athlete partnerships, and building a shared vision inside a private equity-backed company. In this episode: • Taking Cheribundi from the locker room into broader retail distribution • Developing products the team actually wants to use • GoodBelly’s plans for functional beverages and postbiotics • Turning college-athlete relationships into affiliate partnerships • Building a team that believes in the business Before the interview, Jonathan breaks down the week’s consumer news, including Real Good Foods, L’Oréal, Puig, Diageo, and the latest funding and product launches. The Marc Seguin interview begins at 14:14. Unpackaged Goods covers the people and news shaping consumer health, wellness, and packaged goods—for founders, operators, and investors. Follow the show, leave a review, and subscribe to The Deeter Digest for more consumer-brand news. Hosted by Jonathan Deeter. Presented by Deet’s Eats Media.

  2. Sep 15

    Nestlé Dumps $1.2B of Vitamins + Organic Traditions on Waiting 25 Years to Raise

    Nature's Bounty is in more than one in five American households. It's the second-largest vitamin brand in the country. Nestlé just sold it, plus six sibling brands, for less than a year of their combined revenue. Two days later, a company that didn't exist two years ago raised at seven and a half times revenue. Plus: an interview with Ally Mamalider, the second-generation CEO of Organic Traditions. THIS WEEK IN CPG Nestlé sold seven mainstream vitamin brands to Yellow Wood Partners for $1 billion. They did $1.2 billion in 2025 sales, and Nestlé paid $5.75 billion for The Bountiful Company in 2021. Nature's Bounty isn't broken. It sold for less than a year of sales because it's for everybody, which increasingly means it's for nobody in particular. Medici Brands raised $250M at a $2.25 billion valuation. David launched DTC in September 2024 with one product. It's now in 35,000+ stores. Plus the two lawsuits nobody is covering. Keurig Dr Pepper is selling its Chobani stake back for $800 million while Chobani buys KDP's Allentown plant. Barilla is acquiring GOODLES and keeping the 73-person team and Jen Zeszut as CEO. Same structure Ferrero used with Purely Elizabeth two weeks ago. Plus: the Liquid Death founder makes canned sparkling wine, Wella files a $500M IPO, Campbell's cuts 13% of its workforce, and Curie is up 29% at Walmart since changing its label. INTERVIEW: ALLY MAMALIDER, ORGANIC TRADITIONS Organic Traditions started because Ally's father had undiagnosed Crohn's disease and couldn't get answers from doctors. He started traveling to India, Peru and Japan to study how those cultures had used superfoods for thousands of years. Within a year he said he looked and felt like a different person, and in 2000 he launched the brand in Toronto, building it store by store. Ally went to Expo West for the first time at eleven. She joined the business in 2017, deliberately waiting until she'd built outside perspective, because adding value inside a family company is harder than people think. We covered: Why they took zero outside money for 25 years. No friends and family round, no venture. Just bank operating lines and cash flow until this year's $10.5 million Series A. How she built an advisory board first, without dilution, to get strategic clarity before raising, and why she deliberately avoided PE and VC when she finally did. The moment on her first investor call that told her she'd found the right partner. He interrupted the pitch to say slow down, I like to get to know the person I'm potentially working with. Rebranding a 25-year-old package. The mark had barely changed since 2000, and the goal was keeping the credibility while making it legible to a new audience. Why fiber is the next protein. Everyone counts their protein and forgets fiber, and for GLP-1 users that gap causes real digestive problems. Their Fiber Flow platform is the answer, and she thinks fiber gets added to everything next. Being category captain in Canada with six feet of shelf and a challenger in the US. Plus how she's choosing which of 100 SKUs actually go to American retail. And a genuinely useful take on AI: they brought on a fractional head of AI, trained the whole team rather than siloing it in ops and finance, and use it for reporting, insights, inventory and demand planning. But not for creative. Her prediction is that people are about to get very fatigued of AI verbiage. 🥣 Subscribe to The Deeter Digest: https://deetseatsnyc.substack.com/ 🎙️ Unpackaged Goods on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6moZEYjORSb5XZ7LVu8b3f?si=6c656c85e78e487a 📸 @deetseatsnyc on Instagram/TikTok 🥒 Pickle Advisors: pickleadvisors.com #UnpackagedGoods #CPG #OrganicTraditions #Superfoods #Nestle #YellowWood #MediciBrands #DavidProtein #Chobani #Barilla #GOODLES #FounderInterview #ConsumerBrands #Fiber #GLP1

  3. Sep 4

    Vegas, Target, and a Gummy That Looks Like a Condom | Kevin Mai, UNDO

    Pre-alcohol supplements have existed for over a decade. Walk into any 7-Eleven in Tokyo or Seoul and you'll find racks of them. Nobody in Asia needs convincing. So why does nobody at your fantasy football draft take one? Kevin Mai's answer is that the category solved the problem and then packaged it wrong. Vials, shots, and jars of pills make you the buzzkill at the party. UNDO built a gummy in a foil pouch that looks like a condom, ran with "practice safe drinking," and turned the product itself into the conversation. Kevin is a co-founder of UNDO, which just closed a $1 million seed round and launched in nearly 900 Target stores. In this conversation: Why DHM works and why that was never the bottleneck. The category had a real solution and a real pain point for ten years, and adoption still didn't happen. The party mechanics. Kevin walks through what actually happens when you bring UNDO to a party: the first question, the education, the wrappers on the table, the friend who shows up late with FOMO, and the group chat the next morning. Ten customers in one night. Why the payoff loop is unusual. Most supplements ask you to trust the process for a month. You find out if UNDO worked in about ten hours. There's no placebo to hide behind. Vegas as a proving ground. UNDO launched at Encore Beach Club, sampled 5,000 people, then got into Wynn, then MGM. A six-month test across MGM's properties ended in six weeks. Retail before DTC. Kevin spent 15 years in performance marketing and built a product made to go viral on social, then accidentally went retail-first through 150 Nashville convenience stores. He explains why distribution in contextual environments worked as marketing. Saying yes to Target turned a bootstrapped company into a venture-backed one overnight. The round was 70% subscribed almost immediately, and the main criteria for the rest wasn't strategic value. It was whether the investor would bring the product to a party. Plus: what he'd say to skeptics, and how three co-founders who didn't know each other ended up building this together. 🥣 Subscribe to The Deeter Digest: https://deetseatsnyc.substack.com/ 🎙️ Unpackaged Goods on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6moZEYjORSb5XZ7LVu8b3f?si=6c656c85e78e487a 📸 @deetseatsnyc on Instagram/TikTok 🥒 Pickle Advisors: pickleadvisors.com #UnpackagedGoods #CPG #UNDO #ConsumerBrands #Target #Supplements #FounderInterview #Retail #BrandStrategy #DTC

  4. Aug 29

    The $23.8 Million Pint: Rebel Creamery Files Chapter 11

    Five weeks ago I said the Van Leeuwen trade dress ruling was the most important thing that happened in CPG that month. Rebel Creamery filed for Chapter 11 on August 14, twenty-nine days after the judgment. The filing lists $13.78 million in assets against $23.85 million in liabilities, and the judgment is essentially all of it. A packaging design decision made in 2018 ended a company in 2026. This week: Rebel Creamery files Chapter 11. Van Leeuwen never claimed the name or logo was copied. It claimed the pint. The court took Rebel's own sales figures and cut a third to separate real keto demand from copied packaging, and what was left still ended the business. Plus the customer email from 2024 that became evidence in a federal courtroom. Sazerac buys Au Vodka in a reported £500 million deal. Charlie Morgan and Jackson Quinn each clear over £100 million. Sazerac spent it three weeks after Brown-Forman's family rejected its $15 billion offer for the second time. Zevia's activist wants a sale. 41,000 doors, $161 million in sales, and a market cap just north of $100 million. Broad distribution is not a moat. It is an operating expense that happens to also be a milestone. Essity buys Kenvue's Brazilian feminine care business for $284 million. Portfolio surgery seen from the buying side. Funding: Mid-Day Squares raises $8 million in debt for Costco capacity, UNDO lands 900 Target stores after building 1,000 independents first, Lily Collins joins IM8, and A1R Water lists on Nasdaq via SPAC. Creatine becomes a line extension. Magna, Salud, and Tonic all added it in a single week. Nobody is launching creatine brands anymore. Subscribe to The Deeter Digest: https://deetseatsnyc.substack.com/ Follow @deetseatsnyc on Instagram and TikTok Pickle Advisors: pickleadvisors.com

  5. Aug 24

    Seventeen Years vs. Two: Ferrero Buys Purely Elizabeth as Unwell Shuts Down

    Two brands ended this week. Purely Elizabeth spent seventeen years building and was acquired by Ferrero. Alex Cooper's Unwell beverage line lasted less than two years and is reportedly shutting down after Halloween. Cooper has one of the biggest audiences in podcasting. Elizabeth Stein has granola. Only one of those businesses is still standing. THIS WEEK IN CPG Ferrero agreed to acquire Purely Elizabeth, the wellness breakfast brand Stein founded in 2009. Terms weren't disclosed, and Ferrero says it will preserve the brand's identity with Stein staying on. This is a Nutella conglomerate buying credibility at the modern American breakfast table, which is the one thing it couldn't manufacture internally. Unwell is reportedly shutting down. Unwell Media continues. The drinks do not. A huge audience generates a first purchase. Beverage economics have to generate the second one. Nichols bought VITHIT for £64 million. The brand proved the demand. Nichols brings Vimto's route to market, which is the second company hiding inside the first one. C&S Wholesale Grocers is taking majority control of Winn-Dixie, moving a wholesaler in front of the shelf instead of behind it. The FDA proposed replacing the self-affirmed GRAS pathway with mandatory notification, covering ingredients already on the market. This changes the evidence burden behind your formula. Carbliss made a limited release permanent after it hit fourth-highest SKU velocity in all of U.S. food at only 22% distribution. That's how limited releases are supposed to work. Scarcity wasn't the strategy, it was the measurement period. Plus: Lactalis buys Saputo's UK dairy business for £988M, Zevia's board reviews a sale, inKind raises $414M, Lifeway posts its 27th straight growth quarter, and CAVA grows revenue 31.3% on 5.3% traffic growth. THE TAKE Distribution is not demand. Neither is an audience, a celebrity partner, or a funding announcement. Reach opens the door. Proof gets you invited back. Subscribe to The Deeter Digest: https://deetseatsnyc.substack.com/ Unpackaged Goods on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6moZEYjORSb5XZ7LVu8b3f?si=6c656c85e78e487a @deetseatsnyc on Instagram/TikTok Pickle Advisors: pickleadvisors.com #UnpackagedGoods #CPG #Ferrero #PurelyElizabeth #Unwell #AlexCooper #CelebrityBrands #Nichols #VITHIT #WinnDixie #GRAS #FDA #Carbliss #Lifeway #CAVA #ConsumerBrands #FoodBusiness #BrandStrategy

  6. Aug 14

    Belle Robinson on Inventing the Functional Ice Cube + P&G Buys Thorne for $3.8B, Celsius Loses 17% on Record Revenue

    Celsius posted record revenue last week and the stock fell 17%. The reason is in the breakdown. Plus: an interview with Belle Robinson, the London nutritionist who invented the functional ice cube. THIS WEEK IN CPG P&G agreed to buy Thorne for $3.8 billion. L Catterton took it private for $680 million in 2023. And roughly a quarter of Thorne's revenue reportedly comes from creatine, an ingredient that was still being sold as gym powder two years ago. Celsius set a record and lost 17%. Revenue hit $818 million. Alani Nu supplied $364 million of it. The core Celsius brand fell 11.7%. Monster reported the same week with its flagship segment up 21.6%, which is the whole contrast. 80 Acres Farms is winding down after raising more than $350 million and supplying 18,000 retail locations. Not a demand problem wearing a startup costume. An economics problem wearing a technology costume. Kraft Heinz took $7.4 billion in impairments and a $6.4 billion operating loss, while raising guidance that still projects a full-year decline. Plus: Axum takes control of Barcode, Sargento enters the deli case, The Farmer's Dog buys Woof, Bain agrees to acquire Gong cha, and WK Kellogg pulls artificial colors a year early. INTERVIEW: BELLE ROBINSON, ROXII SUPERCUBES Belle Robinson is a London-based nutritionist who got tired of her own wellness routine. Powders, tinctures, shots, pills, cupboards bursting at the seams. She was already adding ice to her drinks because most functional powders only taste good cold. So she asked what would happen if the ice cube was the supplement. Roxii launched with four SKUs, each stacking three functional ingredients plus six grams of fiber: Hydration, Immunity, Glow, and Chill, the last one built off the viral Sleepy Girl Mocktail. All under five grams of naturally occurring sugar. The brand skipped DTC entirely. Roxii went straight to retail, testing 30 stores in the Minneapolis market before launching nationwide at Sprouts and Wegmans two months later, backed by 90 in-store demos in the first three months. We covered: Why she built for habit stacking instead of adding another step to a wellness routine Going retail-first and what you give up by skipping the DTC feedback loop Creating a category versus creating a brand, and what retailers ask when you don't fit the existing set Why frozen stopped being a stale aisle, and where functional fits in the freezer Hyper-freezing, nutrient density, and why the format is a genuine USP Building a Gen Z brand ambassador program from London What the UK gets right that the US hasn't caught up to yet 🥣 Subscribe to The Deeter Digest: https://deetseatsnyc.substack.com/ 🎙️ Unpackaged Goods on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6moZEYjORSb5XZ7LVu8b3f?si=6c656c85e78e487a 📸 @deetseatsnyc on Instagram/TikTok 🥒 Pickle Advisors: pickleadvisors.com #UnpackagedGoods #CPG #RoxySupercubes #FunctionalFood #Frozen #ProcterAndGamble #Thorne #Celsius #AlaniNu #MonsterEnergy #KraftHeinz #80AcresFarms #ConsumerBrands #FounderInterview #BrandBuilding #Wellness

  7. Aug 5

    Rachel Krupa on What Gets a Brand on the Shelf + Brown-Forman Rejects $15B, LVMH Exits Beyoncé's Whisky | Unpackaged Goods

    The growth in alcohol has left alcohol, and this week the whole industry admitted it at once. Two celebrity-linked spirits brands were sold in seven days. A whiskey family turned down $15 billion for the second time in three months. And beer companies are buying everything except beer. Plus: an interview with Rachel Krupa, founder of The Goods Mart and Krupa Consulting. THIS WEEK IN CPG Brown-Forman says no to $15 billion. Twice. The Brown family, holding the majority of Class A voting shares, called Sazerac's $32-per-share offer "not actionable." A deal would have created the second-largest drinks group in the world behind Diageo. Ownership structure is a strategy, not a cap table detail. LVMH quietly exits Beyoncé's whisky. Moët Hennessy sold its SirDavis stake back to Beyoncé, and most headlines got the direction backwards. La Lettre reported in January that Moët wanted the brand off its books. This is portfolio surgery, not an acquisition. Campari sells Cabo Wabo. Two global spirits groups walked away from celebrity-linked brands in the same week. The famous name buys trial. It does not buy reorders. The beer giants are buying everything that isn't beer. Spanish brewer Damm bought into UK soda brand Dalston's. AB InBev posted beer volumes up 1.1% and no-alcohol up 27%, with Cutwater tracking toward $1 billion. If you're building the thing people drink next, your most motivated acquirer is a brewer. Orkla spends €207 million on candy factories to keep up with BUBS demand. Third straight week we've covered a company buying its own supply chain. Plus: Align Ventures closes a $125M Fund II, Whisps' parent hires the CEO who took Dot's Pretzels from $19M to $250M, Epicutis raises $25M selling only through med spas, Vita Coco posts a 28% quarter, and Gap reissues its 1990s fragrance line at $52 a bottle. INTERVIEW: RACHEL KRUPA Rachel Krupa has spent 20 years deciding which brands people find out about. She founded Krupa Consulting in 2010, building it into one of the most influential PR agencies in food and wellness, with work spanning Thrive Market, Our Place, Purely Elizabeth, Seedlip, Khloud, and Goop's wellness vertical. Then in 2018 she did what most publicists never do: she opened a store. The Goods Mart is a better-for-you convenience store built on the bones of the gas station mini-mart she grew up loving in Michigan. Every product is hand-picked. Nothing costs more than $25. Non-GMO with no artificial flavors or colors is the baseline, and after that it comes down to taste, the founder's story, and whether it resonates with the people actually walking through the door. That makes her one of the few people in CPG who sees the entire funnel: the pitch, the press, the shelf, and the customer picking it up or putting it back. 🥣 Subscribe to The Deeter Digest: https://deetseatsnyc.substack.com/ 🎙️ Unpackaged Goods on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6moZEYjORSb5XZ7LVu8b3f?si=6c656c85e78e487a 📸 @deetseatsnyc on Instagram/TikTok 🥒 Pickle Advisors: pickleadvisors.com Follow Rachel: @rachelkrupa | The Goods Mart: @thegoodsmart | krupaconsulting.com #UnpackagedGoods #CPG #RachelKrupa #TheGoodsMart #KrupaConsulting #BrownForman #Sazerac #LVMH #SirDavis #Campari #ABInBev #Cutwater #BeverageIndustry #ConsumerBrands #FounderInterview #Retail #BrandBuilding

  8. Jul 8

    Inside the Summer Fancy Food Show: What's Coming Next in CPG + Interview with Lucille Founder Jess Haghani

    I just spent three days at the Summer Fancy Food Show at the Javits Center. Then I sat down with Jess Haghani, founder of Lucille Health, the senior nutrition brand building for a consumer most CPG brands completely ignore. Then I break down Danone spending $2.55 billion on functional nutrition in a single quarter, and three companies bidding $4 billion for Thorne. This week on Unpackaged Goods: SUMMER FANCY FOOD SHOW RECAP I walked the floor at Javits and came back with four patterns every founder and investor should be watching: → Protein is everywhere — protein soda, protein candy, protein oatmeal, protein ice cream. If your product doesn't have a protein story, you're starting the shelf conversation at a disadvantage. It's the new baseline. → Founder quality has gone up dramatically — serial founders with nine-figure exits are back for round two. The caliber entering CPG right now is higher than I've ever seen. → Packaging has leveled up across the board — the days of ugly packaging getting a pass are over. Turner Duckworth, LAND, Interact Brands. The design investment is real. → International brands are coming for U.S. retail — Korean beauty through Olive Young, French fragrance through Fascent, UK matcha through PerfectTed. They're not waiting to be found. They're coming directly. INTERVIEW: Jess Haghani, Founder & CEO of Lucille Health → Building a better-for-you nutrition company specifically for older adults → Why 20% of the population gets less than 1% of food and beverage innovation → The aha moment with her grandmother Lucille's hospital experience → From KKR to HBS to launching a senior nutrition brand → How they worked with Harvard Chan School of Public Health on formulation → Out of 10 core ingredients, Lucille only overlaps with Ensure on water and salt → Taste as the North Star — sweetness level, texture, aftertaste, chalky finish → Pull-tab straw packaging designed for accessibility — inspired by her fiancé's grandmother Mary Lou → Sales strategy: e-commerce, Amazon, senior living communities, and McKesson partnership → The vision to transform the entire adult nutrition category, not just replace Ensure → 95% of older men and 83% of older women are chronically under-hydrated — and nobody is building for them → The brand name, cursive handwriting, and flower on the logo all come from grandmother Lucille WEEKLY BREAKDOWN: → Danone acquires MADE Group for a reported $1.4B — Cocobella, Rokeby, Impressed across Australia, NZ, and Southeast Asia. Three months after buying Huel for $1.15B. That's $2.55B on functional nutrition in one quarter. → European food giants scorecard: Danone ($2.55B), Nestlé (€450M for yfood), Lactalis (Protein Works), Unilever ($1.2B for Grüns). Over $4.25B in disclosed functional nutrition acquisitions in six months. Thorne at $4B would nearly double it. → Thorne bidding war: P&G and Haleon join Unilever at $4B. Revenue pacing for $650M. Three bidders means L Catterton has leverage. Could be the largest supplement acquisition in history. → Sazerac launches three RTD brands from scratch — Endless Afternoon, Buckhorn, Lovebug. Stops just acquiring, starts building brands it owns 100%. → Bacardi takes full ownership of Teeling Irish Whiskey — nine years from minority to full control. Patient capital playbook. → Coconut Cult $12.5M for a 300,000-square-foot factory — the largest emerging brand manufacturing investment this year. Equipment financing, not equity. → Pat McAfee invests in Jams — media empire becomes a distribution channel. The Pat McAfee jams effect is already viral. → L Catterton invests in RŌZ haircare — deploying across skincare (Remedy), supplements (Thorne), athletes (CHAMP), and now haircare. → Los Sundays lands investment from NÜTRL founders (sold to AB InBev) — helping launch in Canada. → Maxine's Heavenly raises $3M — tripling revenue, acquiring manufacturing. → Fascent raises $1.5M for French fragrance in the U.S. → Myota closes $4.5M for UK gut health — supplying Joe & The Juice. → McCormick Q2 net sales up 16.7%. → k2o by sprinter: $4.3M since pivoting to beauty supplements in April. → Distribution: Stars + Honey at Target, Cuso's at 216 Sam's Club, DryWater at Vitamin Shoppe, Smearcase at Safeway, 'ndulge at five major chains day one. Every story this week is about control. Danone is buying full ownership. Bacardi is taking full control. Sazerac building brands it owns outright. Coconut Cult is building a factory that it will completely control. Minority positions are stepping stones. Full ownership is the destination. Build what you own. Own what you build. 🥣 Subscribe to The Deeter Digest: https://deetseatsnyc.substack.com/ 🎙️ Unpackaged Goods podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6moZEYjORSb5XZ7LVu8b3f?si=6c656c85e78e487a 📸 @deetseatsnyc on Instagram/TikTok 🥒 Pickle Advisors: pickleadvisors.com #CPG #ConsumerGoods #FancyFoodShow #Javits #LucilleHealth #SeniorNutrition #Danone #MADEGroup #Huel #Thorne #Unilever #PG #Haleon #Sazerac #RTD #Bacardi #Teeling #CoconutCult #PatMcAfee #Jams #LCatterton #ROZ #Protein #FunctionalNutrition #UnpackagedGoods #DeeterDigest #BuildAccordingly

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

Keep a pulse on the people and news shaping retail, health, wellness, and consumer packaged goods.On Unpackaged Goods, Jonathan Deeter talks with the founders, operators, and investors behind consumer brands—and breaks down the industry’s latest news, deals, and trends. From the decisions that get a product onto shelves to the forces changing what consumers buy, the show connects the stories behind the brands with the business around them.For anyone building, backing, or simply curious about what’s next in consumer goods.Presented by Deet’s Eats Media, a Pickle Advisors company.

Information

  • Creator
    Jonathan Deeter
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    33
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Unpackaged Goods
  • Show Website
    Unpackaged Goods