Unpackaged Goods

Spilling the real stories behind CPG brands. Host Jonathan Deeter unpacks founder journeys, industry news, and what it really takes to build consumer brands. Presented by Deet's Eats Media, a Pickle Advisors company.

Unpackaged Goods is a business podcast hosted by Jonathan Deeter, with 33 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Jonathan Deeter hosts Unpackaged Goods, a business show with 33 episodes published.

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  Unpackaged Goods

  Graza Hires Lazard, Costco Goes Kirkland on Electrolytes + The Founder Making Sparkling Bone Broth (Marro)

  Sep 30, 202649 min

  This week in CPG: Graza hires Lazard to explore a sale, Costco launches a Kirkland electrolyte, and the Whole Foods LEAP class is announced. Then Nick Foreste, founder of Marrō, on making the first cold, canned, sparkling bone broth. IN THE NEWS (every story is in The Deeter Digest) - Graza hires Lazard and is reportedly seeking up to $600M - Costco turns electrolytes into a Kirkland product, and what it means for the brand behind them - Hoplark and The Outset: when fame and being early don't hold - Brands moving toward brand: Before, Something & Nothing, Ember - Deals, funding and launches, including Whole Foods' LEAP program, which picked 10 brands from 2,000+ applicants - The hot take: commodity vs. brand THE INTERVIEW: NICK FORESTE, MARRŌ Nick Foreste, founder of Marrō, on what a sparkling bone broth is, going from a leg injury to a 100-mile race to a beverage company, and the skull on the can. He also covers using AI in the business, the retail path from Expo West to real grocery, and why most beverage brands last under two years. Follow Marrō: drinkmarro.com CHAPTERS 0:00 Welcome + housekeeping 2:44 Graza hires Lazard 5:24 Costco turns electrolytes into a Kirkland product 7:55 When the brand doesn't hold: Hoplark + The Outset 9:48 Brands moving toward brand: Before, Something & Nothing, Ember 12:37 Deals: Crosta Mollica, Sazerac, Roja 14:26 Funding: Bird&Be, Tiny Health, quick hits 16:24 Launches + Whole Foods LEAP 18:36 Data + distribution: Milo's, Lemme, ALDI, Final Boss Sour 19:51 The hot take: commodity vs. brand 22:53 Interview with Nick Foreste, founder of Marrō 23:11 What is Marrō? The first bone broth made to be sipped cold 25:18 From a leg injury to a 100-mile race 27:34 Diet, family + fatherhood 28:58 The attorney who became a beverage founder 30:30 Falling into CPG 32:05 Meet Randy Bandana, the skull on the can 33:42 How Marrō uses AI 36:48 Who is on the team 39:09 Year one: learn the customer before pressing the gas 41:39 Retail: from Expo West to real grocery 43:27 Is it sparkling protein or sparkling bone broth? 45:26 Where Marrō belongs on the shelf 47:18 The odds for beverage brands 48:52 The mission: the next apple cider vinegar 49:49 Where to find Marrō 50:39 Sign-off Subscribe to The Deeter Digest (every Monday): https://deetseatsnyc.substack.com/ ️ Unpackaged Goods on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6moZEYjORSb5XZ7LVu8b3f?si=6c656c85e78e487a Follow @deetseatsnyc on Instagram, TikTok and X Pickle Advisors: pickleadvisors.com If you like the show, leave a review on Apple or Spotify. #UnpackagedGoods #CPG #Marro #BoneBroth #FounderInterview #Graza #Costco #Kirkland #ConsumerBrands #BrandStrategy

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  Unpackaged Goods

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

  Sep 23, 202652 min

  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.

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  Unpackaged Goods

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

  Sep 15, 202641 min

  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

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  Unpackaged Goods

  The $23.8 Million Pint: Rebel Creamery Files Chapter 11

  Aug 29, 202618 min

  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

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  Unpackaged Goods

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

  Aug 24, 202618 min

  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

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