Brands of kombucha, a fermented, sweetened black or green tea, have been increasingly active as partners for collaboration, with a focus on limited-edition products, over the past three years. A pairing of the River Cottage cooking brand and Equinox Kombucha, announced in July, is one of the most recent examples. Alliances to date have featured […]
Archive | Food/Beverage
Piece of Cake
By Karen Raugust on June 1, 2020 in Celebrity, Food/Beverage, House and home, International, Licensing
U.K.-based celebrity chefs, cooking show presenters, and especially bakers have been at the center of a number of licensing, collaboration, and representation deals, and/or new products or promotions, over the past few weeks: Jane Devonshire, a past MasterChef winner who is known for her gluten-free cooking and cookbooks, retained Start Licensing as her agent for […]
Meal Kits: Reprieve or Turnaround?
Meal kits represent one consumer product segment that has benefitted from the stay-at-home orders in place during the last two months in the U.S. (and longer in some other regions) to stop the spread of COVID-19. Research has shown that this sector appeals to consumers, especially younger adults, at least in theory. Prior to the […]
Taking Cereal in a New Direction
Since about 2018, cereal companies have been frequently forging inbound licensing deals or other forms of partnership with marketers of sweet snacks, from candy to cookies to ice cream. The result has been a proliferation of breakfast foods such as Nestlé Drumstick cereal from General Mills, Peeps cereal from Kellogg’s, and Hostess Twinkies cereal from […]
Considering Keto
The ketogenic (keto) diet has been gaining traction for several years. But, until fairly recently, prepared foods and beverages billed as keto-friendly have mostly been the purview of specialty marketers, especially in the health food and natural products space. A key trend late last year and in 2020 has been the entry of more general-market […]
Where’s the Beef?
Plant-based meat alternatives that serve as substitutes for hamburgers or chicken have hit the mainstream in a big way in the last month or two, with the Impossible and Beyond brands being at the forefront. These are plant-based alternatives to meat, which emulate the taste and feel of the real thing, as opposed to the […]
Sugar Rush
About a year ago, we wrote about sweet snacks making their way into the cereal category. That trend has intensified since then, with a long list of candy, ice cream, and cookie brands being licensed for breakfast cereals: General Mills debuted Nestlé Drumstick and Honey Maid S’More cereals, as well as Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Crème […]
Are Beignets The New Donut?
Donuts have had a strong presence in licensing and pop culture over the past few years. Owners of licensed properties have partnered for limited-edition flavors at donut chains, donut shops have extended their brands into other products, and donuts have been prominent design elements in fashion, stationery, and the like. Lately, however, it has begun […]
Latin Flavor
Last week MegaMex Foods, a joint venture between Herdez del Fuerte of Mexico and Hormel of the U.S., licensed its Herdez brand to Utz Quality Foods. Utz—which has distributed MegaMex Foods including Chi-Chi’s tortilla chips and Chi-Chi’s and Herdez salsas and dips since 2018—will now produce and market Herdez-branded white, yellow, and blue tortilla chips […]
Full of Beans
Three deals announced in the space of one week last month provide a handy illustration of the ways coffee-related brands have become active players in all types of licensing and collaboration: Brand extension. Costa Coffee, the U.K.-headquartered chain, became the latest example of coffee and coffee shop brands entering adjacent categories, especially ready-to-drink coffees. In […]