In May, Mr. Dee’s launched a line of Hidden Valley frozen potato sides, including Shredded Hash Browns, Southern Style Hash Browns, and Roasted Red Potatoes, under license from the Hidden Valley Food Products Company. This deal represents the latest of several in the frozen potato category, a small but growing slice of the licensed food […]
Archive | Food/Beverage
DIY Beer-Brewing
At the end of May, Whirlpool’s W Labs division introduced a home beer fermentor and dispenser system through a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. The same day, SodaStream announced the launch of its Beer Bar, which allows users to create beer at home from sparkling water and a beer concentrate. These initiatives follow the debut of […]
Still Cooking
Celebrity chefs and bakers continue to enter or expand their presence in consumer products, with several announcing new initiatives within the last year or so. Many of these have used one or more of the following tactics to separate themselves from their competitors in this already crowded arena: Ethnic focus. Maria Loi, who is a […]
Adding A Little Flavor
Consumers’ embrace of flavored alcoholic beverages brings opportunities for licensors of brands associated with fruit, sweets, or other taste treats. Flavored beers accounted for 27% of total new beer launches in 2015, according to researcher Mintel. That compares to 15% five years earlier. In addition, 20% of U.S. beer drinkers (and 39% of female beer […]
Meal Deals
The link between licensed properties and meal delivery services continues to strengthen. Three announcements in the last few months illustrate the trend: As part of a deal between the NFL Players Association and Chef’d, athletes Kyle Rudolph and Chad Greenway provided recipes for a Super Bowl-themed “Big Game Party in a Box,” consisting of an […]
Cooking with Cannabis
Celebrities have been at the forefront of licensing in the emerging consumer marijuana industry, with musicians leading the way. It is starting to look as if celebrity chefs will drive the next wave of branding activity in this sector. Recent chef-related ventures tied to cannabis and cannabis-infused edibles have taken many forms: Mindy Segal, cookbook […]
They’re Driving Us To Drink
The craft beer industry continues its upward trajectory, with sales expected to increase 22% in 2015 alone, according to just-released research from Mintel. This follows significant growth from 2009 to 2014, when the craft sector’s share of total beer volume rose 83% (to 8.5%). Beer sales overall declined 2% over the same period. The explosion […]
Of Brits and Baking
One observation from recent visits to several supermarkets in London—Sainsburys, Tesco, and Waitrose among them—is the strong role licensing plays in bakery-related categories, namely cake and cupcake kits and celebration cakes. Cake kits are pouch-packaged cake, cookie, or cupcake mixes with a value-added accessory, such as a cookie cutter or a set of cupcake cases, […]
A Lovely Bunch of Coconut Water
Coconut water is starting to show its presence in the world of licensed products, although not as fast as perhaps might be expected, given the steep rise in its popularity on grocery store shelves over the past five years or so. In 2014, Everlast licensed Cellulations LLC for a branded coconut water- and sea salt-fortified […]
Some Like It Hot
Hot sauces have long been an active area of interest for licensing, with properties from chefs to celebrities to colleges dabbling in the category. Recently, hot sauces’ availability for outbound licensing is expanding a bit as well, especially in the food and beverage category, as the brands and their licensees take advantage of an ever-growing […]