Weekly Digest #08

22.09.2025

Welcome to The Fork’s Lens

Every week, we serve up a quick, flavourful dose of what’s cooking at the intersection of food, drink, and entrepreneurship.

Expect:

🍴 Sharp founder insights

📊 Bite-sized industry trends

🛠 Tools & tips to level up

🔥 Events & openings worth your time

For those of you building food brands, launching products, or just hungry for what’s next – this one’s for you.

Plates, Profit & Pulse

📨 Weekly #08: Plates, Profit & Pulse

🍴 What’s Up?

From UK meal-deal wars to global investments in cult beverage brands, the food & drink industry is showing how values, visibility, and velocity are shaping what’s next.

🔥 UK Moves

• JNCK Bakery enters liquidation
  The non-HFSS cookie challenger, once backed by Tesco’s incubator, has gone under despite strong health credentials and early consumer interest. Rising commodity and operational costs, combined with sluggish demand and tight retailer margins, made profitability impossible. A stark reminder that health-focused indulgences still face structural challenges in the market.
  

• FareShare & The Felix Project to merge
  Two of the UK’s largest redistribution charities are joining forces to tackle food waste and hunger at scale. The merger creates a single, more efficient organisation capable of delivering millions more meals to vulnerable communities, highlighting how consolidation can drive impact in the social sector.
  

• Honestly Tasty acquires La Fauxmagerie
  Vegan cheese brand Honestly Tasty has taken over London’s pioneering La Fauxmagerie, Europe’s first dedicated vegan cheesemonger. The deal combines product innovation, distribution know-how, and category expertise, giving the newly enlarged business scale to compete with larger plant-based dairy brands while expanding visibility in retail.
  

• Asda launches its first-ever meal deal
  At £3.50, Asda enters the highly competitive UK lunchtime space, challenging Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Boots. The move comes as households continue to trade down for value, showing the importance of meal deals for driving footfall and loyalty in supermarkets.
  

• Jamie Oliver’s Viva Foods falters
  The chef’s FMCG venture, which included frozen pizzas and ready-made sauces, has stalled due to high costs and competitive pressures. The setback underscores the difficulty of celebrity-backed ventures sustaining growth in a crowded, cost-sensitive market.
  

• Fiid appoints new CEO
  Ready-meal brand Fiid has named Julia Kessler, co-founder of Nix & Kix, as its new CEO. Kessler brings deep experience in scaling challenger brands in the better-for-you drinks space. Nix & Kix, once a fast-growing natural soft drink challenger stocked in Tesco and Sainsbury’s, entered administration in 2023. Her appointment signals a push to scale Fiid with learned insights from previous category challenges.
  

• Heinz expands with bean & pulse ready meals
  New SKUs including Chilli Black Beanz, Curry Chickpeaz, and Tomato Cannellini Beanz are being rolled out in Sainsbury’s and Ocado. The expansion highlights how heritage brands are innovating with affordable, protein-rich, and flexitarian-friendly options to meet evolving consumer preferences.
  

• New FMCG launches in UK retail

  • Mighty Slice introduces plant-based slices to Morrisons, targeting flexitarian and health-conscious shoppers.

  • Sunny & Luna and Alterego launch in Sainsbury’s, expanding functional, hybrid, and better-for-you offerings and reinforcing the trend of challenger brands entering mainstream retail.

🌍 Global Headlines

• Jerry Greenfield quits Ben & Jerry’s
  The co-founder resigned after 47 years, accusing Unilever of eroding the brand’s activist DNA. His exit underscores the ongoing tension between activist founders and corporate parents managing global portfolios.

• Arla & Mars pilot generative engine optimisation (GEO)
  Both companies are testing a platform to boost visibility on AI-powered answer engines. With consumer discovery shifting away from traditional search, this represents a potential step-change in digital shelf strategy.

• General Mills reports sales dip
  The US food giant experienced another quarter of declining sales as shoppers trade down from legacy brands to private label and challenger offerings. Inflation and changing consumer loyalty patterns continue to reshape the big-brand landscape.

• Babybel x Stranger Things launch spicy vegan cheese
  A limited-edition crossover between Babybel and Netflix’s Stranger Things highlights how heritage brands can leverage pop culture, nostalgia, and novelty to engage consumers.

• 4th & 1 Ventures invests in Liquid Death
  The growth-stage angel syndicate made a seven-figure investment in the cult water brand. The group connects athletes and entrepreneurs with consumer investment opportunities, and has also backed Drumroll, Slate Milk, Nowadays, and Jambys — reflecting a focus on culture-driven CPG.

• Keurig Dr Pepper partners with Cove Soda
  KDP will distribute prebiotic soda Cove nationwide in Canada, using its commercial engine to scale reach. With Cove positioned as a more affordable alternative to OLIPOP, speculation is already building around a potential acquisition.

💭 The Fork & The Flame

“The brands that endure aren’t just the ones with purpose or price power – they’re the ones that can scale values, visibility, and resilience all at once.”

🚨 Enjoyed This Newsletter?

👉 Sign up at forksandfounders.com to get the digest delivered to your inbox
📲 Follow us on LinkedIn → Forks & Founders

About Forks & Founders
We believe bold food brands deserve bold support. That’s why we’ve built a collective of seasoned foodies, retail rebels, creative storytellers, and numbers nerds – people who’ve been in the kitchen, the boardroom, and the shop floor. We jump in where you need us most, helping you turn big ideas into bites people can’t stop talking about. Because building a food brand isn’t just business – it’s passion, flavour, and a little bit of chaos. We’re here to make sure it’s the good kind.