Weekly Digest #09

29.09.2025

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.

Scale, Stiller’s & Soda

📨 Weekly #09: Scale, Stiller’s & Soda

🍴 What’s Up?

From microbial fats to bold beverage plays and plant-based protein moves, the food & drink space is still racing forward. But new tech, regulatory pressure, and consumer tightening demand resilience, not just novelty.

🔥 UK Moves

• This & Omami launch chickpea tofu
  Plant-based startup This has teamed up with Germany’s Omami to roll out a Burmese-style chickpea tofu to UK supermarkets, launching in Sainsbury’s and Ocado at ~£2.95 / 200g.

• Clean Food Group acquires 1M-L fermentation capacity to scale microbial oil
  UK-based Clean Food Group has bought a 1 million liter fermentation facility in Liverpool to accelerate scale.

• Lost Sheep Coffee launches espresso concentrate
  Kent-based Lost Sheep Coffee has entered the RTD/at-home hybrid space with a new espresso concentrate line, designed for convenience-focused coffee drinkers.

• Amazon shutters Amazon Fresh in UK
  Amazon is closing all 19 of its Fresh stores in Britain, pulling back from physical retail. Instead, it will double down on online grocery delivery (including same-day perishables) and lean on partnerships with Morrisons, Co-op, Iceland, and rapid delivery players.

• Major recall: gluten in biscuits
  Several Les Florentins chocolate biscuits sold via T.K. Maxx and Homesense have been recalled due to undeclared gluten, a sharp reminder of the reputational and regulatory risks tied to allergen compliance.

• Pip & Nut becomes UK’s best-selling nut butter
  The challenger brand has overtaken Sun-Pat and Meridian, claiming the category crown. With snack bars already 20% of its mix, Pip & Nut is targeting 30–40% by 2026 as it diversifies into adjacent snacking.

🌍 Global Moves & Scale Plays

• Heineken to acquire FIFCO for $3.2B
  Heineken is buying Costa Rica’s Florida Ice & Farm Company (FIFCO), including PepsiCo bottling rights and 300+ retail outlets across Central America.

• Tito’s buys stake in Lalo Tequila
  Tito’s Vodka has acquired a majority stake in Lalo Tequila, pushing deeper into premium spirits.

• Kraft Heinz to split into two companies
  The CPG giant is breaking into two entities: one focused on condiments and ingredients, the other on grocery staples.

• Nestlé reviews vitamin portfolio
  Reports suggest Nestlé has tapped Morgan Stanley for a strategic review of its vitamins unit. Value and non-core brands like Nature’s Bounty, Osteo Bi-Flex, and Puritan’s Pride could be divested as Nestlé doubles down on premium categories like women’s health.

• Mondelez commits to natural dyes
  The maker of Oreos, Sour Patch Kids, and Milka will phase out synthetic coloring in favor of natural alternatives, aligning with consumer health sentiment and tightening regulations worldwide.

• Carbone Fine Food hits $100M
  The premium Italian sauce brand will surpass $100M in sales this year with 18 SKUs across 27,000 U.S. doors. CEO Eric Skae previously built Rao’s into a powerhouse, making Carbone’s trajectory feel familiar—but faster.

🍹 Challenger Brands & The Celeb Effect

• Ben Stiller debuts soda brand “Stiller’s”
  Actor-director Ben Stiller has launched a low-sugar soda line, aiming to balance nostalgia with better-for-you positioning.

• Charlie Sheen x Harpoon launch Wild AF Brewing
  Sheen is entering the non-alc beer category with Harpoon Brewery. The new brand Wild AF Brewing taps into celebrity-backed sober-curious plays while leveraging Harpoon’s brewing credibility.

• Grüns launches Immün gummies
  Functional brand Grüns has introduced Immün, a line of immunity-support gummies packing 1000mg vitamin C, elderberry, zinc, turmeric, and ginger root.

📊 Market Pulse

• Keurig Dr Pepper’s CSD decline
  KDP’s carbonated soft drink volume dropped 1.6% in the four weeks ending Sept 6. Yet, low & no-calorie volumes grew 5.6%. With prebiotic sodas like Cove and OLIPOP gaining traction, the numbers sharpen speculation of a possible acquisition to plug the innovation gap.

💭 The Fork & The Flame

“In food & drink, innovation without scale is a beautiful prototype. Scale without differentiation is a fading brand. The rare power lies in bridging both – building something that’s distinct and replicable.”

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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.