CPG Brain

  With its recent and indeed ongoing acquisition spree, expansion into adjacent markets and recent name change, Tilray Brands are clearly looking to ascend to a dominant player in the legalized weed market as it looks to become the P&G of hemp. However, with recent Acquistion of distilleries and craft beer operations, it signals the cannabis producer ambition to become a major player in the CPG industry writ large.   With its statement $4bn merger of now former rival Aphria, Tilray made a clear beeline to become a dominate force in the legalized cannabis market and in one fell swoop became the biggest cannabis producer Iin the world according to global footprint   Along with that acquisition, Tilray sought to change its name from Tilray to the not so original Tilray brands. You might not think there’s much in name but for companies the name is everything. Most of the time, companies change name to either to signal a new direction of the company or to (more often...

  Our last article on the Anglo Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever spoke to the rising costs of ethical ambition through its subsidiary Ben and Jerry’s decision exit the occupied territories and pain in the neck you know what storm that followed. However, the costs of Unilever’s ethical ambitions are nothing compared to the costs the company are going to incur pivoting away from food to consumer health.   While Unilever ambition to move towards consumer health make sense and may prove to be shrewd decision down the line, the speed the company is moving is concerning both investors and more importantly rating shops. Unilever proposes to make this pivot through selling its food brands and using the proceeds to acquire consumer health assets which is all well and good but we, investors and ratings shops find it hard to believe they can make this pivot without taking on a lot of debt. Fitch came and publicly warned Unilever that its aggressive consumer health throu...

As writers, were not fans of old cliches (bad for the brand, so to speak) but the old well-worn phrase "the road to hell is paved with good intentions" seems apt when Anglo Dutch consumer packaged goods giant Unilever draws the ire of investors, senators and a head of state over its ethical ambitions and an ill-advised M&A decision made 20 years ago could cost the company billions and even their ability to fund their business.   M&A is hard at the best of time as the pitfalls are many (just ask  at&t  and AOL) but that  ill-fated (read stupid) to keep uber ethical ice cream maker Ben and Jerry's board largely independent during its 326m deal has come back to burn Unilever is so many ways it has the company spinning its wheels on how get out predicament caused by Ben and Jerry's decision to stop selling ice cream in the occupied Palestinian territories has put the company in a tough position to say the least.     Ben and Jerry's have been a good ...

  To be fair, all companies on planet look to get the most out of  their  suppliers in the way of price reductions but we’ve never seen a companies this good at squeezing concessions out of  it 'suppliers  at scale.   Whether it’s gouging suppliers with strict guidelines or announcing “modernization” projects that suppliers through price concessions and distribution fees, Walmart are scarily efficient at beating their suppliers like no other retailer on earth. We would argue that the Bentonville based retailer would have really stiff competition from Seattle based e-commerce giant and sworn enemy Amazon if they had to deal with sellers on its platform directly but Amazon finds its own special way to squeeze efficiencies wherever they can find it (more on that another time).   However, Walmart stands alone in its control over suppliers as it quite simply can externalize costs to its suppliers as suppliers simply cannot afford to avoid doing busines...