Dallas, TX – For the third year in a row, Team Kainos participated in the Cycle for Survival Dallas ride, an inspirational, fun indoor team cycling event that raises funds that are critical for rare cancer research. Riders rode for four consecutive hours alongside other members of the Dallas community with the goal of making a difference for people with rare cancers around the world. To date, Cycle for Survival has raise $236 million with 100% of every dollar directly allocated to rare cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, empowering hundreds of physicians, scientists, and research teams to find new ways to diagnose and treat cancer on a global scale. The Kainos Team rides because we believe that groundbreaking discoveries are possible through clinical trials and research studies that will ultimately find a cure.

Dallas, TX – Kainos Capital (“Kainos”), a leading food and consumer-focused private equity firm, today announced that Jeff Moredock has been promoted to Principal and Julie Sanders has been promoted to Director.

“Jeff was one of our first Vice Presidents when he joined us in 2017 and has made exceptional contributions to our investment process while also demonstrating strong leadership within our firm and with a number of our portfolio companies such as Slim Fast, Kettle Cuisine, and Olde Thompson,” said Andrew Rosen, Managing Partner. “Julie has been a valuable member of our team for several years in the areas of investor relations and business development. She has been the driving force behind our ESG initiatives, including the formation of a committee to drive ESG deeper into the portfolio. We are very proud to recognize the accomplishments of Jeff and Julie with these well-deserved promotions. Not only are they extraordinarily talented individuals, but they also are great stewards of the character and culture of our firm. They will certainly continue to play significant roles in the future growth of Kainos.”

Mr. Moredock, as a Principal, will lead the execution and management of investments and help direct oversight of portfolio companies. Prior to joining Kainos in 2017 as Vice President, Jeff was a Vice President at CenterOak Partners and an Associate at Brazos Partners. He began his career as an investment banker with Deutsche Bank’s M&A Group in New York. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School where he graduated with distinction, and a BA in economics and history, magna cum laude, from Vanderbilt University.

As a Director, Ms. Sanders will lead the firm’s investor relations activities and continue to be involved in marketing, business development, and deal sourcing efforts. She also leads the firm’s ESG initiatives and is actively involved in recruiting activities. Prior to joining Kainos in 2017, Ms. Sanders served as a member of the Consumer and Corporate Officers’ practices at Russell Reynolds Associates. Previously, Ms. Sanders served as a management accountant at Oak Hill Advisors, and she began her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in the Assurance Practice. She received a BS in business administration from Washington and Lee University, as well as a master’s in accountancy from the University of Virginia McIntire School of Commerce.

Ilana Fischer takes a beat to share why the cheese snacking category is booming, and how retailers can benefit

Fairfield, NJ – Sometimes, a snack that simultaneously nourishes and satisfies is difficult to come by. But Whisps, a line of baked pure cheese crisps created my master cheesemakers, offers just that: healthy snacking options that entices tastebuds and eases hunger pangs. As Keto continues to transform the traditional retail snacking front, how can grocers continue to compete? I spoke with Ilana Fischer, CEO of Whisps, to find out.

Ilana Fischer, CEO, Whisps

“We obsess over producing the best quality cheese to use in our snacks and turn to centuries-old methods to craft the highest-quality and best tasting cheese,” Ilana began, detailing for me what helps a product like Whisps stand out at market. “In fact, we are the only producer in the United States to use Copper Kettles in our Parmesan production—a time-honored tradition in Italy—which imbues a unique, nutty, and fruity flavor in our Parmesan.”

Produced in Wisconsin, the milk used to create Whisps is sourced from four family farms within 45 miles of the company’s cheese plant, ticking off that coveted local quality.

Made with 100 percent cheese, Whisps are Keto friendly “Our products are more nutritionally dense than many other cheese snacks currently out on the market,” Ilana informed me. “By using 100 percent cheese in every flavor, Whisps are an excellent source of calcium and protein with less than 1 gram of carbs per serving. Other cheese-flavored snacks and crackers use artificial ingredients, wheat, and fillers, which make them easier and cheaper to manufacture, but we believe sacrifices quality.”

With a twelve month shelf life—although fans would hardly let the product sit for that long—Whisps continues to outpace its competitors. As Ilana explained to me, the company has been dominating the pure cheese snack category. How then, does such a thing happen?

Produced in Wisconsin, the milk used to create Whisps is sourced from four family farms within 45 miles of the company’s cheese plant

“Our bright and easily recognizable packaging reflects our fun and delightful brand personality, which entices shoppers to grab us off the shelf for a variety of occasions‚ whether they’re looking for a healthy and delicious snack for themselves or a complement to add to their charcuterie platter,” Ilana stated. “We are cheese fanatics who believe that healthy snacks should taste great. That means that we would never expect consumers to sacrifice flavor when they buy Whisps, and we only launch products that we ourselves love and eat every day.”

As more adults turn to salty snacks when they want something to munch on, more consumers will surely be looking to the cheese snack category for an indulgent and healthful snack. With innovative new flavors from Whisps to look forward to in the near future, folks will be lining up to discover the latest in snacking.

Las Vegas, NV – Olde Thompson LLC has been awarded Winner of the Redzone Production Systems 2018-2019 Productivity Award.  Olde Thompson achieved the greatest productivity improvement of all Redzone Community Users in 2018-2019! The Olde Thompson team in partnership with The Kainos Operations Team leveraged the Redzone technology to drive this improvement, resulting in increased productivity, increased capacity, inventory reduction and improved customer service. Congratulations to everyone at Olde Thompson on a well-deserved award!

Redzone Production Systems is a technology focused on delivering continuous improvement, with the goal of improving productivity and food safety. Built specifically for food and beverage and CPG, the Redzone technology provides real time, plant wide visibility into key metrics such as OEE with integrated food safety and quality management.

Dallas, TX – Kainos Capital celebrated the retirement of Mary Wynn, who worked with the Kainos team for over 20 years.  Mary worked tirelessly to keep the Kainos team organized, with a work ethic and optimism that inspired us daily. We are grateful for her contribution to the Firm, and we wish her a long and enjoyable retirement!

Dallas, TX – Kainos Capital hosted its Fourth Annual Sales Summit and its Inaugural CFO Summit in Dallas, Texas with leaders from the Kainos portfolio companies and members of the Kainos team. The two-day summits create opportunities to share best practices and build on the outstanding network of industry leaders within the Kainos partner companies.

Subject matter experts were brought in to lead sessions on topics pertinent to each functional area.  Sales leaders discussed topics including evolving consumer trends, merchandising, performance tracking, talent optimization, and effective use of syndicated data. CFO discussion topics included cybersecurity, acquisition integration, tracking and utilization of key performance indicators, accounting standards and ESG.

Kevin Elliott, Partner at Kainos Capital, said “These knowledge share summits highlight the advantages of being a sector focused firm, bringing together executives that have a wealth of experience, expertise and relationships in the consumer space that can be leveraged across our portfolio. Additionally, these summits reinforce the benefits of transparent communication among all of Kainos’ portfolio companies.”

Steve Row, CFO of Kainos portfolio company Olde Thompson, said “Having worked in both public and private equity backed companies, I have never had access to such a relevant and valuable group of similarly situated executives as I had at the Kainos CFO Summit. The degree of interaction with partners and industry experienced executives that are subject matter experts is fairly unique in my view. The opportunities and challenges facing growing middle market food & consumer businesses tend to be fairly common. We are able to draw from the successes and learnings of other Kainos portfolio companies and find our way to solutions more efficiently than any of us could on our own.”

Lynn MA – Kettle Cuisine, a leading artisan producer of refrigerated and frozen all-natural soups, announced today that it has acquired Harry’s Fresh Foods, a privately held custom food manufacturing company based in Portland, Oregon.  The transaction strengthens Kettle Cuisine’s leadership in the fresh soup category as the only coast-to-coast fresh soup producer.

“Harry’s is a great business and a welcome addition to Kettle Cuisine,” says Liam McClennon, CEO of Kettle Cuisine. “Its strong reputation in the marketplace reflects its high caliber team members, customer relationships, and premium product portfolio, all of which fit seamlessly into Kettle’s growth strategy. Kettle remains committed to its culinary roots of artisan, clean label food while providing our customers and consumers with the highest levels of food safety, customer service and the efficiencies of scale production. Acquiring Harry’s will bring an expanded manufacturing footprint to Kettle Cuisine and further enhance our ability to deliver on that promise.”

Kettle Cuisine is a portfolio company of Kainos Capital, a private equity firm with extensive experience in the food and consumer products space.  Since Kainos acquired Kettle Cuisine in 2015, more than $300 million has been invested to acquire and integrate complementary businesses, expand cooking capacity, add high-speed filling and packaging equipment, and expand its “from-scratch” bone broth capabilities, a hallmark of the Kettle Cuisine brand in the marketplace.

Dan Hopkin, Partner at Kainos Capital, added, “When Kainos acquired Kettle, we embarked on a strategy to expand Kettle from a regional fresh soup provider to a category leader capable of serving an increasingly national customer base. The addition of Harry’s – together with prior acquisitions and investments in the areas of production capacity, product extensions, and automation – are all in line with this strategy. Kainos will continue to support additional opportunities to invest behind Kettle Cuisine’s growth strategy going forward.”

About Kettle Cuisine
Kettle Cuisine is a manufacturer of small-batch, all-natural soups, sauces, and side dishes, serving the up-and-down-the-street foodservice, national restaurant chains, and retail channels. By using the finest quality natural ingredients and classical artisan cooking techniques, Kettle Cuisine is committed to producing high quality, clean label products from scratch.  Kettle Cuisine is the first coast-to-coast fresh soup supplier in the U.S., offering both refrigerated and frozen product formats in single-serve and bulk packaging. Visit www.kettlecuisine.com for additional information.

Walmart supplier summit focused on winning at omnichannel growth

Walmart executives believe winning at omnichannel is the retail giant’s best chance for continued success. That was a central theme at Walmart’s recent Supplier Summit held in Rogers Tuesday and Wednesday (Feb. 26-27).

Several hundred suppliers attended the annual event to hear from Walmart’s top executives who overall seemed pleased with the company’s comp sales growth, while also noting there is more work to do. Talk Business & Politics received transcripts from the summit, which is the basis of this report.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon set the tone for the event thanking suppliers for their role in the retailer’s success which boasts 18 consecutive quarters for positive comp sales for Walmart U.S. and 12 consecutive quarters for Sam’s Club.

McMillon said Walmart launched 2,800 new brands last year and the company’s eCommerce sales growth rose 40%. He said rightsizing the retailer’s international footprint continues and the company has made big strides in employee education as well as sustainability with the ongoing Project Gigaton.

Part of Project Gigaton deals with shortening the supply chain and McMillon said the retailer is looking to double locally-sourced foods while also helping people save money and time. McMillon also spoke of the Walmart ecosystem which he explained as the global representation of the business.

Some of the metrics McMillion outlined for suppliers to focus on this year included stronger execution of filling orders on time and in full. He said innovation can supply Walmart great new items and they need to be more sustainable.

McMillon said suppliers need to engage with Walmart on the omnichannel experience that customers are demanding whether that be in a broader online assortment or providing accurate and timely data to enable search and drive sales.

Greg Foran, CEO of Walmart U.S., spoke pragmatically about the retailer’s challenges. He said “close” is “not good enough” today and the days of “staking high and letting merchandise fly” are over. He described the need for ambidexterity at Walmart stores saying they have to be great fulfillment centers and performance centers as consumers will shop in store, in their car and on their sofa.

Foran asked suppliers to concentrate on stepping up order fulfillment. He said in-stock levels are not even close to where they need to be and 5% out of stock at Walmart’s scale translates to 5,000 orders, which breaks trust with customers.

He explained in-stock has a ripple effect with pick-up and grocery delivery being impacted as well. Online grocery raises the bar for stores that also act as fulfillment centers, said Foran, who also said as online grocery grows the pick rate — number of items picked by personal shoppers for consumers — continues to grow. He said a store he recently visited had a pick rate of 80% or 4 out 5 items.

Foran told suppliers packaging should be designed for impact and efficiency with large fonts that are easy to read, easy to find and bar codes which also are prominent on the packaging. He added the digital content provided from suppliers also needs to be revamped up with clear specifications and accurate ratings. He said Walmart must do a better job in this area. As Walmart is stepping it up, he asked suppliers to do the same.

Steve Bratspies, chief merchandising officer at Walmart U.S, spoke briefly on the goal for precision retail and the direction Walmart is headed. He said Walmart is winning, and coming off a great year, the retailer will keep investing for the future. He said Walmart can’t win without supplier partnerships which sets them apart from competitors. He said supplier partnerships help ensure both sides reach their full potential.

“We will never slow down as we’re moving faster and more efficiently” to better serve customers wherever they are, Bratspies said.

He added omnichannel is “here and now” offering a level of convenience never seen before. Bratspies said Walmart will operate with precision as it is changing the way it thinks about delivering superior customer service and exceeding expectations. He said stores have to do things differently to become efficient fulfillment centers and the retailer will continue to adjust and align as needed. Bratspies said averages don’t work for Walmart at its large scale. He said Walmart is aiming for precision and will be identifying gaps standing in the way of its success.

Bratspies said the gears which must run in sync for precision retail include: Customer loyalty, store efficiency, supply chain, data systems and sustainability.

Bratspies also outlined Walmart’s path to precision retail success. He said the everyday low price strategy is non-negotiable as the retailer will do what it takes to win on price. He said Walmart will also deliver a broad assortment of excellent items to give shoppers ample shopping choices. Walmart will also use its scale to reset the cost structure where applicable, helping to deliver on low prices. Lastly, Walmart will continue to accelerate its omnichannel customer experience.

Walmart also gave out several awards to its suppliers at the annual event. The following suppliers received special recognition during the summit:

• Food suppliers of the year: Kettle Cuisine, Rio King, Shearer, Smithfield, and Unilever.
• Consumable suppliers of the year: Freshpet, Unilever, PG, and Slimfast.
• General Merchandise suppliers of the year: Classic Fashion, Goodyear, Bissell and Sony Playstation.
* E-commerce suppliers of the year: Coleman, Lego, PG Sterile, Lenovo and Shark.

Suppliers recognized for the biggest impact include: Niagara Water for positively impacting American jobs; Unilever for diversity and inclusion; and Fruit of the Loom for sustainability.

Dallas, TX – Kainos Capital (“Kainos”), a leading food and consumer-focused private equity firm, today announced that Jay Desai has been promoted to a Partner of the firm. Mr. Desai was previously a Managing Director of Kainos and has over 15 years of principal investing, investment banking and strategy experience in the food and consumer products sectors.

Andrew Rosen, Managing Partner of Kainos, said: “We are very proud to recognize Jay’s accomplishments with this well-deserved promotion.  Since re-joining the Kainos team three years ago, Jay has significantly improved our business development efforts and is a valued voice within our organization.  We continue to invest in our human capital at Kainos and are actively developing our transaction and operations talent.”

“Re-joining the Kainos team has been a wonderful experience and I enjoy working with this strong, diverse team to bolster our relationships with intermediaries, executives and companies within the broader food and consumer industry. It’s an exciting time to be at Kainos,” added Mr. Desai.

Mr. Desai joined Kainos in 2016 to lead the firm’s business development efforts. Prior to joining Kainos, Mr. Desai was senior vice president of strategy at CROSSMARK, a leading sales and marketing services company focused on the consumer industry. He was previously a director in the mergers & acquisitions department at Deutsche Bank Securities where he concentrated on consumer opportunities, and also managed the acquisition function for Global Brands Acquisition Corporation, a consumer/retail-focused SPAC.  Mr. Desai began his career at Merrill Lynch before joining Andrew Rosen and other members of the Kainos team at Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst as an investment associate from 2005 to 2008.

Dallas, TX – Kainos Capital (“Kainos”), a leading food and consumer- focused private equity firm, today announced that it has agreed to sell its portfolio company SlimFast to Glanbia plc in a transaction valued at $350 million. Thetransaction also includes SlimFast’s sister company, HNS.

Headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, SlimFast is a leading provider of nutritional products, including clinically proven weight management and health and wellness products. The brand today enjoys 98% consumer awareness with a broad offering of meal replacement beverages and snacks. Kainos acquired SlimFast from Unilever in 2014.

Andrew Rosen, Managing Partner of Kainos, said, “Our acquisition of SlimFast came with no employees or systems. Behind the leadership of CEO Chris Tisi, who we partnered with when we invested in his company HNS in 2014, we quickly built a 60- plus person team in the US and the UK. This team, combined with our own internal resources, did a great job revitalizing what was an orphan brand within a large multinational company. SlimFast is positioned to continue its great success as a part of Glanbia.”

Bob Sperry, a Partner of Kainos, said, “Chris led our very talented team in the development of a comprehensive game plan for restoring SlimFast to its former success. This included redesigning the packaging across the product range and leveraging the great clinical studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of its products. We also relaunched advertising campaigns that resonated with our consumers and supported innovative new product platforms. The result was a dramatic turnaround in the sales trajectory such that for the last three years SlimFast was the fastest-growing brand in the weight management category in the US and the largest brand in the UK”

Chris Tisi, CEO of SlimFast, said, “It was very important for us to work with our retail partners to reclaim the SlimFast heritage, which is providing effective solutions for real people who desire to lose weight or live a healthy lifestyle. By partnering with Kainos, my team and I had the resources and support to dramatically increase our consumer base and offer a variety of innovative, great-tasting and effective products, including high-protein SlimFast Advanced, SlimFast Advanced Energy with caffeine, and our most recent Keto product offering.”

Completion of the transaction is expected before the end of the year.

Harris Williams and Sawaya Partners served as financial advisors to SlimFast, and Winston & Strawn served as legal counsel.

Combined Company to Operate as Kettle Cuisine and All Existing Trade Brands to Continue

Kettle Cuisine Acquires Frozen Soup Business of NORPAC Foods Inc.

Dallas, TX – Kainos Capital today announced the combination of three of its portfolio companies – Kettle Cuisine, Bonewerks Culinarte, and Savory Creations – into one business, which will operate as Kettle Cuisine. In addition, Kettle Cuisine has acquired the frozen soup business of NORPAC Foods Inc., an Oregon- based farmer-owned cooperative.

Kettle Cuisine will maintain the Bonewerks, Savory Creations, and Soup Supreme trade brands in the marketplace. The company is headquartered in Lynn, MA, with an expanded manufacturing footprint that includes four production sites across the United States: Lynn, MA, Morgan Hill, CA, Union City, CA and Green Bay, WI.

Daniel Hopkin, a partner at Kainos Capital said, “The newly expanded Kettle Cuisine platform is positioned to serve an exciting intersection of consumer preferences for convenient, fresh food. At the same time, the combined company will even better meet operator needs for a supplier partner that can provide collaborative, chef-driven product development, redundant scale manufacturing, and the commitment to food safety and culinary principles that are the foundation of our brands.”

Liam McClennon, CEO of Kettle Cuisine, said, “For more than three decades, Kettle has stood for artisan-quality clean label soups, sauces, and side dishes serving a growing customer base across the retail and foodservice channels. The addition of Bonewerks and Savory Creations to the portfolio, as well as the NORPAC soup business, adds several outstanding brands that share these core principles. We are proud to expand our product offering to include sous vide entrees, demi-glace, broths, and other specialty sauces, enabling us to bring more comprehensive meal solutions to our customers.”

Mr. McClennon continued, “As a result of our growth over the years, we are fortunate to be able to hire many new team members, provide promotional opportunities to our employees, and share our increased confidence that Kettle Cuisine is a great place to build a career. We are pleased to now welcome the Bonewerks and Savory Creations team members to Kettle Cuisine and for them to share in our exciting future.”

Since acquiring Kettle Cuisine in 2015, Kainos Capital has supported the growth of the business through a combination of add-on acquisitions and capital investment. Over the past three years, more than $250 million has been invested to acquire and integrate complementary businesses, expand kettle cooking capacity, add high-speed filling and packaging equipment, and expand its “from-scratch” bone broth capabilities, a hallmark of the Kettle Cuisine brand in the marketplace.

About Kettle Cuisine
Kettle Cuisine is a manufacturer of small-batch, all-natural soups, sauces, and side dishes, serving the up-and-down-the-street foodservice, national restaurant chain, and retail channels. By using the finest quality natural ingredients and classical artisan cooking techniques, Kettle Cuisine is committed to producing high quality, clean label products from scratch. With four facilities in Lynn, MA, Morgan Hill, CA, Green Bay, WI, and Union City, CA, Kettle Cuisine is the first coast-to-coast fresh soup supplier in the U.S. Kettle Cuisine offers both refrigerated and frozen product formats in single-serve and bulk packaging. For more information, visit www.kettlecuisine.com.