What's In-Store: April
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Hello, and welcome to our April newsletter.
This month: a €1bn acquisition, a rumoured €30bn mega-merger, a reality check on ChatGPT commerce, and protein pizza.
We also feature a longer read on the retail trends of 2026 to look out for from leaders across the industry.
We’re also building up to our event, VST “What’s In-Store” hosted in Manchester, UK on 23rd April. You can sign up below.
As always, hit reply - we’d love to hear what category challenges you’re navigating.
March’s Interesting Things
- Huel Acquired by Danone for €1bn - In a significant win for UK entrepreneurship and CPGs globally, Danone acquired Huel - the meal supplement. This is a big bet by Danone predicated on 2 elements - GLP-1s affecting consumer needs for simple nutrition, and the need for D2C capabilities. Couple this with Danone’s global reach, this could be a huge win for both parties. It’s also a great signal of grit and hustle for a category creator, with limited capital raised (something close to our hearts at VST) and just a wholly impressive, efficient CPG business started from the ground up.
- Walmart’s Sparky / ChatGPT - In this month’s reality check of Silicon Valley’s push for “everything belongs in ChatGPT”, Walmart has ended its trial of offering 200,000 products through the “Instant Checkout” function in ChatGPT. The Instant Checkout function converted shoppers to buy at ⅓ of the rate of click-out transactions. Trust is an issue here, and maybe we don’t all want to live entirely in ChatGPT (yet).
- PROTEIN NEWS - Pizza - Whilst shoppers look to up their protein game, Yough, a new protein-rich pizza, has announced a significant funding round. Featuring the first frozen pizza dough made with greek yogurt. A unanimous agreement with the VST offices of 100% “will try”.
- Unilever Food Business Sale - There’s a mega-merger on the horizon as Unilever looks to sell its Food Business, with McCormick looking the likely buyer for ~€30bn (or 30 Huels, if you will). This makes sense, allowing focus and splitting growth versus profit-driving categories with different supply chain needs and capex. Will be interested to see where this lands - I don’t expect McCormick to be the only bidder.
- GLP-1s and Chocolate - For anyone who claimed GLP-1s may be destroying the “less healthy” categories in-store, Lindt released a study with Circana to show that GLP-1 users are trading up to buy more premium products along the “less is more” philosophy we’ve also seen in other categories. Given most GLP-1 users stop using within the first year, it will be interesting to see if this premiumisation is a lasting habit (something tells me it won’t).
VST “What’s In-Store” Event - Manchester, UK - 23rd April
We’ve announced our lineup for our next “What’s In-Store” event at The People’s History Museum in Manchester, UK on 23rd April.
We’ll be featuring case studies from Müller, Weetabix, and Co-op, and making this a practical display of how to make category management work between brands and retailers in 2026.
We’ll even be letting my co-founder / CTO / work-husband tell us all about the state of AI and what we can expect this year.
If you’re working on range reviews, planogram decisions, or trying to work out how AI actually fits into category management and insights, this event is for you.
For the full lineup and to sign up, click below.
What Does Your Category Look Like On-Shelf?
Most planogram decisions are still being made on gut feel and outdated and limited assortment data. VST's planogram and shelf test data lets you see exactly how your category performs in the real world and make the case for change with evidence, not opinion.
If you're heading into a range review, or just tired of guessing, we'd love to show you what we're seeing in your category. Book some time in and we can show what the data tells us for your category.
Retail in 2026: The Practical Shifts Leaders Say Matter Most
We asked a group of senior leaders across grocery retail one big question: what is the biggest, most meaningful shift happening in retail this year, and why does it matter?
Featuring inputs from Jimmy Corbett (Head of Trading, Food to Go & Meals, Co-op), Rebecca Oliver-Mooney (Strategy & Insight Director, Hip Pop), Dr Brian Harris (IntentAI), Lucy Howe (Co-Founder, The Growth Factors), Mike Freeman (Category Manager, Nestle), Serena Smith (Head of Category On-Trade, Heineken), here are their perspectives, shared in their own words. We’re very grateful for each contributor for sharing their perspective.
At VST, we’re always interested in (and trying to stay ahead of) the latest trends in shopper behaviour, category management, and technology. As you’ll see, the perspective from these leaders in the retail insights, data, and technology industries here cover a lot of disparate subjects.
From health trends, to AI-adoption, to online shopping and analytical skills, there’s a lot that we need to be mindful of in 2026.
What brings these perspectives together is that we need to move to a broader, more deliberate, insight-led decision making across the whole organisation (be that retailer, brand, or technology provider).
If any of these themes resonate with challenges you’re facing, or if you see the landscape differently, we’d like to hear all about it. At VST, we’re always looking to connect with people who are looking forwards in the retail industry.
And if there’s a category challenge on your mind that didn’t make this newsletter, please hit reply. I read everything!
