What's In-Store: October Update

Read on for September’s interesting things including Kraft Heinz’s decoupling, Whiny Baby’s acquisition, more CPG, and a podcast featuring ME (and others).

September’s Interesting Things

1. Kraft Heinz to Split - The bundling and un-bundling of CPG continues, this time with Kraft Heinz to split its groceries and sauces / spreads business. Share price is down 60% since the 2015 merger - a rare write-down for Warren Buffett. Bad timing - with the rise of Private Label, a mix of brands that’s hard to make operational efficiencies on, a cost of living crisis, and - with hindsight - brand-building spend needed to go up, not down (without sounding like a pseudo-Ross Johnson demanding my new private jet).
   
   1. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/sustainable-finance-reporting/kraft-heinz-splits-unwinding-disappointing-merger-2025-09-02/ 
2. Whiny Baby Acquired - The US Gen-Z wine brand has been acquired by Gallo just 5 years after starting. The wine aisle has often been seen as confusing to new entrants to the category (AKA young people) - Whiny Baby has been very successful at opening up the category to Gen-Z. Crucially, the founder is staying on with Gallo as an innovation consultant. And with names like “OMG!?! Fizzy Rosé” and “Obsessed Red Blend”, I feel old.
   
   1. https://vinepair.com/booze-news/gallo-acquires-whiny-baby-gen-z-wine-brand/ 
3. Tylenol PR Crisis - After President Trump described Tylenol as “not good” last week, linking it to (unsubstantiated) causes of autism, Kenvue’s share price dropped by over 10% (at the time of writing). Mark Ritson’s take in this article is a good one, and a rare thing for us - do nothing and wait for it to pass. All we know is that this is a nightmare for any brand team to wake up to on a Monday morning.
   
   1. https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/the-painkiller-vs-the-president/ 
4. Amazon Closing UK Stores - Of Amazon’s 19 UK grocery stores, five will be converted into Whole Foods stores with the other 14 closing. This marks a big shift in strategy from wanting to be the biggest in-store retailer just a few years ago, to now focusing on the space it owns best; online and delivery. Amazon’s partnerships with Morrisons, Co-op, and Iceland give it good reach here, without the overheads of store premises and its checkout-less “technology” (AKA people watching what shoppers do in-stores - an example of “AI” that really stands for “Actually Interns”).
   
   1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2xnkkn9ywo 
5. Celebrity CPG - Stiller’s Soda - Ben Stiller has put his name to a new low-sugar, low-calorie soda brand, with a can that “evokes nostalgia” - sure.
   
   1. https://www.foodandwine.com/ben-stiller-soda-launch-11814804 
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Podcast

We released a podcast last week on the future of category management and the role that planogram data plays in unlocking growth for CPGs. Check it out here. I’m on Episode 4, but we’ve also got loads of practical examples from Danone, Reckitt, Red Bull, Heineken, Tesco, and dunnhumby.

Episode 4 - https://open.spotify.com/episode/1cv5Gmc8cLRrTMZqishAeb?si=hbzZl6-fTZyYqRfmcm18PQ 

Customer First Radio (All Episodes) - https://open.spotify.com/show/3IcUHuZhcBY9Sv3gGguON5 

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Events 

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What’s In-Store - London - 16th October

We are hosting an event to tackle how shopping behaviour is changing the way we need to display products, how to land better changes in-store, and what retailers need from CPGs right now.

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We’re basically at full capacity now, but if you ask really nicely, I reckon we can squeeze a couple of extras in.

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https://www.linkedin.com/events/what-sin-store7366419133082525696/ 

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