Top 10: Blue Buffalo, Superior Cake and Impossible Burgers - SmartBrief

All Articles Food Top 10: Blue Buffalo, Superior Cake and Impossible Burgers

Top 10: Blue Buffalo, Superior Cake and Impossible Burgers

Blue Buffalo's integration into General Mills was this week's most-clicked food-and-beverage story.

3 min read

Food

Top 10: Blue Buffalo, Superior Cake and Impossible Burgers

(Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images

The most-read consumer packaged food story this week wasn’t about people food but dog food. The tale of Blue Buffalo’s acquisition by and integration into General Mills topped the Top 10 list, with perspective from Billy Bishop. His family built Blue Buffalo and after the acquisition, Bishop signed on as the head of General Mills’ new pet food division.

Other CPG brands also made news this week, including Sara Lee which is paying  Hostess Brands $65 million for Superior Cake Products, and Coca-Cola which has a plan to expand Topo Chico, the sparkling water brand it acquired two years ago, without losing the cool factor that has made the brand a cult favorite.

Whole Foods Market’s plan to install in-store party shops in partnership with Packed Party proved popular with readers this week. The shops will include a wide range of party goods made from recyclable materials. In other retail news, online grocer Thrive Market is working to pull back on promotional pricing and focus more on cultivating customer loyalty.

In restaurant news, The Cheesecake Factory detailed plans for Fox Restaurant Concepts, the Phoenix-based multi-brand operator it’s in the process of acquiring. Cheesecake Factory will take the North Italia chain under its wing with plans for faster expansion, and look to FRC to cultivate new concepts. And Impossible Foods, which until now has only sold its plant-based Impossible Burgers at restaurants, will launch them in grocery stores starting in September.

Read the entire Top 10:

  1. A look at Blue Buffalo’s transition to General Mills
  2. Sara Lee buys Superior Cake Products from Hostess for $65M
  3. Whole Foods to add party shops in US stores
  4. Cheesecake Factory outlines plans for Fox Restaurant Concepts
  5. Coca-Cola aims to grow Topo Chico without losing its local vibe
  6. Zombie Skittles to hit shelves for Halloween
  7. Impossible Burger to hit grocery shelves in Sept.
  8. Grilled cheeses delicious plain or with dipping sauces
  9. Building a horizontal salad gives more control
  10. Thrive Market shifts focus away from one-time promotions

Related stories:

Interested in aligning your brand alongside the hot topics of the year? Check out what SmartBrief’s Food & Travel editors have identified as trending content topics for 2019 (download).

_____________________________________

If you enjoyed this article, sign up for Restaurant Smartbrief to get news like this in your inbox, or check out all of SmartBrief’s food and travel newsletters as we offer more than 30 newsletters covering the food and travel industries from restaurants, food retail and food manufacturing to business travel, the airline and hotel industries and gaming.