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BFD Expert Voices - Retail Deals

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💰 Situational awareness: Temasek is in talks to buy a minority stake in Indian snack maker Haldiram Snack, valuing the company at about $11 billion, Bloomberg reports.



Simulate, parent of the plant-based meat alternative brand Nuggs, is being acquired by Ahimsa Companies, the company tells Axios exclusively.

Why it matters: Meat-alternative startups are facing consolidation amid unrealistic growth expectations, consumer resistance, and too much investment and competition.

Zoom in: Simulate, which also developed a technology that can imitate meat by spinning protein into fibers, needed a well-capitalized backer to get back on track, CEO Sam Terris says.

The company, which raised $57 million, found a buyer instead of trying to raise more money, he says.

The deal was a combination of cash and equity, Terris adds. Ahimsa CEO Matthew Tullman declined to disclose Simulate's valuation. 

What's next: Ahimsa has two larger deals in its pipeline, one of which will be announced next month, Tullman says.

The company plans to execute a roll-up strategy, with prospective targets including startups in precision fermentation, cultivated meat, traditional extruded pea protein, non-dairy alternatives, or plant-based foods, he says.

Ahimas purchased a 50,000-square-foot facility in Ohio for producing plant-based meat, he says.

What they're saying: "There's been a lot of cash deployed to develop great products, brands and technology, but not under the right economic conditions to thrive," Tullman tells Axios.

"To carry forth the plant-based movement, consolidation is really required," Tullman adds.

Catch up quick: Ahimsa was formed earlier this year and has made one acquisition, U.K.-based Wicked Kitchen.

It's a maker of plant-based convenience foods that raised at least $34 million.

The intrigue: Tullman declined to disclose Ahimsa's financial backers, though he did say his company is affiliated with the Ahimsa Foundation.

The foundation, which is headed by Satish Karandikar, is an investor, but the two have no operational overlap, he says.

Note that the Ahimsa Foundation led a round of financing that served as a lifeline to Eat Just, parent of Just Egg and Good Meat.

Reality check: While Terris says he remains hopeful about "a plant-forward future," he notes the space doesn't map well with a venture-backed timeline, 

The big picture: "It is impossible to conceive of a future (in which) we can feed seven-to-10 billion humans on an animal-based diet," Tullman says.

Meat-alternative brand Nuggs sells 

Two box packages of Nuggs-branded, plant-based chicken alternative products.

Seven & i Holdings (Tokyo: 3382), the owner of 7-Eleven, is weighing a sale of shares in its supermarket unit ahead of listing the business, according to Reuters.

Why it's the BFD: The Japanese convenience store giant is under activist pressure to improve earnings, and seems to be throwing its Slurpies against the wall to see what sticks.

The supermarket news comes one day after a report that Seven & i may seek buyers for part of its banking business, and all of this comes after it rejected a takeover approach from Circle-K owner Alimentation Couche-Tard.

The bottom line: "The supermarket business includes the Ito-Yokado chain, one of Japan's best-known grocery store businesses ... Selling down some of its stake would allow Seven & i to bring in a partner that could accelerate its overhaul of the unit [and] free up its resources to better focus on its core convenience store unit." — Ritsuko Shimizu, Reuters

Seven & i weighs stake sale of supermarket

Photo: Miguel Candela/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

🧻 Kimberly-Clark is mulling strategic options, including a partial or full sale, for its international tissue unit as it focuses on more profitable areas,  Bloomberg reports, citing sources familiar.

The deal could value the company, which sells Kleenex tissues, Scottex paper towels and Andres toilet paper, at $4 billion.

Kimberly-Clark restructured its organization in March, bringing its overseas consumer tissue and professional tissue business together under a new division.

🥑 PepsiCo (Nasdaq: PEP)  agreed to buy Austin, Texas-based tortilla-chip maker Siete Foods for $1.2 billion, shoring up PepsiCo's snacking portfolio.

The Eva Longoria-backed company had raised over $90 million from firms like Stripes, AF Ventures, Bee Cave Capital, and Chaucer Global. 

PepsiCo's snacking brands like Lay's, Doritos and Cheetos have faced more competition with affordable private-label brands, which has weighed on its snacking business.

👜 Mulberry (LSE: MUL), the British handbag maker, rejected an £83 million takeover offer from Frasers Group (LSE: FRAS).

Frasers today said it would buy about 4 million shares in Mulberry at 100 pence apiece, increasing its stake between 36.9% and 37.3% from 36.8%.

Frasers still has until Oct. 28 to make a formal takeover offer or walk away.

🗣️ Shein, the online fashion retailer, is planning to start early, informal meetings with investors ahead of its potential IPO in London, per Reuters, citing sources familiar.

The Singapore-based company is waiting for regulatory approval from China and the U.K. to go ahead with the listing.

The roadshow will be primarily in Europe and will gauge large investor's interest in the company.

Retail therapy

an illustration of a hand in a meditative pose holding four orange shopping bags

 An aerial view of the Dundalk Marine Terminal October 03, 2024 in Baltimore, Maryland. Dockworkers with the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) at 36 major ports on the East Coast and Gulf region walked off the job earlier this week, kicking off the first nationwide strike by the ILA sin

Dundalk Marine Terminal in Baltimore yesterday. Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

After just three days, striking workers at docks all over the eastern U.S. agreed to suspend their strike until January.

The alliance representing ports agreed to a wage increase to help end the work stoppage, under pressure from the White House.

💬 Our thought bubble: The strike had threatened to cause enough economic damage to impact the presidential election, Axios' Dan Primack writes. 

Instead, it may be the next president's problem.

🪧 Dock strike ends, for now

It was a packed week the past week. Here's what you might've missed.

Monday, Sept. 30: Dog fencing startup Halo Collar to reach profitability this year and Mike Ashley's Frasers Group makes a bid for Mulberry. Read the newsletter.

Air purifier maker Airinum in talks with potential partners

Circular clothing startup Alternew to raise $2M pre-seed

Working capital provider Settle buys inventory management startup Turbine

Conversation AI platform Redbird to fundraise next year

Inventory tracking startup Augmodo raises $5.3M seed

Visual AI startup Vizit raises $25M Series B

MarqVision, an AI startup that targets counterfeit goods, raises $16M

Better Earth acquires recycling software provider Betterbin

Catch up quick

Want more retail deals? Go deeper into our full database in the Axios Pro Deals Tracker.

• Dexory, a London warehouse inventory automation and data startup, raised $80m in Series B funding. DTCP led, and was joined by Latitude Ventures, Wave-X, Bootstrap Europe, and insiders Atomico, Lakestar and Capnamic. Go deeper

🌎 Notpla, a British-based developer of plant-based packaging, raised £20m in Series A funding led by UB Forest Industry, joined by Catalytic Capital for Climate & Health, Horizons Ventures, Astanor, Schmidt Family Foundation, Radicle Impact, EIT Food, Broadwater Cap, Kibo Invest, Rosebrook, Trousdale Ventures, and Ocean Born Foundation. Go deeper

• Lucky Energy, a better-for-you energy drink maker, raised about $12m in Series A funding. Brand Foundry Ventures led, and was joined by Imaginary Ventures, Sapphire Sport, and Sugar Capital. luckybevco.com

• Ameba, a London provider of AI solutions for retail supply chains, raised $7m in seed funding led by Hedosophia. Go deeper

🌎 Sort A Brick, a Lithuanian service that repackages old Legos into new sets, has raised €1.2m from Firstpick. Go deeper

• Sofie Pavitt Face, the eponymous brand founded by aesthetician Sofie Pavitt, has raised seed funding from True Beauty Ventures. Go deeper

• LaSalle Capital invested in Cascade Coffee, an Everett, Wash.-based provider of retail and private-label coffee products. cascadecoffee.com

• Altor Solutions, a subsidiary of Compass Diversified (NYSE: CODI), closed its purchase of Lifoam Industries, a Greer, S.C., provider of cold-chain packaging solutions, for $137m in cash. lifoam.com

• Basic-Fit, an Amsterdam-listed discount gym operator, is being pressured by Buckley Capital Management to explore a sale. Go deeper

• LVMH (Paris: MC) agreed to sell the streetwear fashion label Off-White to brand management firm Bluestar Alliance. Go deeper

• Zabka, a Polish convenience store chain owned by CVC Capital Partners, is seeking to raise up to $1.67b in what would be Warsaw's largest IPO in four years. Go deeper

• Fairfax Financial (TSX: FFH) agreed to take control of hockey and lacrosse equipment maker Peak Achievement Athletics. Its brands include Bauer, from Sagard Holdings. Go deeper

Retail transactions

• Rob Wilder, co-founder of José Andrés Group and World Central Kitchen, joined FTW Ventures as a venture partner. ftw.vc

• Mark Loomis, group president, North America at Estée Lauder, will step down to retire at the end of fiscal 2025. He will be succeeded by Tara Simon, who will become president, North America, and Amber English, who will be the president, digital and online, North America. Go deeper

• Xavier Simonet was named managing director and CEO of Collins Foods, a franchisee of KFC and Taco Bell in Australia. Go deeper

• Virginia Drosos is planning to retire as CEO of Signet Jewelers (NYSE: SIG), effective Nov. 4. She will be succeeded by J.K. Symancyk, who most recently served as CEO of PetSmart. Go deeper

It's Personnel

📽️ What we're watching: Richard is excited to go see a new movie by director Francis Ford Coppola, "Megalopolis," which has gotten very divided reviews.

✏️ Big thanks to newsletter editor Claire Rychlewski and copy editor Mickey Meece for today's edits.

🙏 Thank you for reading Retail Deals. Please ask your colleagues, friends and family to sign up.

October 04, 2024

1 big thing: Meat-alternative brand Nuggs sells