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- [00:00]
A
Hey, it's PVSB with the CPG guys. You know, we talk a lot about this on the show. For CPG marketers today, it's not just about reaching consumers. It's about connecting with them meaningfully at every touch point. Here's the reality. Shopping isn't just an event anymore. It's woven into daily life. And with consumers spending over 90 minutes streaming content, daily entertainment has become central to the shopping journey. Amazon ads unifies commerce, entertainment and open Internet to reach 86% of US households, turning trillions of consumer signals into powerful results both on and beyond Amazon. So visit advertising.Amazon.com to learn more. Hello, it's December 23rd, 2025. Welcome to episode 16 of the Commerce Riff with the CPG guys. Our weekly short segment. Stackable 10 minutes of content, audio and video. We hope you enjoy our curated stories. I'm of course your co host, PBSB. I'm joined by Paparaj himself, the man called Sri. He's co founder and CRO of ThinkBlue Consulting. How you doing, brother? What's up?
- [01:16]
B
I'm doing great, Peter. Very busy next four days, but we're headed to India in the Maldives for a much needed rest. Been a hectic, crazy, crazy wild month between tour work. I know you're coming to La La Land. Say more.
- [01:31]
A
Well, I've got some very, very important business appointments with a certain couple of rodents, Mickey and Minnie. And maybe a little time down on the beach in La Jolla.
- [01:42]
B
So also, are you doing any of the character meals?
- [01:45]
A
A little Harry Potter event at Universal the day after we arrive. But I'm looking forward to seeing you in Las Vegas for ces. That's when all the madness starts. Sree, enjoy your vacation. You're going to need it because we have got a Cracker Jack first quarter, I'll tell you. All right. Another band of year for the CPG guys. Sree, I don't know if you know this. We delivered over 5000 minutes of CPG insights across 115 episodes. Our most downloaded episode, of course. Diana Marshall from Sam's Club, recorded live at CES in 2025 about a year ago.
- [02:20]
B
Peter, that was exactly when we recorded it. I still remember going to the studio.
- [02:25]
A
The fires in la. Sree, that I don't want to go. I know. All right, so let's talk about the Honest company, once the poster child for direct consumer disruption, with Fallout founder Jessica Alba at the helm. I miss her in Fantastic Four. She was awesome. Here's the big news, Sree. The company is actually Pulling the plug on direct sales through its website on December 28 and shuttering its mobile app. This is crazy. They announces via email to customers on Tuesday. Anything ordered after November 24th is final sale. No returns. But they're not going away. The Honest Company will focus exclusively on retail partners Walmart, Target, Amazon, Kroger and H E B. Their website will transition into a brand information hub. Think of product locator, advice, information and inspiration rather than actual commerce. The company framed it as positive insofar as they said these updates were made with you. Our loyal honest family at heart allow us to focus on what matters most developing and designing products that meet our rigorous honest standards unquote. Wow. This is part of their quote Transformation 2.0 Powering honest growth unquote plan. Launch this father exiting website fulfillment, killing the apparel line and closing all Canadian operations in my home and native land, both brick and mortar and online. The goal? Cut selling, general and administrative expenses, streamline supply chain and boost profitability. CEO Carla Vernon called it a comprehensive two part program that drives greater focus on our most strategic and profitable categories by exiting certain lower margin non strategic categories and channels while also optimizing our cost structure. How do I translate that? Sree they're trimming the fat to focus on what actually makes money. Since going public in 2021, the Honest Company has aggressively expanded its retail footprint. In 2022 they launched on Walmart.com and in stores that same year they deepened their Ulta beauty relationship with an exclusive skincare line across Ulta's physical locations. So here's what we really need to think about Sree is D2C becoming the Achilles heel for startup brands when once it was the operation of choice. It's how you got into the business. What's going on here? Over to you.
- [04:55]
B
Pretty pretty crazy Peter because I know that the Honest Company has been using so many business cases from a consumer relationship standpoint and loyalty was due to DTC. I got a lot here for us on PepsiCo. Some major executive org shuffles, changes, et cetera. Straight from their website, PepsiCo is pleased to announce a series of org changes designed to advance their growth strategy and support their commitment to being a best in class. And I think the key word here is globally admired company. Over the past year they say we have unified our North America businesses. Continued investments in advanced technology that includes AI, strengthened our brands, modernized our manufacturing, enhanced our warehouse and distribution capabilities. These efforts have made us into a more agile and future ready org. Today we're announcing a series of org changes that mark our next step. So buckle yourself. Stephen Williams, who served as CEO of PepsiCo North America for the past year, has been appointed EVP and Vice Chairman of the company and Global Chief Commercial Officer in Corporate affairs effective 28th December. That's in a week. In this new role he will focus on building a unified selling org, developing a global strategy to accelerate growth for the away from home businesses and engaging stakeholders support the growth in the US and around the world. Obviously with Stephen stepping into his new position, the North America CEO seat opens up. That will be taken by Ram Krishnan once did a camping trip with him back in the 2012s if I remember correctly. Our daughters went to school together back in the days. The older daughter Rhea and he will take that position effective December 20th as well. Aggressive agenda for him is accelerating the integration of foods and bevops where it creates value enables to better meet the need of both consumers and customers. They say Rahm has a strong record as success at PepsiCo building momentum in US beverages through portfolio innovation. All the acquisitions they've done go to market transformations. His experiences across categories, geographies and functions should enable him to approach his work on an end to end consumer first mindset. Now who's in his org? Rachel Ferdinando, CEO of US Foods. That's Frito. Mike Del Pozo will now be president of the US Beverages a role that Rahm himself has done in a previous life and the one that Ram was occupying. Greg Rodin will head north to make a supply chain. He was already in that role. And our old friend from a past life at iri, Brian Santee will lead the US Commercial and go to market teams as CCO for the US and then finally Latin America. Athena Canyora will be the new CEO in addition to a role as Chief Strategy and Transformation officer again effective December 20th, succeeding Paula Santilli who's retiring after 35 years at PepsiCo. A lot going on, Peter. But they needed change. Business doesn't look too healthy based on several analyst reports. What's next?
- [07:46]
A
Well, more executive change at another major company. Kraft Heinz just announced a major CEO change. Our friend Steve Kalane is taking the reins. Effective January 1st, he'll join the board of directors and lead Global Taste Elevation Co. One of the two companies emerging from the Kraft Heinz planned separation into two publicly traded entities. Carlos Abrahams Rivera stepping down on January 1st, but will stay on as an advisor through March 6th to smooth the transition. I'm honored to be joining Kraft Heinz as CEO at such a pivotal and exciting time. Kaylane said. Like millions of people around the world, I have a deeply personal connection to the Kraft Heinz brands dating back to my childhood. Called the planned separation a strategic accelerator that will unlock the immense opportunity in front of us. The guy knows cpg, sri. I mean, he knows cpg, right? Most recently he was the Chairman President CEO of Kellanova up until the Mars acquisition that closed and under his leadership Kellanova became a global snacking powerhouse. They acquired Pringles, Cheez It, Pop Tarts International, Kellogg's brands. He also orchestrated Kellogg's separation from its North American cereal business, creating Kellanova in the process. I remember when that happened, I was sitting at Cornell University in the Omnichannel, bunch of people from Kellogg sitting behind me. They all had to leave the room for the big announcement. It was quite the big quite before that, he had senior roles at Nature's Bounty, Coca Cola and ABM BEV. Over 30 years in the industry with Crafine splitting into two companies and bringing in a CEO who's already executed a successful separation of Kellogg's, it's clear they're betting big on this restructuring strategy. The question is, can Kane replicate his Kellanova success with an even more iconic but arguably more challenged portfolio? Sree close it out for us?
- [09:39]
B
Yep. Before I do this last topic, I want to declare I'm not an employee of General Merge, haven't been since May 2024. I have no access to confidential information and everything Peter and I do here analysis is based on industry publicly available info. So it appears. With the latest earnings announcement from a week ago, the North America Leadership Team, which has been in place for two years, really hasn't been able to make a dent in volume. So from Investing.com, uBS maintained its sell rating, which is not exactly a aha moment, and a $47 price target on general stock following the company's fiscal second quarter earnings report. Despite the stock trading at 48.04, general shares rose 3% after reporting better than expected results. With organic sales, gross margin, operating profit margin all exceeding forecast, the company reiterated its full year guidance for fiscal 26, which ends in May of 26. The positive movement comes despite the stock's challenging year with a whopping negative -20.12 year to date total return. While it's not alone in a series of CPG companies, this one just does stand out. UBS noted that while volume growth in North America retail was encouraging, questions remain about whether consumption will improve as category growth remains challenged and competitors will focus on affordability. The investment firm acknowledged some favorable timing and supply chain benefits contributed to the quarterly performance, but highlighted the cautious third quarter outlook, especially regarding profitability. General Stock trades at an EPS of 10.3 times earnings versus its 5 year historical average at about 16 times. Needless to say, that would make it an attractive purchase based on analysts estimation on an absolute basis, but more expensive on a relative basis compared to history. According to ubs. Investing Pro analysis indicates the stock is undervalued based on its fair value model with a notable 5.01 dividend yield. Obviously stock price is low, Dividend has been pretty good. Yield is going to be high. The company has maintained dividend payments for 55 consecutive years. Congratulations to General Mills, a key consideration for some income investors. For deeper insights into the valuation and 12 plus additional pro tips, investors can access the comprehensive Pro Research report available from the company Investing Pro. It covers all 1400 plus top equities with expert analysis Wild Wild Wild.
- [12:01]
A
Peter closes out yeah Sree. I got to say with General Mills, they obviously divested themselves of a number of portfolio brands. They got rid of Hamburger Helper a couple years ago, the dealing of Yoplait and Lactalis and a couple of others. And with a low stock price the question becomes are they an appealing target and possibly even to be further carved up and divvied out. Not great times in in Golden Valley all right, as we wrap up a reminder to catch up with our recently released episode featuring Dollar General's Angela Martin and Crunch Fitness discussing how fitness marketing works, we have another special from Dollar General this week straight from one of the DG Market stores. All right folks, that's our take on relevant commerce happenings from so many announcements in the past week. We wanted to make sure you got them in the Riff. We hope you enjoyed it. Please do click like our post on all platforms. Follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and now YouTube reminder. Both Shree and I are out next week and there is no December 30th episode. We'll be back with the Riff on January 6th, 2026. A very happy New Year from the CPG Happy New Year, y'. All.
- [13:14]
C
The content in this podcast episode is provided for general informational purposes only. By listening to our episode, you understand that no information contained in this episode should be construed as advice from CPG Guys, LLC or the individual author, hosts or guests, nor is it intended to be a substitute for research on any subject matter. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by CPGuys LLC. The views expressed by guests are their own, and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or or any entity they represent. The views expressed by CPTGuys LLC do not represent the views of their employers or the entity they represent. CPTGuys LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or other damages arising out of any individual's use of, reference to, or inability to use this podcast or the information we present in this podcast.