Mars Enters Agreement To Buy Kevin’s Natural Foods

Mars, Inc. has signed an agreement to acquire Kevin’s Natural Foods, adding the ready-to-eat meal business to its portfolio of better-for-you brands. The acquisition is expected to close during the third quarter of 2023.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed but a representative of Kevin’s said that the purchase includes the company’s Kevin’s California production facility.

“We have been hugely inspired by Kevin’s, a business whose mission fits squarely with our purpose: Better Food Today. A Better World Tomorrow,” Mars Food & Nutrition President Shaid Shah said in a statement. “We look forward to drawing on our experience of nurturing and scaling founder-led brands to help bring their products to even more people.”

Following the sale, Kevin’s will operate as a standalone business within Mars’ Food & Nutrition segment, reporting up to Shah. The sale will also enable an exit for the brand’s minority partners, investment firms TowerBrook Capital Partners L.P. and NewRoad Capital Partners.

The company declined to comment on whether its founders, Kevin McCray and Dan Costa, will continue on in their respective roles as COO and CEO after the sale has been completed.

“As a standalone business within Mars Food & Nutrition, we’ll be able to maintain the entrepreneurial spirit and authenticity of our brand while getting the support and capabilities to continue our long-term growth journey,” said CEO and co-founder Dan Costa in a company press release.

McCray launched Kevin’s as meal kit company Chef’s Menu in 2012, which evolved both its name and business model in 2019 alongside investment partners Dan Costa and Kelsie Costa-Olson of Innov8 Partners. The concept was inspired after McCray changed his own diet as a result of an auto-immune disorder. All of Kevin’s Natural Foods prod- ucts are keto- and paleo-certified as well as dairy-, glutenand soy-free.

Interest in the ketogenic diet has declined in recent years as brands have pivoted away from marketing themselves as keto-based. Kevin’s has increasingly leaned into its paleodiet credentials expanding its refrigerated meals as well as shelf-stable sauces in the last year.

Rumors about an exit began to circulate in January when Axios reported that the company was seeking an IPO or a buyer for the business. Initially, the company rejected the claims. Last month, an anonymous source tipped Bloomberg that the ready-to-eat meal business was seeking a valuation between $700 million to $800 million.

In the four years since it was founded, Kevin’s has experienced “double-digit growth,” according to the company, and is available in over 17,000 retail locations in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Mexico, according to the company.

The multinational food maker has been building out its better-for-you snack portfolio with the acquisition of KIND in 2020, and subsequently Nature’s Bakery, and whole-fruit snack maker Trü Frü last December.

Tony’s Chocolonely Brings In $21M To Expand Mission

Tony’s Chocolonely has tapped into its existing shareholder base to raise $21.8 million (or €20 million) that will see the organization accelerate the growth of its mission, brand and B2B business, according to a June announcement.

The round saw participation from majority shareholder Verlinvest, investment firm Jam Jar and holding company Genuine Chocolate, among others.

The Netherlands-based company still needs to secure Competition Authority approval from regulators in its home country in order for the round to officially close. A few investors “will sell a small percentage of their stake” as part of the deal.

“This investment will help us accelerate our progress towards our mission of ending exploitation in the cocoa industry,” said CEO Douglas Lamont, in a press release. “I am delighted that all the funding was raised from within our existing shareholder base, who we know are all committed to supporting our long-term mission.”

Lamont can back up that long-term mission commitment claim too. Jam ing company, known as Tony’s Open Chain. The chocolate brand sells a wide range of flavors and formats including Big Bars (6.35 oz.), Small Bars (1.8 oz) and Tiny Tony’s (0.32 oz.) as well as cobranded and seasonal chocolates.

In late May, Tony’s locked in its mission for the long haul via a new corporate governance structure. Known as the Mission Lock, the independent foundation is chaired by Eat the Change Founder and CEO Seth Goldman and supported by two Mission Guardians, Anne Wil Dijkstra, ex-CoCaptain of Tony’s, and Ikeena Azuike, a former lawyer turned social activist and broadcaster. That new structure gives Goldman, Wil Dijkstra and Azuike the ultimate decision-making power over proposals that affect how Tony’s does business.

As it shored up its sourcing model, in February the sustainable and ethical cocoa company brought on a second processing partner, Baronie & Cémoi, to give its Open Chain brand partners additional options for intermediary processors. Barry Callebaut, which has served as the company’s sole processing partner for the last decade, will continue to manufacture Tony’s transparently-sourced beans into chocolate.

Tony’s commitment to end modern slavery, child labor and deforestation has inspired numerous other companies to join the cause including wellness brand Huel, cheesecake maker

Pleese and mission-driven ice cream company, Ben & Jerry’s. Each has agreed to source a portion, or in the case of Huel all, of its cocoa through Tony’s Open Source chain in addition to introducing new products made with the transparent chocolate. With the new capital, Tony’s will have the bandwidth to bring in more mission-aligned names to that list.

Jar is run by the founders of Innocent Drinks, where Lamont’s was last CEO before joining Tony’s. Investor Genuine Chocolate is a holding company started by Tony’s former CEO Henk Jan Beltman.

The news also puts some weight behind Tony’s performance over the past twelve months and Lamont said the new funds will go toward accelerating that rapid global growth. The company operates both its branded chocolate business, Tony’s Chocolonely, and a global business-to-business ethical bean trad-