Kroger Listed Them Nationwide Without a Single Meeting | Bakeful’s Tony Davis

Kroger approved Bakeful for a nationwide listing before they'd had a single meeting or phone call. Tony Davis, founder and CEO of Bakeful, on rebuilding the sweet baked goods aisle. Plus this week in CPG: Constellation's SpikedAde earnout, PepsiCo's split year, and the deals where control was the point.

IN THE NEWS (every story is in The Deeter Digest)
- Constellation buys SpikedAde: $75M at close and up to $278M more over five years, plus a second check into Hiyo
- What an earnout really means, from someone who's lived through one
- PepsiCo: the world is buying, North America isn't
- MadeGood buys itself back, Stride takes a majority of Clio, Boots splits the keys
- Rapid fire: NMN goes mass market, PowerCrème, Rip Van's new CEO, Ola Sol's Humo
- The hot take: every deal has two numbers

THE INTERVIEW: TONY DAVIS, BAKEFUL
Tony built Nick's Ice Cream's U.S. business from zero and sold on QVC in the '90s. Now Bakeful's Donutful, Muffinful and Brownieful are in 4,000 doors across 50 states, with Kroger, H-E-B, Walmart, Target and Hy-Vee coming to him.

Find Bakeful: bakeful.com

CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
2:00 Presented by Dough
3:17 Constellation buys its future
6:41 What an earnout really means
8:00 PepsiCo: the world is buying
9:09 The deals where control was the point
11:30 Rapid fire
13:40 The hot take
14:43 Interview: Tony Davis, founder & CEO of Bakeful
15:15 Building Nick's Ice Cream in the U.S.
17:46 QVC, infomercials and the first DTC
22:18 Why baked goods: Charlie Brown's Brownies
23:48 The forgotten $25B aisle
26:50 Clean label: baked, not fried, 25% less sugar
30:22 Selling donuts in the LA gas lines
33:23 The lineup: mini donuts, two to a pack
34:53 Wegmans on the first call
35:21 Ralphs, then Kroger nationwide without a meeting
37:07 H-E-B: "When are you doing muffins?"
38:08 Walmart pulls Muffinful forward
40:09 Target, Brownieful and the Bakeful master brand
42:41 Packaging that doesn't look like the 1960s
47:12 Hy-Vee: "How fast can you ship?"
48:15 Creators and a 10.5M-view TikTok
49:16 Highs and lows: fundraising
52:47 Exits, Kind bars and a forever brand
55:49 Where to find Bakeful
57:24 Sign-off

This episode is brought to you by DoughCC, an authorized Square reseller helping businesses get set up, trained and supported locally, with no upfront cost on your first hardware unit for qualifying businesses: https://www.dough.cc/partner/pickle/

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