Food Exec Brief: Big Food Breaks Up, GLP-1 Shifts Demand, and 1.3% Inflation Hides True Costs
Major food leaders are restructuring as Coca-Cola invests $10B in US manufacturing. GLP-1 adoption reached 11% of US adults, lowering grocery spending and risking $73B in food brand value. Meanwhile, despite a 1.3% headline food inflation rate, input costs like diesel (up 77.8%) and grains (up 17.7%) are surging alongside growing El Niño risks.
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Food Exec Brief: Big Food Breaks Up, GLP-1 Shifts Demand, and 1.3% Inflation Hides...
Major food leaders are restructuring as Coca-Cola invests $10B in US manufacturing. GLP-1 adoption reached 11% of US adults, lowering grocery spending and risking $73B in food brand value. Meanwhile, despite a 1.3% headline food inflation rate, input costs like diesel (up 77.8%) and grains (up 17.7%) are surging alongside growing El Niño risks.
Food Plants Run 4 Overtime Hours per Worker Every Week, Fueled Primarily by Absences
Food manufacturing averaged 4.0 hours of weekly overtime per production worker in 2025, above the manufacturing average and rising. That premium costs roughly $2,570 per worker a year, and absence is one of three causes within that number. BLS data puts three-quarters of manufacturing absence down to illness and injury.
24% of Food and Beverage Dollars Now Go to Private Label. Which of Your...
BJ's is cutting roughly 20% of its club assortment, while Kroger adds about 870 private label items. Volume is flat, private label now has 24% of food and beverage dollars, and your next category review will decide which of your SKUs stays on the shelf.
Packaging EPR in Practice: 5 Steps Food Manufacturers Should Get Right
California, Oregon, and Colorado now share the same PRO, but not the same rules. Here's the order US food manufacturers should work through packaging EPR in, starting with the question most companies get wrong first: who's actually the producer?
Tyson’s $625 Million Warning Complicates This Week’s Beef Cost Relief
Grain costs on the FIE Input Cost Index are one point from a downgrade, while Tyson's latest guidance shows the real cost of the cattle shortage. Get the breakdown on the FIE Input Cost Index.
Food Exec Brief: Job Cuts at Campbell’s, Record Low FDA Inspections, and Sugar Suppliers...
Campbell's is cutting 13% of its workforce and closing two snack plants after net income fell 33%. FDA foreign inspections are running 35% below 2019 levels. And General Mills, Mars, and McKee Foods filed a federal suit alleging their sugar suppliers fixed prices for seven years.
One Rung at a Time: How Food and Beverage Companies Actually Get AI Into...
Most food and beverage companies aren't short on appetite for AI. They're trying to build the whole five-level maturity ladder at once. Katherine Parr of Aptean makes the case for starting with one workflow, one human checkpoint, at a time.
