Issue #91: Gruns SAVES Retail?

Before we dive in, I wanted to share the latest piece in my interview series with Matt Leeds from Forward Consumer Partners. Fresh off a fundraise for his second Fund, Matt shared some amazing insights about what is going on in the retail space. We chatted about everything from raising capital to which metrics are crucial for success to retailer selection as a CPG brand.

This is the third conversation in an ongoing series with movers and shakers in the retail industry. Have anyone you want to hear from? Please be sure to drop their names 👇

Last week, something that has been the talk of the retail/CPG/eComm industry since it happened. A rare feat. Unilever, fresh off of receiving almost $45B for its food business from McCormick, decided to double down on one of its remaining verticals: health and wellness (the other being personal care, since ice cream was already divested). Unilever purchased Gruns, a greens supplement gummy company, for an estimated $1.2B. Founded in 2023, this is one of the fastest CPG exits EVER.

Before we dive in, let’s review the founding story and history, as there are some fascinating insights on how this came to be:

For starters, a massive kudos to the Gruns team. They built a super-disciplined financial machine, solving a real pain point customers have. The execution of this team is phenomenal. In addition to the acquisition, they created a product that customers really want. 80% of Gruns customers use it daily. 95% percent use it at least four times a week. Most of their purchasers are people who have not bought the green supplement category before. Retailers love an incremental product that is expansive to the category. Their customer acquisition and LTV/CAC is phenomenal. Even in the supplement space, where most products are made for daily use, it is really hard to get people to actually use them.

However, the category they play in is super unique. Getting back to the genesis of this piece, many sweeping conclusions have been drawn due to the success of this company. Conclusions about what this means for the CPG industry or retail, which are a jump too far in my opinion. Any company can and should learn from Grun’s financial discipline, customer obsession, and creating a product that solves actual pain points. Companies should also learn from how they executed retail launches for success, both the paid and the unpaid strategies. Still, many of the other strategies can only be replicated in the supplement category, or a very similar ambient category. Most other CPG categories can not get instant sales and feedback via first-party eComm that easily, either because they are too perishable or the unit economics don’t work. Other categories should be attempting to gather that type of data as a north star too, but it is much more challenging. Gruns executed this perfectly, but unfortunately for founders in other categories, the dynamics shift.

Further evidence of this unique dynamic of the supplement industry played out in the news you probably didn’t see last week. Suja, an organic, non-GMO, cold-pressed juice company, filed for IPO. Suja is the largest independent producer of cold-pressed juice in the United States. To get there, it took 14 years. Suja did $327M in revenue in 2025, which is around what Gruns did too. Gruns is the exception to the rule. Most brands in retail will look like Suja, taking 10-15 years to hit exit. Poppi took 10 years to be bought by Pepsi, while Siete took 12. The way retail and CPG work is that it is just going to take that long to scale, and that is not changing.

However, there will be more exceptions to the rules. If you want to know who I have my eye on, two that come to mind are Lucielle Health, a nutritious drink for seniors that just raised a seed round, and Create Wellness, a creatine gummy company that also just raised from Unilever. If you want to be an exception to the rule, I highly recommend this post from Chad, the founder of Gruns:

This week, news broke that Tiger Global Management invested in PopUp Bagels, valuing the grip, rip, and dip bagel chain at roughly $300M. The new valuation is a steep increase from the prior rounds, mostly due to the continued success of the brands (been around for almost six years now) and the increased location count (up to 30 now, on the pathway to 300). Reaction has been mixed, to say the least, however, I am going to go against the crowd with this one, after all this is the 31st issue I have mentioned PopUp Bagels, and almost always in a positive light. At this point, they have locations that have sustained success for multiple years, most likely doing up to $3M in revenue annually, plus all the partnership revenue. Plus, the costs are low, with the shop not needing much space or labor to operate. It will be interesting to see what the new funds are utilized for as they already have an additional 270 locations under contract.

Every year, in the first week of April, the golf world convenes at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, for the arguably biggest tournament of the year, The Masters. Like many major sporting events, the entire event is a huge business and a major marketing opportunity for brands. This year was no different, with two iconic NYC brands creating pop ups in Augusta for the event. Exclusive Italian restaurant, Raos, and the iconic bar McSorley’s, both located in NYC, made the journey down to Georgia to create experiences for the attendees. Raos, in particular, is notoriously difficult to get a table at, and there is a big reason why their CPG line did so well. It is unclear how these did from a sales perspective, but in terms of PR and buzz, these were definitely a major success.

The past year for Chewy has not been the best, with the stock price falling almost 19% despite rising eCommerce penetration and pet ownership. So, where does Chewy turn to growth? The retail world. This week, it announced the purchase of Modern Animal, a VC-backed veterinary platform with 29 owned clinics, 24/7 virtual care, and a high-retention membership model. Chewy already has 18 vet clinics, but this will add an additional $125M in revenue, as well as additional ways for Chewy to engage with customers beyond eCommerce. It is a great fit for Chewy, especially given their existing vet business. Given the growth in the pet veterinary services market, I wonder how big Chewy will scale this part of the business? Another potential acquisition target I would wonder if they look at, Small Door Veterinary and its 13 locations, mostly in NYC, Boston, and Washington, DC. An eCommerce company turning to retail to grow, very interesting.

Each year, since 1997, the CEO of Amazon has written an annual letter to its shareholders. Starting with Jeff Bezos, Andy Jassy has continued the tradition. This year’s letter contained some fascinating information on their retail strategy, so here are some of the highlights:

What stood out to you the most in this letter?

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