NYC's Mercantile Mayhem: CPG-Palooza and The Swinging Lanyards; FTC Chair Lina M. Khan Wants to Hear From You
A newsletter about the survival of independent businesses in New York City with a focus on immigrant-owned, storefront retail and CPG enterprises.
CPG-PALOOZA AND THE SWINGING LANYARDS HIT NEW YORK CITY
Last week the mighty Specialty Food Association’s 3-day Summer Fancy Food Show took over the Javits Center in Manhattan. Food producers, from established conglomerates, to emerging artisanal brands, stood in their logo emblazoned booths throughout the cavernous Javits. Tens of thousands of buyers, distributors, trend spotters, suppliers, food founders and others in the business sampled products, visiting rows upon rows of booths and pavilions.
It was four days of CPG mayhem (CPG is “consumer packaged goods” in industry lingo) including the one-day Good Food Mercantile and evening parties.
Pictured above are the people behind these sauces, drinks, crackers and snacks. Click on the links below to learn more.
Tacombi founder Dario Wolos holding a bag of his Vista Hermosa tortilla chips with Andrea Hernández, founder of Snaxshot at her Night Market party at Dr Smood in Soho. If you want to know the latest, to the millisecond, in the CPG world, follow her on Twitter or Instagram. There are discussions of Hernández having CPG ESP.
Sasha Shor, founder of Holy Tshili at the Snaxshot party handing me yet another sample because I was hovering around the sauces.
Brooklyn Delhi’s founder Chitra Agrawal fans out her new line of products. She launched her plant-based company in 2014 and has inspired many other independent CPG companies over the years
Jing Gao is the founder of Fly By Jing, she made Sichuan chili crisp a household staple for condiment lovers across the US.
Superbon is a Brussels-based food brand founded by drying enthusiast Chef Philippe Emanuelli (not pictured), which makes Chips de Madrid in Spain.
Better Sour’s cofounder Bella Hughes holds up packets of sour gummy candies at the Startup CPG party. The flavors are inspired by her (and cofounder Semira Nikou’s) Iranian-Hawaiian upbringing.
Ludas Dumplings specializes in Eastern European pelmeni and vareniki. Eugene and Masha Tulman run this frozen, organic CPG version of Ludas that has a deep family history.
Michelle Tew’s name and brand Homiah might sound familiar beyond the excellent products, because of a certain “trademark bully”, I wrote about it for the Guardian.
What happened when Dominican Gloribelle Perez met Tunisian Walid Mrabet? In addition to marriage and children, they created Harissa Hot Honey.
When Ashley Albert isn’t matzo-ing out at Matzo Project, she might be pushing a puck at The Royal Palm Shuffleboard Club, her other business.
The duo behind Sumting Fi Talk ‘Bout gave out samples of their tricolor sea moss fruit drinks outside the Javits Center.
Sajani Amarasiri, originally from Sri Lanka, founded Kola Goodies that makes Sri Lankan milk tea among other beverages.
Bubula, another brand giving out samples outside the Javits, had a refreshing drink and packaging devoid of wellness verbiage.
Anjali Bhargava is the founder of Anjali’s Cup that makes turmeric and chai drinks, pictured at Good Food Mercantile. I wrote about Bhargava a few newsletters back.
James Chang of J.Chang Kitchen holds his Chonky Chili Crunch in the vast Javits lobby. He’s also a creative, hilarious artist.
Yes, correct, the Filipino inspired Djablo Sauce was on Hot Ones! (Season 22.) Laura Dadap cofounded the company with her dad.
Burlap & Barrel cofounders Ori Zohar and Ethan Frisch have been taking on “big spice” for years. Mohammad Salehi, originally from Afghanistan, is the founder of Heray Spice specializing in Afghan saffron and other regional spices.
Turkish Dried fruits by Dry Box, founded by Yagiz Kilic, the plump figs are unlike any figs I’ve eaten before.
Dosa batter from Dosa Kitchen in Vermont, the cofounders met in New York City at a restaurant where Nash Patel waited tables and Leda Scheintaub ate. They started chatting and “a spark ignited.”
FROZEN PIZZAS FROM LOS ANGELES
One of the big hits at The Fancy Food Show was Pi00a (Pie-oh-ah) a frozen pizza company based in Los Angeles, CA. In addition to local pop-ups and pizza pickup, they ship their frozen pizzas (check the website for updates, news to be announced). Pi00a is a 4-person family run business that makes outstanding Neapolitan pizzas, from a classic Margherita to an Asian-inspired eggplant miso, Melody Stein, one of the co-founders, is originally from Hong Kong. I went back for multiple samples, slices were topped with their fantastic Pi00a chili crunch.
Part of Pi00a’s mission is to hire and train deaf workers, making their business a deaf accessible workplace. Melody and Russ, the parents, are both deaf and found that many of their friends and fellows in the deaf community have had difficulty getting hired for meaningful jobs beyond entry level, allowing them to advance and grow.
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There are more independent CPG brands from the Fancy Food Show, I’ll add to the next Mercantile Mayhem, if you are curious, please take a look at my Instagram in the interim.
INDEPENDENT CPGs VS THE CONGLOMERATES
I don’t think the general public understands just how difficult it is to run an independent, profitable CPG business, whether it’s direct to consumer, retail or both. Besides the cost of producing the actual food item, typically selling in the $5 - $15 range, there’s the cost of labor, rent(s), equipment or co-packing costs, distribution, marketing, legal and insurance.
Some supermarkets charge shelving aka slotting fees (pay to play) that can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, or they want free cases of products. For companies like General Mills, Kraft Heinz or Unilever, these fees are like lunch money, but for independent brands it can be a complete barrier to entry. Some of these businesses have received investment from growth equity or VC firms, opting for fast growth but incremental loss of ownership, others operate through small business loans from banks or CDFIs, crowdfund, their savings, using profits to reinvest.
People can get real snitty about independent CPG brands and some of the smaller marketplaces that sell them, as being too designer-y and often more expensive. It’s true that products made by independent businesses typically do cost more than corporate produced equivalents if they exist; all aspects of business costs more for a 1-, 2-, 3-person, even 30-person business versus a conglomerate that mass produces.
Over the past five or so years there’s been an explosion of small CPG founders with personal connections to the foods they produce and sell, whether it’s the founder’s heritage, ingredients imported from their homeland, or a particular social mission like paying farmers three to four times the standard rate. In summary, it’s a miracle these companies exist as they’re often competing against massive corporations.
MERCANTILE MAYHEM NEWSLETTER SPONSORSHIP
I usually put the sponsorship info at the very end of the newsletter, but I’m placing it here for reasons that have to do with my bank account. I am looking for two additional sponsors—individuals, businesses, organizations or foundations—who believe that the survival of small businesses is essential to New York City (and other cities, towns, rural areas I might add). Sponsors, like the extraordinary Accompany Capital get a footer banner in the newsletter, which is viewed by all sorts of brilliant people in various sectors. If you would like to know the newsletter rates (a month costs what a CEO might pay for one business lunch) and stats, please contact me: ninarobertsnyc@gmail.com and I’ll send you the details. Please feel free to forward this newsletter to others, especially that eccentric gazillionaire uncle who is a small business advocate.
Some of you have paid for subscriptions via Substack, thaaaaaaank you so much!
FTC CHAIR LINA M. KHAN WANTS TO KNOW IF PRIVATE EQUITY HAS IMPACTED YOUR MAIN STREET OR INDUSTRY
The Federal Trade Commission, chaired by the formidable Lina M. Khan, and Justice Department's Antitrust Division are conducting a joint public inquiry and need your input. The goal is to identify serial acquisitions and what’s called “roll-up strategies” (when many small companies in the same industry are bought and rolled into one large company) across sectors, often fueled by private equity.
These concentrations of power and money, aka monopolies, squelch innovation, entrepreneurship and hinder fair competition. They also make products and services more expensive for consumers. Has a sleek veterinary chain displaced small, individually-owned veterinaries in your area? Have nursing homes or regional newspapers been gobbled up by private equity firms? Can any photo agency compete with the colossal Getty Images?
Private equity has its talons in the housing market too. Clusters of properties in New York City neighborhoods like Williamsburg, Bed-Stuy and Ridgewood are being purchased by private equity firms. Suburban one-family homes across the US have also been purchased; politicians are scrambling.
You can find more information about the public inquiry here and file comments here, open until July 22.
URBAN DESIGN PROJECTS
Nominations are still open for the MASterworks Design Awards, organized by the Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS). Nominated projects must “exemplify excellence in architecture and urban design”, be in New York City and completed in the previous year. The 7 categories include: Best New Building, Best Urban Landscape, Best Restoration, Best Adaptive Reuse, Best New Infrastructure, Best New Urban Amenity and Best Environmental Innovation. Projects can be nominated here until July 8.
Past MASterworks Design Awards that have had mercantile uses have gone to New Lab, Macro Sea, Empire Stores, the TKTS Booth and perhaps El Barrio Bait Station.
CDFI PART 2
I’m going to continue my CDFI history and explainer next week. But as a refresher, heres’ a link to CDFI Part 1.
OPPORTUNITIES
1. Free Small Business Financing Panel Discussion
July 15, 9am to 1pm, Pace University’s Small Business Center and the SBA’s NY office will hold a free event about small business financing, information is here. of Two different panels discussions will talk about evaluating loan applications and standard loan terms among other issues around capital. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet lenders to discuss various financing options in relation to their small businesses. This event is free but you must signup here before July 15 at 8am. Located at 1 Pace Plaza, Student Center, in lower Manhattan.
2. NYU-Yale Summer Accelerator Pitchoff
July 26, 5pm to 7pm, there will be a pitch competition between six seed-stage startups, three from NYU and three from Yale. Panelists include: Chika Ogele of Newark Venture Partners, Justin Silver, founder of AAVRANI and Christine Hong, Investment Manager at Techstars. Event details here.