CPG M&A wave: Chomps near $1B in retail sales, Olipop at 1.85x valuation as strategics hunt growth brands
Mar 11, 2025
Key Points
- Chomps targets $1 billion in retail sales this year on $500 million in 2024 revenue, with founder Pete Maldonado open to strategic exit as major CPG conglomerates hunt growth brands.
- Olipop trades at $1.85 billion valuation on $400-450 million revenue, roughly 4.5x sales, while competitor Poppi exceeds $500 million in sales with just $30 million raised by cloning and outexecuting the template.
- Lesser Evil seeks $1 billion valuation despite comparable brand Simple Mills fetching $795 million with higher net sales, signaling sellers are testing buyer appetite amid tariff uncertainty.
Summary
Strategic acquirers are reshaping the CPG landscape, snapping up food and beverage brands that have cracked viral distribution and health-conscious positioning. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Mars are cash-rich and under pressure to innovate, making M&A their primary growth lever. According to John Levert, managing director for consumer retail at Solomon Partners, winners need over $100 million in annual sales, gross margins between 30 and 50%, and EBITDA profitability. Strong enough growth can offset lower valuations.
Chomps, the meat-stick brand founded in 2012, exemplifies the available scale. The company did over $500 million in sales in 2024 and founder Pete Maldonado expects $1 billion in retail sales this year. Chomps raised $80 million at a valuation between $200 million and $300 million, backed by Stride Consumer Partners. The brand occupies shelf space at Whole Foods, Target, Kroger, Trader Joe's, and convenience stores across the country. Maldonado remains open to a strategic exit, IPO, or holding for cash flow.
Olipop prices differently. The low-calorie, low-sugar soda with added fiber and probiotics does $400 to $450 million in sales, has raised $90 million, and carries a $1.85 billion valuation roughly 4.5 times revenue. JP Morgan's private capital growth equity fund, Monogram, and Rana Ventures back the company. Poppi competes directly, launched in 2020, and now exceeds $500 million in sales despite raising only $30 million. Poppi replicated Olipop's positioning and product down to the font, then executed aggressively enough to outgrow its template.
Other acquisition candidates include Banza, the chickpea-based gluten-free pasta brand in 23,000 locations; Good Culture, a better-for-you dairy brand doing over $200 million; Lesser Evil, a popcorn producer at $165 million; and Liquid Death, the premium canned water brand that raised a $55 million working capital line from Aries Management.
The early 2010s saw a wave of better-for-you versions across convenience categories: meat sticks, Wheat Thins, goldfish. No single company positioned itself as the platform for all of them. Instead, individual entrepreneurs focused on single categories, iterated through 30-plus production runs to nail formulation, then scaled into major retail. CPG is tactile blue-collar work: sitting in stores, getting people to try products, and executing reliably at scale. That unglamorous labor separates winners from the long tail of failed attempts.
Some sellers are holding off on approaching buyers until later in 2025 due to tariff and supply-chain uncertainty. Private equity is emerging as an alternative for brands unable to land strategic buyers. Lesser Evil's $1 billion valuation ask would be rich relative to recent comparable deals. Flowers Food paid $795 million for Simple Mills in January, and Simple Mills carried higher net sales. Whether that multiple holds depends on which buyer sees the brand and what multiple they are willing to pay for growth.