Shake Shack Shakes Things Up
Major Chobani and Campari Acquisitions and an edible glitter trend
Good morning! I know, I know, I’ve never sent a letter on the weekend so it’s your lucky Saturday. After hosting a little Christmas wreath making party, I didn’t quite have enough time to do these stories justice and cleaning up piles of pine needles won out. So here’s some reading material for your post-wake-up scroll or to accompany your first sip of coffee.
🌴Shake Shack’s CEO is Retiring
After more than two decades with the burger chain, Randy Garutti, Shake Shack’s CEO, announced he will be retiring from his role in 2024. “Life plays out in a series of seasons. I’ve been lucky enough to experience boundless joy through this season of my life, and when you know, you know. It’s time,” his Instagram post reads. Garutti has been at the company since the beginning. Shake Shack began as a single hot dog cart in a park in New York City back in 2001, supplied with food from two nearby restaurants owned by noted restaurateur Danny Meyer. In support of rejuvenating Madison Square Park in Manhattan, Meyer tasked his team with serving hot dogs to the community while helping raise money for the park which they continued for three consecutive summers. Garutti was general manager for one of the nearby restaurants and helped run the hot dog cart. He managed to impress Meyer who recalls the 23 year old had “more enthusiasm in his little finger than most people have in their entire body, and he was oozing love for the restaurant business, especially fine dining restaurants," according to an interview with The Street. Meyer credits Garutti for convincing him to expand the hot dog cart concept to something bigger.
“It had not dawned on me that we might grow the business beyond its first park location until Randy urged me that we do so with a second Shack, nearly five years later,” the Shake Shack Chairman and founder said in a statement. “Now, nearly 20 years and over 500 Shacks later, Randy has more than earned this richly deserved opportunity to think about his next act.” Under Garutti’s leadership, sales at Shake Shack have grown from less than $100 million in 2012 to $1.3 billion in 2022 according to data from Technomic. Revenues are expected to hit $1 billion this year and the stock is up 48% so far. Not every CEO lucks out with a well-timed exit, but I’m not sure anyone is as deserving of one as Garutti. If I were his colleague, my LinkedIn canned response of choice would be, “Congrats on this next chapter!”
🚨Trend Alert🚨 Edible Glitter
Between DEUX’s Glitter Cookie Butter, Off Limit’s Cereal Dust, and 818 x Art of Sucre’s Espresso Cocktail Glitter Bombs, brands are offering a way to bring a little sparkle to your consumables.
The aesthetic of glitter makes for viral social media content and it makes for a great add-on that can be offered right before checkout. It’s understandable why brands are offering it. I think the true key to the success of products like this is how they are marketed— something to sprinkle on your drink as a fun little ritual. While I was in grad school, we read a business case about how Proctor & Gamble anticipated Febreze to be an instant best-seller due to the revolutionary technology, but they were surprised when it didn’t sell as expected. To understand the issue, the P&G team conducted customer visits to see who used the product most and why. They discovered that those who truly needed it (people with multiple pets and a house full of carpet) weren’t using it at all as they existed contently in their stench, while those with relatively clean homes were using it consistently and not in the way they anticipated. One customer enjoyed spritzing Febreze in a room that she had just cleaned, like a little reward after a job well done. Realizing that Febreze was being used for a psychological reward rather than just odor elimination, P&G decided to overhaul their marketing strategy and emphasized the rewarding aspect of using Febreze after cleaning. This strategic shift in marketing proved to be successful, and Febreze went on to become a popular household product, illustrating the importance of understanding consumer behavior and motivations in product marketing.
Clevr Blend’s Latte Dust, while not technically glitter, seems like it could still ride the wave of this trend because it’s an add-on offering that allows for a little ritual after making your morning coffee. We’ll see if they can market it that way (you’re welcome Clevr Blends for this free advice).
🎁Christmas Came Early for Campari
Italian spirit maker Campari announced its largest acquisition on record with the purchase of historic French Cognac house Courvoisier from Beam Suntory for at least $1.2 billion. “The purchase of a top four cognac brandy is the crowning achievement for Chief Executive Bob Kunze-Concewitz, who is due to leave next year after steering Campari through a long list of deals, including the purchase of Grand Marnier for 490 million euros in 2016,” Reuters stated in an article about the deal. The acquisition will strengthen Campari's presence in the U.S. which is critical to the group's goal of building market share stateside.
💰Chobani Acquired La Colombe for $900M
Greek yogurt company Chobani has acquired La Colombe for $900 million. The deal comes only a few months after Keurig Dr Pepper’s (KDP) announced its $300 million sales and distribution deal with the ready-to-drink coffee company. The transaction included a newly issued $550 million term loan, cash on hand, and the exchange of KDP’s minority equity stake in La Colombe into Chobani equity. Chobani’s founder and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya had been La Colombe’s sole investor until the KDP deal, and Chobani is also buying Ulukaya out as part of the latest acquisition. Your read that right, Hamdi was personally invested in La Colombe— he really believed in the company from the start. After discovering that La Colombe had raised capital by selling to a private equity firm back in 2014, he went against financial advice and offered the PE firm about $60 million for a controlling stake (double what they had paid) before it had even had its first board meeting. And now Chobani is buying out Ulukaya himself. Chess not checkers.
🍒Cherry Bombe is Hiring!
If you’re looking for a role as a Copy Writer/Editor, here you go!
🔒We’re Locking Up Cookies Now?
High Brow aka worth protecting: Tate’s, Keebler' Fudge Stripes, and Oreos. Low Brow aka low shoplifting risk: Lorna Doone shortbread, Fig Newtons, and Barnum’s Animal Cookies.
🧉Messi Pedaling Mate Lays?!
Idk.
🎂A Sweet Sacrifice for SNL
The Cut interviewed Morgan Knight of Saint Street Cakes, the baker who made all the cakes Olivia Rodrigo destroyed on SNL. As a big fan of both SNL and Rodrigo, Knight didn’t care that her cakes were getting destroyed, she was just excited to have her cakes be such a big part of the artistic director’s dream.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
Speaking of Olivia Rodrigo, she joined the cult of celebs with an Erewhon smoothie.
🦃Ikea Wins Weirdest Holiday Giveaway
The British branch of the Swedish retailer famous for DIY furniture is giving away it’s famous Swedish Meatballs. But these happen to be massive ‘turkey-sized’ meatballs which will be awarded to thirty lucky winners who are selected from the comments section of the social media platforms promoting the giveaway. Ew.
🎄A Christmas Miracle
The level of dedication to this prank is unmatched.
Thanks for spending your lovely and likely festive holiday weekend reading this letter!