the Joshua Schall Audio Experience

• $800M Acquisition Offer for MyProtein Rejected! | THG (The Hut Group) 2025 Q1 Update

  If you’re going to come at the “king of the online sports nutrition market,” you better not miss! THG (aka the company formerly known as The Hut Group) recently updated the public markets by releasing its 2025 Q1 trading statement. I’ll be utilizing that financial information, along with notes I took listening to the earnings conference call, and any relevant publicly disclosed information to obviously update you on the recent performance of THG Nutrition division that includes the world's largest online sports nutrition brand MyProtein, but also utilize everything to provide insights surrounding the global supplement markets. For those unaware, after the THG Ingenuity demerger...THG would now be described as a global, cash generative, health and wellness consumer brands group. During the first quarter of 2025, divisional revenue for THG Nutrition was approximately $196 million, which was basically flat YoY. And while those aren’t necessarily great results…THG leadership noted that the segment saw month-on-month sales improvement throughout the quarter. Moreover, momentum was said to be demonstrated in categories outside of the core protein range, especially in activewear, vitamins, bars, and snacks. But I'll dive into several strategic decisions impacting MyProtein including: its global digital sales channel strategy, retail partnerships in physical retail, global "in real life" community events (i.e. HYROX and MyProtein Move Club) and let’s just say A LOT is riding on the success of the MyProtein global rebrand. But basically 18 months after the start of its initial staggered market rollout, the transitionary impacts from the rebrand are now behind Myprotein. THG leadership reaffirmed that customer feedback continues to be promising, with unaided brand recognition for MyProtein now at its highest level to date. More importantly though…THG Nutrition leadership needs to pay close attention to key commercial metrics over the next year because to continue moving upstream in positioning (and unlocking sales channel diversification opportunities within the U.S. market) it needs to ensure this rebranding decision is well received by and generates brand affinity with those less price-sensitive customers. Interestingly, THG leadership noted that MyVitamins, which makes up around 9% of the total THG Nutrition online revenue, delivered record quarterly growth. But what’s maybe most intriguing is how different the customer demographics of MyVitamins are compared to MyProtein…and its possible synergistic value with the other THG branded products segment THG Beauty. Finally, about a week prior to this earnings release, the board of directors at THG rejected an unsolicited proposal to acquire Myprotein. According to reports, THG turned down the (upwards of $800 million) offer from Selkirk, an investment vehicle, saying it “fundamentally undervalued” the MyProtein business. Additionally, the deal structure carried significant execution complexity and risks...but maybe the most interesting element was that Selkirk is run by a former THG board member and backed by Kelso Group, an activist investor in THG.

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• Activist Investor Urges Billion $$ Glanbia Breakup Plan | Glanbia 2025 Q1 Update

  Dear Glanbia board of directors…don't be afraid to give up what's good for what's great! Glanbia Plc (LON:GLB) is a multibillion-dollar global nutrition company that's currently comprised of three divisions that span across the B2B supply chain (i.e. Health & Nutrition and Dairy Nutrition) and branded products (Performance Nutrition). “Health & Nutrition” is a leading global ingredients solutions business, providing value added ingredient and flavor solutions to a range of attractive, high-growth end markets. In the first quarter of 2025, revenue increased by 24.9% YoY. “Dairy Nutrition” is the number one producer of American-style cheddar cheese in the U.S. market, but more importantly (for my audience) the number one producer of whey protein isolate…and provides a wide range of dairy and functional protein solutions. In the first quarter of 2025, revenue increased by 18.9%. The brands in the Glanbia Performance Nutrition portfolio include; Optimum Nutrition, BSN, think!, Isopure, Amazing Grass, and SlimFast. Glanbia Performance Nutrition had first quarter 2025 revenue that declined by 6.6% YoY, driven by a volume decrease of 5.8% and a price decrease of 0.8%. Additionally, I'll dive deeper into Glanbia Performance Nutrition geographical, sales channel, product format, and categorial performance. Optimum Nutrition, which was the initial M&A transaction in 2008 that created the GPN division, now represents 66% of the total revenue. In the last year, Optimum Nutrition generated revenue of approximately $1.2 billion. Moreover, Optimum Nutrition is the number one sports nutrition brand in the world and also the top sports nutrition brand in close to 20 different countries. As part of its group-wide transformation program announced last November, that seeks to generate annual cost savings of at least $50m by 2027, leadership noted that a GPN portfolio review to ensure focus can be placed on high-growth opportunities had determined the divesture decision on its Netherlands-based direct-to-consumer ecommerce business, Body & Fit (that was acquired in 2017), and its weight management brand SlimFast (that was acquired for $350 million in 2018). Also, if you don’t follow the Irish financial news cycle, you might have missed that the activist investor Clearway Capital is back again! But this time…Clearway Capital is hoping to get support from Tirlán Co-op, which is Ireland's largest, farmer-owned agri-food and nutrition business. Also, Tirlán is the largest shareholder in Glanbia. But while I couldn’t get access to the exact letter sent to Tirlán, urging it to support a plan to split up Glanbia…Clearway Capital did recently address the Glanbia board of directors at its annual general meeting, requesting the global nutrition company initiate a strategic review into potential disassembly. And just like three years ago, I’m still largely aligned with those Clearway Capital statements. But the major difference surrounds our motivation as to why we’ve been urging Glanbia to be split up into two (or three different businesses).

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• [MONDAY MINUTE] The Secret Behind Why Hot Pockets Removed Its "Crisping" Sleeve

  It appears that Hot Pockets and I now live by the same mantra, “suns out guns out." And that’s because if you purchased a package of those glorious frozen meat-filled hand pies lately, you noticed that Hot Pockets decided after 41 years to ditch its crisping sleeve. When Hot Pockets launched in 1983, that susceptor sleeve was a key part of the original packaging design that allowed for microwave cooking while maintaining a crispy texture. It was honestly a futuristic feature during a time when only about one in four American homes even had a microwave. But it appears Nestle made product changes that speed up the cooking process and enhance the overall Hot Pockets experience all without needing that microwave susceptor sleeve. I’m left wondering though…was this ultimately a low-hanging sustainability initiative or easy shrinkflation financial decision?

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• "MyPillow Guy" Mike Lindell Launches Rev7 Energy Drink 🤔

  Mike Lindell was able to previously leverage the entrepreneurship 101 playbook…reaching levels of commercial success that most founders can only dream about. But does the “MyPillow Guy” really think revisiting that familiar strategy will be effective once again? Most successful entrepreneurs share a common thread…they solve personal pain points, seize opportunities others overlook, and remain committed to refining that idea into something impactful. And while you might dislike Mike Lindell for a variety of personal reasons, including the outwardness of his political affiliation, can we agree to temporarily separate “the man” from “businessman” and respect his journey? The idea for MyPillow, a pillow that would hold its shape through its foam design, supposedly originated from a random dream in 2004. But after diving headfirst into the project, spending hours cutting up foam, testing configurations, and eventually landing on a design that would allow the pillow to successfully hold its shape...he began selling what he claimed was “the best pillow in the world” at a mall kiosk. And while he experienced marginal success and media attention...everything changed when Mike Lindell started creating infomercials for MyPillow in 2011. By 2018, MyPillow had spent $100 million on infomercials…and at its peak, employing close to 1500 people, selling 30 million pillows, and reaching annual revenue levels of nearly $300 million. But that doesn’t mean Mike Lindell’s business dream didn’t include its fair share nightmares (especially more recently), as numerous settled (or still ongoing) lawsuits have gotten progressively more negatively impactful. And there are a million information sources that can be found on the Google machine…detailing his passionate political support, various (mostly personal) legal matters relating to those political beliefs, and linked business struggles, but my content is only focused on the initial successful growth portion of the Mike Lindell business journey. And that’s simply because it’s maybe the most applicable portion when examining his newest venture Rev7 energy drink. Though with me revealing that…are you having the same WTF moment that I had when learning about Mike Lindell shifting from non-ingestible sleep products to ingestible energy drinks? And while I’ve “seen my share of mismatched things” over the last 15 years working deeply within the energy beverages space (across the various product formats), I’ll fully admit that the Mike Lindell, MyPillow, and Rev7 energy drink strategic decision still has me a bit puzzled! But my latest first principles thinking content piece will attempt to hopefully make at least some sense of it…

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• [MONDAY MINUTE] We Are Living in the "Golden Age" of Gummy Supplements 💊

  The options for dietary supplements are virtually limitless at this point and whatever ingredients you want to ingest can undoubtedly be found in gummy form. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that we are living in the “golden age” of gummy supplements. But while gummies have become a staple within the supplement industry, format growth rate has normalized after the “Great Shutdown” spike. However, for you “gummy supplement haters,” don’t misinterpret that slowdown as some type of leading indicator for a near-term market correction. Yes, more consumers are realizing that gummies aren’t perfect…but they’re also uninterested in totally abandoning the flavorful format that inherently promotes usage consistency. And that changing consumer behavior undoubtedly creates a market opportunity…one that I’m confident supplement brands will fully embrace unlocking through product innovation.

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