If you want a single snapshot of where the food and beverage industry is headed, look no further than one week of headlines: a snack giant teaming up with a wing chain, a plant-protein startup banking $25 million, and POS systems quietly feeding your ad targeting. The latest episode of the Food and Beverage Magazine Podcast, hosted by the editors of Food and Beverage Magazine, connects those dots—and what they signal for operators, buyers, and brand builders.
Here's the rundown, category by category, plus why each move matters to the people running this business.
New CPG and Beverage Launches Worth Watching
The consumer packaged goods and beverage shelves are getting crowded with co-branded plays and better-for-you bets. Leading the pack:
- Pringles x Buffalo Wild Wings — a new three-SKU co-branded crisp line, pairing a legacy snack brand with a wings powerhouse.
- Mission Craft Cocktails — the launch of its new Pickle Rita ready-to-drink beverage at major retailers, riding both the pickle-flavor wave and the RTD cocktail boom.
- Old Forester — the release of its Triple Char expression for the whiskey faithful.
- Z Natural Foods — a new Chocolate Goat Whey Protein, tapping the high-protein, functional-nutrition demand curve.
The throughline? Brand collaborations and functional formats are how CPG players are cutting through a saturated market. Co-branding borrows equity from two audiences at once; RTDs and protein-forward launches chase where consumer spend is actually growing.
Restaurant Expansions and Brand Milestones
On the operations side, the episode digs into growth stories that reveal where footprint bets are being placed:
- Shelby's Shawarma is expanding into the US with 37 locations.
- Broken Yolk Cafe is pushing into the Midwest.
- Whataburger is celebrating its 76th anniversary with app-exclusive deals—a reminder that loyalty apps have become the anniversary campaign of choice.
Where Technology Meets the Dining Room
Two tech stories stand out for multi-unit operators and brick-and-mortar retailers:
- Lightspeed is linking POS data to Meta ads for brick-and-mortar retailers—turning transaction data into sharper ad targeting.
- Converge AI has a new workflow platform aimed squarely at multi-unit operators.
Both point to the same shift: the data your systems already capture is becoming a marketing and operations asset, not just a back-office record.
Supply Chain, Agriculture, and Acquisition News
The final segment tracks the deals and infrastructure moves shaping the global market:
- Phytokana closed a $25 million round to build a pulse protein facility in Alberta—another vote of confidence in domestic plant-protein supply.
- HF Foods is entering the Canadian market with the acquisition of Searay Foods.
- Cellar Insights launched a data project that pays growers to build a potato spoilage warning library.
- Southern Champion Tray named Tyler Siira as its new president.
Why It Matters
For operators and buyers, this week's news is a practical to-do list, not just a scroll. A few takeaways:
- Co-branding is a menu and merchandising cue. The Pringles x Buffalo Wild Wings crisp line and Mission Craft's Pickle Rita show which flavor stories are resonating—useful signals for LTOs, retail set decisions, and beverage programs.
- Your POS is a marketing engine. Lightspeed's Meta ad integration and Converge AI's workflow platform mean the operators who put their transaction data to work will out-target and out-execute those who don't. Audit what your current stack already captures.
- Protein supply is de-risking. Phytokana's Alberta pulse protein facility and Z Natural Foods' new whey product signal a maturing high-protein pipeline—good news for procurement directors sourcing better-for-you ingredients closer to home.
- Reduce waste with data. Cellar Insights' spoilage warning library is the kind of shared-intelligence tool that can trim shrink for anyone buying produce at scale.
Individually these are headlines. Together they map the food and beverage trends—collaboration, functional nutrition, embedded tech, and resilient supply chains—that will define the next planning cycle.
For more on how operators are rebuilding beverage programs for scale, see our coverage of the new economics of craft, and catch up on additional Food & Beverage podcast highlights.
Listen and Weigh In
Tune into the full episode for the deeper breakdown, and tell us in the comments: which of these moves—the co-branded snacks, the POS-to-ads play, or the pulse protein bet—will have the biggest impact on your operation this year?
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine’s “Top 40 Under 40” for founding American Wholesale Floral. Politz is also the founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
