Horizon PR Machine Polishes Its Image-Or Why Cows Love Dean Foods
Ten years ago it would have taken more than a strange day in May to envision a company synonymous with organic to produce a long-winded brochure about animal well-being. Yet in today’s world of corporate organic agribusiness and in a culture where image rules the roost, or in this case, the herd, Horizon Organic Dairy […]
Is Whole Foods Treating Vendors Like Tony Soprano Treats His Working Girls?
NBN is hearing more and more stories about manufacturer dealings with Whole Foods corporate and frankly we’re wondering if the revolutionary retailer is acting more like a desperate Mafioso. One who is in need of lots of cash to keep from getting ‘hit’ by a mob called Wall Street. For years folks have wondered if […]
Whole Foods Buys Wild Oats for $565 Million
While here at NBN we’ve been predicting the sale of Wild Oats for more than year, last week, when we wrote “sooner or later some mid-size conventional chain will be more than happy (desperate, really) to buy Oats for top dollar little did we guess that the buyer was going to be none other than […]
Michael Pollan Berates Nutritional Science and Gets It Wrong
It took us more than a few wine laden conversations to figure it out. Michael Pollan is getting confused. In his NY Times Sunday Magazine cover story www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t.html?ex=1176955200&en=108422e8afc956dc&ei=5070 the normally brilliant social critic missed the boat, the dock and landed on the wrong coast. What Pollan did was especially upsetting to NBN, as his leadership in […]
Wal-Mart Schmal Mart
Nearly a year ago, America’s largest retailer made an announcement. Coinciding with the opening day of Natural Products Expo West, Wal-Mart declared its intention to add thousands of natural and organic SKUs to it shelves. Today that promise seems a lot like NBN’s vow to get to the gym. It just hasn’t happened and we […]
Wild Oats Products Hit Price Chopper—Is the Brand Worth More Than The Stores
As regular readers know we have been following Ron Burkle’s interest in the Wild Oats chain closely. So far, despite his nearly 25% ownership and placement of many of his people at the helm, things have remained pretty much the same at Oats. At least so far. More recently we’ve talked to folks who suggest […]
Andrew Weil Unveils Line of Socks
Declaring “I wish to follow the path created by Pierre Cardin who put his name on anything he could” Andrew Weil unveiled his latest line of products on Valentine’s Day. Tossing off his Birkenstock’s, Dr. Weil showed off his socks, just one of the 12 styles under Dr. Weil’s Happy Toes brand. Made of organic fiber, cotton, […]
Rethinking Wild Oats
Could It Be Time to Call Your Stock Broker? Recently I had an interesting conversation with an industry friend; one that started out as a debate about Wild Oats and ended up with NBN thinking about the perennial also ran a lot differently. What I noticed is this. So what if Wild Oats is the […]
My Sol Mate is Better Than Your Sol Mate
Patent Lawyers Come on Down As reported in our Expo West coverage, NBN’s favorite product of the show was a terrific soda developed with several Canadian companies, including one of our favorite jam makers, Crofters. Sol Mate sparkling Yerba Mate is a staple of ours, at least when we can get our sweaty mate loving hands on […]
Notes From the Expo: File This New Product Under Huh?
Spun Activated Water-No Snake Oil Added We’ve seen plenty of products that leave us wondering why people do the things they do (manufacturers and consumers both) and this new water leaves us speechless. So instead of our normal witty and insightful commentary we’ll just quote from the bottle. “Our propietary process of altering and activating […]
