SugarCap Recap: Big Food's Tobacco Moment. Nostalgic Brightland Collab, New Grüns Launch, & More Portfolio News
Brian discusses San Francisco's lawsuit against Big Food and keeping industrial supply chains accountable. Brighland x Snoopy Collab, Grüns launches Jüced, & more updates.
“Truth is like poetry. And most people fucking hate poetry.” — The Big Short (1974)
In 1999, a Kraft vice president named Michael Mudd stood before his fellow food executives and delivered a warning. Their products, he said, might be causing 300,000 premature deaths a year and $100 billion in healthcare costs. The industry needed to reform before regulators and lawyers forced the issue. The room listened politely. Then they went back to selling Oreos.
Twenty-six years later, the lawyers have arrived.
On Monday, San Francisco sued Kraft Heinz, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, General Mills, Nestlé, Mars, Kellogg, Mondelez, Post Holdings, and ConAgra. Six companies control roughly 70% of the packaged foods Americans buy. City Attorney David Chiu called their products “food that’s not food.” The lawsuit seeks damages for decades of healthcare costs the city absorbed while these companies profited. The tobacco playbook, dusted off and reloaded.
But here’s what most coverage is missing. This isn’t a lawsuit about food. It’s a lawsuit about supply chains.
Read more on AirSugar, Brian's blog.
Sugar Capital News
🫒 To celebrate the Peanuts gang’s 75th anniversary, Brightland has launched a limited-edition “Pizza Party” gift set featuring its fan-favorite Pizza Oil, classic extra-virgin olive oil, and robust balsamic vinegar, all packed in a custom Peanuts-themed “pizza box.” Whether you’re hosting a cozy pizza night, gifting a foodie friend, or just craving a slice of childhood vibes, this collab brings big flavor and big feel, a perfect blend of gourmet quality and nostalgic charm. InsideHook + Instagram
🍀 Lucky Energy is on a tear - dropping a bold new collab flavor with Bravo star, Brittany Cartwright called Rawt in Hail (a strawberry-lemonade moment), celebrating its underdog-turned-power-duo partnership with NBA champ Payton Pritchard, and adding even more momentum with the hire of new Chief Commercial Officer, Ray Faust (formerly OLIPOP and Coca-Cola). Lucky’s next chapter is shaping up to be its most electrifying yet. Parade + Forbes + LinkedIn
🕯️ Snif’s Co-Founder & CEO Bryan Edwards shared how joy is the engine behind everything the brand does - calling their mission “to be the funnest brand in fragrance.” He emphasized building a creative, resilient team and using AI to unlock human creativity, all while keeping community and great product at the center. A reminder that at Snif, fun isn’t extra - it’s the strategy. WWD
⭐️ Starface is on a streak, picking up a 2025 Glossy Beauty & Wellness Award for Best Brand Collaboration (thanks to its hit partnership with Heaven by Marc Jacobs), unveiling a Charlie Brown–themed holiday drop, and continuing to top “best pimple patch” lists with its iconic Hydro-Stars. With science-backed hydrocolloid that works and designs that make breakouts feel fun, Starface continues to turn acne care into a confidence accessory. Glossy + Dazed + Glamour + WIRED
🍳 Clean kitchen, clean conscience: With new FDA warnings about lead-leaching cookware flooding the headlines, smart home cooks are turning to safer options, and Caraway made the cut. Experts recently spotlighted Caraway among the top non-toxic cookware brands thanks to its ceramic coating free of PFAS, PTFE, lead, cadmium, and other sketchy chemicals. Food + Wine
🧸 Grüns continues to be the multivitamin people actually look forward to taking, and now they’ve done it again with the first pre-workout gummy you’ll look forward to taking, too. Meet Jüced, Grüns’ new pre-anything gummy. With 95mg of peachy-clean caffeine, it’s perfect for pilates, long runs, pickleball, or surviving your 9am meetings. It boosts energy and focus, supports endurance, metabolism, and recovery - all without the dreaded flushing, itching, or tingles. Consider your whole day officially Jüced. Instagram
🔨 Builder.io just launched Fusion 1.0 - an AI agent that unifies product, design, and code into one workflow. Fusion can turn Slack chats or Jira tickets into real features, convert Figma designs into production-ready code, and streamline everything from mockups to pull requests, signaling a new era of AI-powered product building. PR Newswire
🚀 SMS Sunday has officially arrived as retail’s newest tentpole moment, with SMS-driven sales soaring past Black Friday, and Postscript is the engine behind it. Postscript didn’t just report the trend; it created the cultural moment, rallying merchants with its SMS Sunday campaign and tools that helped brands drive nearly 40% year-over-year gains. For many retailers on the platform, their SMS Sunday sends outperformed traditional Black Friday messaging entirely, underscoring that with Postscript, SMS isn’t just a channel, it’s becoming the holiday strategy to beat. Postscript