The Supply Side briefs: Hershey acquires new snack brand, Kraft Heinz faces litigation

• Hershey acquires barkTHINS snack brand
The Hershey Company announced the purchase of Ripple Brand Collective, a privately held company based in Congers, N.Y.,  that owns the barkTHINS snacking chocolate brand. Terms of the deal were not disclosed by either party.

“This acquisition is a great addition to our Hershey chocolate portfolio and enables us to expand our mass premium offerings into this growing and on-trend category,” said Michele G. Buck, Hershey’s president of North America. “Since its launch in 2013, barkTHINS has quickly become a favorite snack brand due to its commitment to using simple ingredients, fair trade cocoa, non-GMO certification, and no artificial flavors or preservatives.”

Buck said barkTHINS also addresses key consumer trends, such as premium, high quality ingredients and snacking.

“We look forward to building barkTHINS by leveraging Hershey’s scale at retail,” he added.

The barkTHINS brand expects annual net sales of the business in 2016 to be in the $65 million to $75 million range.

• Kraft Heinz sued over deceptive labeling, one case tossed out
Kraft Heinz faces a class action lawsuit for misleading consumers about all the ingredients used in its 100% Grated Parmesan cheese products. The federal lawsuit claims Kraft Heinz Foods misled consumers by marketing parmesan cheese products that contain 3.8% wood-pulp content as “100% Grated Parmesan Cheese.”

Cellulose, also known as wood pulp can be added to cheese products according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but the finished cheese product should not contain more than 2% cellulose.

The complaint seeks to refund consumers for purchases they made based upon the deceptive labeling and prevent Kraft from misleading consumers about its grated cheese products.

Another class action case against Kraft Heinz was tossed out of U.S. District Court this week. The suit filed in Southern California claimed that the company misled consumers about “ingredients of foreign origin” in its U.S. manufactured sauces, namely Heinz 57.

The court found that the plaintiff’s allegations did not pass muster and provided “almost no detail in her complaint regarding Heinz’s alleged misrepresentations.”