Commerce Riff with Sri & PVSB - September 8, 2026

PVSB 0:01

It's September 8th, 2026, and this is the Commerce Rift brought to you by the CPG guys. 10 minutes of the news stories that matter in commerce this week. I'm your co-host, PVSB, my co-host Papa Raj, father of Pop Stars, co-founder of ThinkBlue Consulting. He can't join us this week because he is on tour in Europe with Cat's Eye. Let's get to the stories. Campbell swings to a loss, cutting 13% of its salaried workforce. Campbell's had a rough print. The soup and snack maker swung to a fiscal fourth quarter loss of $69 million or 23 cents a share versus $145 million profit a year ago. Sales fell 8% to $2.14 billion. Snacks, Goldfish Cape Cod, tumbled 12%, hurt by persistent inflation and GLP1-driven appetite suppression. Meals and beverages were down 4%. In response, the company is cutting more than 550 jobs, roughly 13% of its salaried workforce as part of a broader $500 million cost savings program running through fiscal 2030. That also includes closing two snack plants. Campbell's is slashing its quarterly dividend 36% from 39 cents to 25 cents a share and guiding next year to adjusted EPS of $1.65 to $1.80 below the streets $1.83 estimate. Shares fell as much as 10% on the news before settling down 7% and are off more than 20% year to date. CEO Mick Bekazen was blunt that performance, quote, is not where it needs to be, unquote, pointing to productivity, cost savings, and selective commodity-driven pricing as the levers back to growth, while acknowledging pricing actions could pressure volume in the near term. PEPSCO hands its global media business to Publicys. PESCO is moving its global media duties from Omnicom to Publicis. The company confirmed this week. Publicys will stand up what PESCO is calling a one PepsiCo global media operating model, unifying strategy, planning, activation, data, connected identity, and technology across markets to sharpen decision making across earned, paid, and owned channels. Move lands as PEPSCO reshapes its portfolio through deals like Poppy and SIEAT, leans into stronger international demand, and separately runs an AI-focused review of its broader marketing services. Reports also indicate Publicists will now step back from a pitch for Coca-Cola's global media account as a result of the PepsiCo win. Notable given Publicists already took Koch's North American media and data business from WPP last year. For Omnicom, the loss stings. The agency had handled pieces of PepsiCo's business for decades and is simultaneously digesting last fall's acquisition of Interpublic Group. For Publicists, it's another data point in a winning streak. The network has built on AI and data-driven marketing positioning, following recent wins, including Microsoft's global media account. Barilla adds mac and cheese disruptor Goodles. Italian Pasta Giant Barilla Group has acquired Italian Pasta Giant Borilla Group has agreed to acquire Goodles, the nutrient-dense mac and cheese brand known for its colorful boxes and playful flavor names, like Here Comes Truffle. Terms weren't disclosed. Goodles was last valued at $88 million after a 2023 raise and turned its first profit in 2024. The brand has moved fast since launching online in 2021, now on shelf at Target and Whole Foods, and up to 7.8% of U.S. shell staple mac and cheese spending in the year through June from just 0.8% three years earlier per numerator. That growth has come largely at the expense of Kraft Heinz, whose Kraft mac and cheese share slid to 36.6% from 42.2%, and who's Velvita fell to 18.9% from 21.6% over the same stretch. Though CEO, Jen Zezett, argues Goodles is mostly growing the category, not just stealing share, with 80% of sales coming from Labster incremental mac and cheese buyers. Goodles will stay a standalone brand within Gorilla, keep its Santa Cruz headquarters, retain Zezett as CEO, and keep all 73 employees. It's another entry into a busy run of category consolidation as bigger players keep buying smaller, better-for-you disruptors for their loyal customer bases rather than trying to out-innovate them internally. Lastly, Walmart adds Duncan to its restaurant delivery lineup. Walmart shoppers can now get Duncan delivered through the retailer's app or website, expanding on the Subway integration that launched in June. Subway being Walmart's largest in-store restaurant tenant. The Duncan rollout starts through the roughly 150 Duncan locations already inside Walmart stores and will expand to most Duncan, 10,000 U.S. locations outside of Walmart via collaboration with Inspire brands. The push comes as Walmart leans harder into store-fulfilled delivery, which grew about 43% in Q2, with sub-three-hour orders now roughly 37% of that volume. It is the same store as Hub Logic. CFO John David Rainey has been hammering on earnings calls. Stores becoming more central, not less, as the model gets more omnichannel. Walmart is clearly trying to build a real estate. Walmart is clearly trying to build a real restaurant delivery bench of its own, the way Target has quietly grown Starbucks through drive-up since 2022. That's a wrap on this week's Commerce Riff. If you haven't caught it yet, go back and check out a recent episode featuring Professor Dan Hooker from the SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University. A great conversation for anyone thinking about where CPT leadership and brand building go from here. If anything we cover today sparks a thought, drop it in the comments. We read them all. And if you're not following us on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube yet, well, now is the time. We will be together in Northwest Arkansas, September 15th to the 17th, for the Walmart Data Adventures Inspired 2026 event. We'll be in Las Vegas September 21st to the 24th for Grocery Shop. I'm going to be in San Francisco for Amazon Unbox, September 28th to the 30th, and Shree will be in Austin for Stebo Kanuct at the same time. See you next week.