CAGNY 2025: Day 2

Day 2 of CAGNY kicks off in Orlando! The weather is warm, the sun is (sometimes) shining, and our industry leaders are feeling… change. Today, we heard from WK Kellogg Co , 百事 , Altria , JBS , Philip Morris International , The J.M. Smucker Co. , Kenvue , Coty and Molson Coors Beverage Company and if this list doesn’t immediately explain why I use the word “change”, then keep on reading...

I’m going to give a special shout-out to WK Kellogg, as CEO and Chairman Gary Pilnick shared that today is Kellogg’s birthday. Happy birthday to this spun-out cereal company that has returned to its 119 year-old roots! This newly focused company gave us a strong reminder of the most basic – and utterly vital – fundamentals. It’s a good starting point – and natural because, in some ways, the company has gotten the chance to start over. As would be expected of a company closely targeting a very mature industry segment, WK Kellogg is doubling down on getting the basic capabilities in place with excellence. Hence, after a year in which they built a dedicated sales force, developed a new marketing model, pursued efficiencies in supply chain, and worked on their IT and distribution infrastructure, they are now turning towards the next stage, where innovation, integrated commercial operations and modernized supply chain drive a significant step change in profitability. Note: More than most companies, WK Kellogg talked about integrating marketing, sales and supply chain – as well as an end-to-end supply chain – with my assumption being that, when you are focused on disciplined performance, integration and end-to-end become no-brainers.

That takes me back to the concept of end-to-end enterprise that we explored in our thought leadership on the reinvented value chain. While most companies are currently aligned strongly around functions vs. end-to-end value streams, I am still keeping an eye out for those encouraging signs that companies are breaking down functional siloes and shifting to joint outcomes. Let’s see if others talked about that, today.

Insight to Plan – From strategy to resource allocation

While yesterday was all food from top to bottom, today’s slate had a mix of industry segments, including tobacco, consumer health, beauty and alcobev. Despite this diversity, there is a theme that unites all of them, and it is (as I stated above) “change”. Among this group are a number of companies who have significantly changed their market focus – as WK Kellogg did with the spin-off from the snacks side of the business.

While no one refocused quite as intensely as WK Kellogg, Coty has found a way to navigate a very dynamic beauty market – with large and fierce competitors – by focusing on the once overlooked but now fast-growth fragrances segment. This strategy has yielded like-for-like sales rates above their peers in 9 of the last 14 quarters.

The erstwhile spreads company, J.M. Smucker, has had some of the most notable portfolio shifts in the past decade+– moving ?to a more diversified, but still focused pet snacks, coffee and bakery treats company.

Both PMI and Altria face a rapidly declining market and increasing pressure to redefine their businesses. In 2016, PMI made the stunning announcement of their intent to move to a smoke-free future – and the company has delivered strong progress. Within a decade, IQOS has overtaken the Marlboro brand. The company is nearing its previously announced target of 40% of revenues being smoke-free, and announced a new goal of 2/3 smoke-free by 2030.

Altria has made a number of similar moves in the US – and in addition, CEO Billy Gifford shared today that the company continues to look for categories outside nicotine that serve consumer demands for energy, focus, stress relief and relaxation – and where they can leverage their existing strengths in distribution, trade relationships, high-speed manufacturing, unique product formats and regulatory science. Based on retail testing, they identified an opportunity to partner with energy shot company Proper Wild, making a small investment and providing sales and distribution services for the company in a limited number of retail outlets.

JBS may win the blue ribbon for most changed company, however, having exploded from a $2B Brazilian protein player to a $77B global giant that dominates in multiple protein categories and is extending into branded prepared foods. Its aggressive acquisition strategy has not only given it scale, but has also grown margin and provided some risk diversification in a volatile market.

?Innovate to Scale – Inventing the consumer offering

PepsiCo Chairman & CEO Ramon Laguarta gave a nicely structured presentation, which included the ways in which PepsiCo continues to capture a significant share of the beverages and convenient foods categories. If he sounded very confident as he described the significant headroom for growth, he backed this up with a compelling series of initiatives to earn that growth – including in innovation. In addition to ongoing shifts in format on existing products, the company has also been exploring reformulation of core products – reducing sodium, saturated fat and artificial colors in some of its most iconic brands. In line with better-for-you, the company has also pursued functional food and beverage innovation.

Finally, Mr. Laguarta shared an interesting perspective on how the company is broadening the occasions they serve, allowing them to think of traditional snack foods not as snacks, but instead as meal ingredients – or entire experiences (through which they also get direct consumer ideation.)

J. M. Smucker discussed a number of line extensions as the company seeks growth. My favorite? Milk Bone Peanut Buttery Bites – the 1st dog treat to feature a human food brand (and a fun example of the humanization trend in pet).

With the shift to beauty and personal care, it’s unsurprising that we are talking more about science.?Coty’s CEO Sue Nabi emphasized the company proprietary beauty tech and differentiated inventions – including the only patent in the industry on fragrance longevity. She also discussed how, in consumer beauty, they have been building capabilities for innovation that is both fast & trendy and science based – two must-haves in this segment. Development times have been reduced to 6 - 8 months.

Kenvue also started their story with science (no surprise for a consumer health company) and an impressive 561 patents granted – but they didn’t stop there. Interestingly, the company talked about a shift from a tech-centric model to consumer-centric insight, and spoke of co-locating R&D and marketing together. The company is using AI tools to develop products – an approach that yielded 8 new cough/cold/flu/ sinus products in 8 months. In 2025, they are bringing this model to all their brands, and it is already yielding 40% more innovation. One of their recent successes is the Neutrogena Ultra Sheer sunscreen – a mineral-based sunscreen that solves that difficult problem of sun protection vs. a product that goes on invisibly. Another problem they tackled was the annoying problem of bandages sliding off when then get wet. Enter: waterproof Band-Aids.

Engage to Advocate – Winning engagements with consumers and customers

As is always expected in our industry, consumer engagement and brand building were important for all companies, and as usual, we viewed multiple ads seeking to make us laugh (or feel hungry). Initiatives also include continuing to improve both the marketing process and marketing ROI. Kenvue CEO Thibaut Mongon shared their new content factory, activated in 40 markets, improving the quality of the content while reducing cost. With this content factory, they reduced time to market by 40%, using gen AI and automation – moving from brief to market in a matter of days. He discussed the success of the Neutrogena Hydroboost campaign: In the first 24 hours, they earned 1 billion impressions, and beat their video views benchmark by 40%; more importantly, they saw a 700% increase in ad-attributed sales on Amazon, and 25% lift in revenue on the hero Hydroboost jars.

In an environment where prices remain stubbornly high, companies are also looking at value and affordability. PepsiCo, for example, continues to look at PPA and other ways to appeal to consumers who continue to feel the pinch on their wallets.

Finally, Molson Coors Chief Commercial Enablement Officer, Jeff Long, described the application of their Category First, Molson Coors Best playbook to win their fair share of C-store. Mr. Long discussed moments that matter (spanning pump to cooler to register), channel-led innovation (targeting C-store shoppers' desires for singles, flavors and high ABV) and breakthrough omnichannel (connecting at pump, on the phone and at the register).

Plan to Deliver – Delivering on the promise

Most companies continue to seek productivity in supply chain. We already talked about WK Kellogg’s notable focus on supply chain modernization (quite warranted, given their profitability targets). Kenvue also listed procurement efficiencies, network optimization and automation and smart operations as profit drivers.

J. M. Smucker’s biggest capital investments targeted manufacturing – and, specifically, their drive to build enough manufacturing capacity for the winning Uncrustables brand. Uncrustables has grown at a 19% CAGR for the past 10 years, added 4 million new households last year, and is on track to become a billion-dollar brand this year. The only slowdown has been lack of capacity (the company didn’t even start brand building marketing until last year). You could hear the relief in their voices when they said the McCalla plant was open for business.

Enablers: Attract to Belong, Architect to Run, and Execute to Value

Across the three enablers, Architect to Run was the only one with substantial discussion – and that by PepsiCo, who has spent a number of years building the data and tech capabilities to power their future-ready enterprise. The first page shows how digital investments fuel growth and efficiency across the enterprise. (As you can see, PepsiCo’s productivity map also includes GCCs.)

And finally, while sustainability doesn't usually sit solely in this section, I have to take the time give kudos to the company for their progress on their Pep+ agenda.

And that brings us to the end of Day 2. Join me again, tomorrow, where we’ll hear from Freshpet, P&G, Kerry, US Foods, IFF, Clorox, e.l.f. Beauty, Church & Dwight and Diageo.

Want to hear more? Check out my posts from CAGNY 2025: Day 0, CAGNY 2025: Day 1, CAGNY 2025: Day 3, CAGNY 2025: Day 4 and CAGNY 2025: What didn’t we hear?