Latest news with #Abound
Miami Herald
02-04-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Kroger adds ‘trendy' private label products, looks to launch 900 items
Dive Brief: Kroger announced Monday the addition of several "exciting, trendy items" to its private brands new items include instant mushroom tea, restaurant-style Italian dressing and kettle-style tortilla chips in a Hatch chile noted it is on track to launch more than 900 new items in 2025. Dive Insight: The additions come as other grocers also look to highlight their store brands through flavor innovation and limited-time offerings in a bid to appeal to consumers who continue to worry about grocery prices. Kroger said that its new "unique" private brand items tie into the quality and affordability of the grocer's store brand offerings. The products also build on Kroger's efforts to expand its private brand assortment, which it sees as a key differentiating factor for customers. "[T]hey offer great flavors at a price point that fits any budget," Mike Murphy, Kroger's group vice president of center store merchandising, said in a statement about the new products. The new items include six Private Selection salad kits with options like cheddar truffle, blueberry, cheddar bacon poblano, sweet onion Gruyere, cherry bacon cheddar and Asian sesame ginger. Private Selection also has new muffins in four flavors: banana bread, blueberry lemon, coffee cake and triple chocolate. Under the Kroger brand, the grocer introduced kettle-style cooked tortilla chips in traditional and Hatch chile varieties and restaurant-style Italian dressing, according to the press release. Following positive feedback from the launch of Simple Truth Organic mushroom instant coffee, Kroger has added two instant mushroom tea blends - black and chai - under that private brand, highlighting mushrooms' "adaptogenic properties and potential to support wellness." During its fourth-quarter earnings call, Kroger executives noted that its private brands portfolio is a "margin enhancer" for the grocer and saw a "strong" quarter with sales outpacing those of national brands, led by growth in Private Selection, Kroger's most premium brand. "Our Brands is an important differentiator for our business, providing Kroger the ability to offer unique and high-quality products at an exceptional value," interim CFO Todd Foley told investors. "We expanded our multiyear Our Brand product portfolio in 2024, resulting in more than 90% of customer households purchasing Our Brands items last year." Kroger's goal to add more than 900 new items in 2025 is on par with its store brand growth last year, which included 370 items in fresh categories. Foley noted that Kroger's proprietary customer insights have fueled its private brand innovation and launches. Last year, Kroger launched a private label produce line called Field & Vine and revamped its pet brand Abound with redesigned packaging and more products. "We look to create destination items that can only be found at Kroger, differentiating ourselves from competitors and national brands," Foley said during the latest earnings call. Copyright 2025 Industry Dive. All rights reserved.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Circle and Near Invest $14M in Remittances App for Indian Diaspora
Remittance app Abound raised $14 million in a seed round following investment from crypto heavyweights Circle Ventures and the Near Foundation. The app aims to be a financial bridge between non-resident Indians (NRIs) and India, and has processed $150 million worth of remittances with about 500,000 monthly active users. Abound is incubated by the digital arm of the Times of India Group, one of the country's largest news agencies. 'Indians in America have a unique financial reality — one that spans two countries, two economies, and two currencies. Yet, the financial services available today weren't designed for their needs,' said Nishkaam Mehta, CEO of Abound, in a statement. The investment will be used to scale the business by hiring in several key roles and enhancing its technology infrastructure, a press release said. Jeremy Fox-Geen, Circle's CFO, added in a statement that stablecoins and digital payment infrastructure are revolutionizing global finance, especially for diaspora communities. Circle is the issuer of USDC, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar that has a market cap of $59 billion. A 2024 report outlined that the stablecoin sector had settled $10.8 trillion worth of transactions in 2023, of which $2.3 trillion were related to payments and cross-border remittances. Sign in to access your portfolio
Bloomberg
27-03-2025
- Automotive
- Bloomberg
Trump Threatens Large Tariffs on Canada & EU; Announces Auto Levies
Bloomberg Daybreak Europe is your essential morning viewing to stay ahead. Live from London, we set the agenda for your day, catching you up with overnight markets news from the US and Asia. And we'll tell you what matters for investors in Europe, giving you insight before trading begins. On today's show, Donald Trump threatens 'far larger' tariffs on the EU and Canada if they work together against the US. The President also announced 25% levies on all car imports next week, sending automaker shares lower. Today's Guests: Bruna Skarica, Morgan Stanley Chief UK Economist; Michelle He, Abound/Render Co-Founder. (Source: Bloomberg)
Los Angeles Times
14-03-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
OC Hunger Alliance looks to partner with more nonprofit food providers as its mission continues
Abound Food Care chief executive Mike Learakos has been in the food industry for more than three decades. When it comes to food recovery efforts in Orange County, Learakos firmly believes that less is more. 'It is not more people served, more food distributed, more food recovered,' he said. 'Our metric for success — how we know we're going to be effective — is when we get to less, when we've reduced the need. That is not just through food, but food has a role in it.' Abound Food Care, a nonprofit based in Santa Ana, addresses food insecurity by examining food waste. It's the lead agency for the Orange County Hunger Alliance, which also includes Second Harvest Food Bank and Community Action Partnership of Orange County's OC Food Bank. The OC Hunger Alliance released a community needs assessment last June, revealing what many industry veterans already thought they knew. Namely, that choice of pantries and good, nutritious foods are important factors for those in need. Now, the partnership is moving forward with its mission in different ways. In recent months Abound has partnered with Foodbuy, LLC, a North Carolina-based purchasing company, to create what Learakos calls a national enhanced procurement program. The idea is signing nonprofit food providers to the network, ultimately raising their purchasing clout and affecting their bottom line. 'They are then able to go back to manufacturers and say, 'We have more volume so we're going to ask you to lower that price,'' Learakos said. 'Ultimately, what Abound is trying to do on behalf of the Orange County Hunger Alliance is provide that discount so that these nonprofit agencies can be leaner, can be more efficient, can save money. Our job is also to track what happens with that savings. Can they identify what they're doing with that savings? 'I had one agency tell me, 'If you can save me $40,000 a year on the purchase of products or services, I will add on-site medical care for our recipient clients.' Now, we're providing other wraparound services that ultimately goes beyond food. That's how we try to elevate people out of their condition.' This is just one of many ideas possessed by the energetic Learakos, who lives in Orange. He said logistics efficiency plays another key role, as well as pantry mapping. Much of food recovery is done by volunteers, which can ultimately turn out to be inefficient, and Abound is tracking some of that data through private grant funding from the Samueli Foundation. 'I think what we're going to find is that when you have 85 people in their passenger cars, driving all over the place and picking up food at restaurants or grocery stores, it's probably less efficient than running a professional route with a refrigerated vehicle,' he said. He added that a more streamlined process would also increase donor participation. 'There's a comfort level of knowing that food is being handled safely,' Learakos said. 'It's not somebody in a Subaru picking up their food.' Cooperation — sometimes a challenge among nonprofits — is key too. South Coast Outreach has a refrigerated truck that it uses Monday through Thursday, Learakos said. On Saturday, another agency, Laguna Food Pantry, uses that truck. The main challenge is increasing demand but decreasing supply. California passed SB 1383 in 2016, mandating that food companies of a certain size donate all of their excess, edible food. That has come with unintended consequences. 'Right now, we're clogging the system recovering excess edible food that no one's going to ever eat,' Learakos said. 'That's where our role, on behalf of the county, is to be able to identity a baseline process that any donor can participate in. We want to identify the cost of food recovery done right, meaning it's focused on food safety, and then identify the impacts of this excess food.' Anne Belyea, executive director of the Laguna Food Pantry, said the pantry serves about 275 families with its weekday morning drive-through service in Laguna Canyon. On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving last year, that number rose to a record 407. Before the pandemic, the pantry was rescuing groceries at seven local markets, a number that has ballooned to 25. 'Our volunteers are taking their own vehicles, picking up groceries and bringing them back,' Belyea said. 'It's challenging. It's a lot to ask a volunteer to do. Through the Orange County Hunger Alliance, we're really encouraged and excited about this new pilot program that will hopefully launch soon. We'll see what we can do with more coordinated efforts in the recovery process.' Elia Perez is the program manager of Buena Park-based Giving Children Hope, a nonprofit that provides for families in need with its 'We've Got Your Back' backpack delivery program but also a Friday community distribution program. She said the increased demand has put Giving Children Hope in a tough position. The availability of fresh fruits and produce has decreased. Still, she knows that programs like the OC Hunger Alliance offer more hope through collaboration. 'It's just comforting to know that you're not alone, a lot of times,' Perez said. 'It's an Orange County problem. We're all going to come together, and there's no competition. That's the only way we're going to survive a food cliff, by all coming together, sharing all of our resources and being one.' Learakos said he knows that change is difficult. The nonprofit network often doesn't factor in efficiency as part of the equation, but the rewards can be massive as the food recovery business continues to evolve. Right now, he said 30-40% of all food in the U.S. is ultimately wasted, but that percentage is expected to drop dramatically because of tools like robotics, AI and predictive analytics. In turn, less food will be donated — but again, less can be more. 'The focus is not on recovering more food,' Learakos said. 'The focus is on making sure that the right food that's going to be able to feed somebody, [that] there's an outlet for it. If someone is not going to eat that food, it should not be considered excess edible food. It should be considered food waste, and it should be disposed of the right way. 'When we recover food that no one's going to eat, we ultimately just become a waste hauling partner for the food industry. No one wants that, including the food industry.'
