Whole Earth Brands, Inc. operates as a global food company. The company is enabling healthier lifestyles and providing access to high-quality, plant-based sweeteners, flavor enhancers and other foods through its diverse portfolio of trusted brands and delicious products. The company’s portfolio consists of three main product groups: sweeteners, adjacencies and ingredients.
Segments
The company operates a proven platform organized into two segments, Branded CPG and Flavors & Ingredients.
Brand...
Whole Earth Brands, Inc. operates as a global food company. The company is enabling healthier lifestyles and providing access to high-quality, plant-based sweeteners, flavor enhancers and other foods through its diverse portfolio of trusted brands and delicious products. The company’s portfolio consists of three main product groups: sweeteners, adjacencies and ingredients.
Segments
The company operates a proven platform organized into two segments, Branded CPG and Flavors & Ingredients.
Branded CPG
Branded CPG, comprised of the company’s Merisant division of operating companies, Wholesome and Swerve, is a global CPG business focused on building a branded portfolio oriented toward serving consumers seeking better-for-you sweeteners across the zero calorie, plant-based, organic, non GMO, and Fair Trade spaces in zero/low calorie sweeteners, sugar, honey, agave, baking mix, and baking chocolate segments. The company’s Branded CPG products are sold under both its flagship brands, as well as local and private label brands. The company’s flagship brands include Whole Earth, Pure Via, Wholesome, Swerve, Canderel, Equal and existing branded adjacencies. The company’s Branded CPG segment offers a variety of sweetener formulations under each brand to address local consumer preferences and price points. The key ingredients utilized in these products include stevia leaf extract, monk fruit extract, organic sugar, honey, agave nectar, erythritol, xylitol, allulose, aspartame, sucralose and saccharin, all of which are sourced through the company’s global supply chain.
Since the introduction of the original Canderel and Equal products in 1979 and 1982, respectively, the company has offered consumers high quality alternatives to sugar for daily use. As the global health crisis related to sugar consumption continues to grow, consumers remain focused on finding substitutes for tabletop sugar and sugar-laden products. In recent years, the company has met consumer demand by introducing new plant-based sweeteners made from stevia leaf extract, monk fruit extract, allulose and naturally derived sugar alcohols under the Whole Earth, Swerve and Pure Via brands (as well as under the Canderel and Equal brands) and introduced low- or no-sugar alternatives to traditionally sugar-laden products, such as chocolate, jams, and cereal bars. The company’s sweetener products are sold under a variety of forms to satisfy consumers growing usage across diverse consumption occasions. Those forms include sweetener packets, tablets, pouches, jars, and liquid bottles. The company distributes its products via the retail, club, food service, and e-commerce channels.
The company has expanded its product offerings in recent years into adjacent consumer packaged goods such as jams and chocolate under its well-known CPG brands. The company also invests in innovation to develop new product offerings to distribute under its various brands, providing differentiation from its competitors and exciting new products for customers. In addition, the company’s adjacent branded packaged goods such as jams and chocolate are sold in chocolate bars, dried chocolate powder, and jam jars.
Whole Earth: Whole Earth is a global brand of plant-based, zero/low-calorie sweeteners primarily marketed in North America, Australia and New Zealand and sold through a variety of channels including grocery, supermarket, drugstores, mass, club, food-service, and e-commerce. Key Whole Earth sweetener formulations include ingredients such as stevia leaf extract, monk fruit extract, erythritol, and allulose.
Pure Via: Pure Via is a global brand of plant-based, low-calorie sweeteners that is primarily marketed in Western Europe and North America. Pure Via-branded products are sold through a variety of channels including grocery, drugstores, mass, club, food-service, and e-commerce. Key Pure Via sweetener formulations include stevia leaf extract, erythritol and xylitol.
Wholesome: Wholesome is a U.S. leader in organic, fair-trade certified sweeteners, including sugar, honey, agave nectar, molasses, allulose and other natural sweetener products. The company acquired this brand in February 2021.
Swerve: Swerve is a portfolio of zero and reduced sugar, keto-friendly, and plant-based sweeteners and gluten free, reduced sugar baking mixes and is marketed in North America. Swerve products contain no artificial ingredients, preservatives, flavors, or GMO ingredients. Swerve sweetener formulations include erythritol, monk fruit, and allulose, as well as no added sugar chocolate baking chips. The company acquired this brand in November 2020.
Canderel: Canderel is a global brand of low-calorie sweeteners that is primarily marketed in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and, according to AC Nielsen retail data, is the leading sugar-free sweetener in many of its key markets, including France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. Canderel-branded products are sold through a variety of sales channels including grocery, supermarket, drugstore, mass, club, food-service, and e-commerce. Key Canderel sweetener formulations include aspartame, sucralose, and stevia leaf extract.
Equal: Equal is a global brand of low-calorie sweeteners that is primarily marketed in North America, the Asia Pacific, South Africa and Latin America and, according to AC Nielsen retail data, is the leading sugar-free sweetener in many key markets including Australia, New Zealand and Thailand, and is a top-five sugar-free sweetener in the United States. Equal-branded products are sold through a variety of sales channels including grocery, supermarket, drugstores, mass, club, food-service, and e-commerce. Key Equal sweetener formulations include aspartame, saccharin, sucralose, and stevia leaf extract.
Branded Adjacencies
The company also utilizes its flagship brands to sell branded products in adjacent packaged food categories. In order to address the growing shift in demand for sugar alternatives, the company has introduced new products in the chocolate, jams, cereal bars, and chocolate chip and bake mix categories under its well-known tabletop sweetener brands. These products benefit from strong brand recognition in selected geographies and the ability for customers to easily identify them as low-sugar alternatives when making purchasing decisions.
Other Brands and Products
In addition to its flagship brands of tabletop sweeteners and branded adjacency products, the company utilizes several local brands in specific countries. These locally-targeted brands have better brand awareness in those countries than the company’s international flagship brands, providing a differentiated product offering in those markets.
Flavors & Ingredients
Flavors & Ingredients, consists of the company’s Mafco Worldwide division of operating companies, is a global, business-to-business focused operation with a long history as a trusted supplier of essential, functional ingredients to some of the CPG industry’s largest and most demanding customers. The company’s products provide a variety of solutions for its customers, including flavoring enhancement, flavor / aftertaste masking, moisturizing, product mouthfeel modification and skin soothing characteristics. The company’s Flavors & Ingredients segment operates as its licorice-derived products business.
Mafco Worldwide is a leading global manufacturer and supplier of licorice derivative and extract products, primarily serving beverage, confectionary, cosmetic, food, nutritional, pharmaceutical, personal care and tobacco end markets. Mafco Worldwide’s ability to reliably deliver a consistent, highly customized, superior product has been at the core of its longevity and long-term customer relationships.
As of December 31, 2023, the company sold over 200 customer-specific licorice products, consistently meeting taste, chemical, physical, microbiological and regulatory demands, specifications and standards. The company’s ability to deliver this breadth of products is due to its extensive knowledge and experience with the raw material sourcing and manufacturing processes. This is further supported by the company’s industry-leading supply security and availability, which consists of best-in-class supply chain capabilities, long-standing relationships with key raw material suppliers, and maintenance of substantial raw material reserve inventory around the world.
The company’s Flavors & Ingredients products are sold across two types of end product: Derivative Products and Extract Products.
Derivative Products are functional ingredients based on a unique compound found only in licorice root, glycyrrhizic acid, which are used in a variety of food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care, cosmetic, and nutritional products around the world. In food, beverage and pharmaceutical products, licorice derivatives are used to provide flavor, mask undesirable tastes and extend and intensify sweetness and other flavors. In personal care and cosmetics products, licorice derivatives are used to moisturize, soothe topical skin conditions, and brighten and smooth skin. The company sells derivative products both in a line of proprietary compound flavors under the Magnasweet brand, as well as in their pure isolated form.
Magnasweet is the company’s proprietary line of functional taste modulators, which have highly-enhanced characteristics and specific uses compared to the pure derivatives themselves. The backbone ingredients in Magnasweet are the company’s pure licorice derivatives, as well as proprietary blends of flavoring and other food ingredients. All Magnasweet product ingredients are GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and/or the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association (FEMA), and is regulated by the FDA under 21 CFR 184.1408. The base licorice derived component compounds are generally classified as natural in Mafco Worldwide’s largest end markets and are also categorized as Non-GMO and Non-Allergenic, thereby they are a clean label ingredient.
Extract Products are a concentrated form of the water extracted solids from the raw licorice root which are converted into powder, semi-fluid or blocks, depending on the customer’s requirements and are used in a variety of tobacco, alcohol and confectionary products around the world. In tobacco products, licorice extracts are used as flavor enhancing and moistening agents in the manufacture of American Blend cigarettes, moist snuff, and chewing and pipe tobacco. In confectionary products, licorice extract is used as flavoring for licorice confections.
Growth Strategies
The company’s platform can be leveraged to support new product development, distribution gains in North America, further geographic expansion and to pursue mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity. The company will seek to expand its branded products platform through investment opportunities in the natural alternatives and clean label categories across the global consumer products industry.
The company is able to adapt to changing market conditions, and its management team has identified opportunities for continued research and development, and expansion of product offerings as consumer preferences shift towards natural products.
The company continues to pursue continued growth in developing economies and gaining entrance into new geographies. The company focuses on accelerating brand-building, innovation and marketplace execution in geographies where Equal and Canderel are considered premier brands. The company expects to have significant new opportunities for growth in India and China.
Intellectual Property
The company considers its trademarks valuable assets, including well-known trademarks such as Whole Earth, Wholesome, Swerve, Equal, Canderel, Pure Via and Magnasweet.
History
Whole Earth Brands, Inc. was founded in 2020.
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