Licensing Plays, Strategic Capital, and Protein’s Rise

VF Corp Shrinks, Bluestar Expands

Back in 2017, VF Corp bought Dickies for $820M, betting on workwear alongside Vans and The North Face. Eight years later, VF’s market cap has collapsed from $30B+ to ~$5B, and it’s now unloading Dickies to Bluestar Alliance for $600M in cash.

• VF’s play: deleveraging and focusing on Vans, The North Face, Timberland.

• Bluestar’s play: acquiring distressed but culturally relevant brands and monetizing through licensing. Their portfolio already includes Off-White, Hurley, and Scotch & Soda.

• Investor angle: Despite Dickies’ sales shrinking ~40% since 2017, it still fetched ~1× revenue. Brand/IP equity remains sticky — multiples hold, even in decline.

Bloom Chooses Strategic Capital

Instead of raising another venture round, Bloom Nutrition doubled down with strategic partner Nutrabolt (owner of C4).

• The deal: $90M in early 2024 + $160M last week = ~$250M invested.

• The logic: Beverage expansion (Sparkling Energy, Bloom Pop) is capital intensive. Strategics like Nutrabolt bring not just money, but distribution, manufacturing, and category know-how.

• Investor takeaway: More consumer brands may choose certainty and synergies with strategics, rather than chasing max valuation from VCs.

Protein Is Having Its Moment

Slate Milk just raised $23M Series B to scale distribution to 100K doors by year-end. It’s the latest proof that protein is one of the hottest categories in CPG:

• M&A comps: OWYN sold for $280M (~2.3× sales, 13× EBITDA). Quest sold for $1B. Coca-Cola is scaling Fairlife to $7B+.

• Category moves: Danone is rolling out protein-enhanced Oikos shakes. Kate Farms is leaning into GLP-1–aligned nutrition.

🎙️ Podcast: Caroline Weintraub on The 5 P’s of Beauty Investing

Caroline Weintraub of True Beauty Ventures joined me this week to share how specialist investors evaluate brands in beauty and wellness. Her Five P’s framework:

1️⃣ Positioning – differentiated, clear whitespace
2️⃣ Product – uncompromising quality
3️⃣ People – teams who can scale
4️⃣ Performance – margins + retention that prove staying power
5️⃣ Partnership – founders who want more than just capital

We also discussed:

• Why beauty and wellness are converging

• Why affiliate marketing is quietly outperforming influencer plays

• Lessons from early bets like K18 and Dew
  
  🎧 Watch on YouTube, listen on Spotify.

That’s it for this week.
If you liked this issue, forward to a friend who obsesses over brand strategy, capital flows, or exit timing.

In the Money – following the flow of capital in consumer

P.S. We love talking to brands interested in exiting in the next 3-18 months. If you know of any brands interested in exiting, or any firms trying to help port cos manage turnarounds, we'd love to share a POV.

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