October 2026 kept the pace September set. October brought new funding, leadership changes, and more pressure to cut costs across consumer brands. Protein kept spreading, emerging brands pushed into major retailers, and established companies reconsidered which businesses they wanted to own. Here are six trends that stood out, and what each could mean for growing brands.
Consumer funding served two different ambitions in October: scaling up and turning things around.
Expansion. Mexican seasoning brand EZ Bombs raised $25M, while Sunshine Buns was raising $7M alongside its Target launch.
Reset. Zevia secured $20M from GP Investments to support its turnaround, broaden its portfolio, and increase distribution.
Takeaway: Both paths require execution, but they put different demands on a team. An emerging brand entering Target needs to keep shelves stocked and shoppers coming back. A turnaround requires harder choices about which products and channels deserve investment. The hiring question is specific: who has delivered the outcome this money needs to buy?
Personal care. Unilever plans to sell first-aid brand Welly to Forward Consumer Partners.
Pantry. B&G Foods is selling its B&M and Joan of Arc bean brands to McCall Farms.
Nutrition. Abbott plans to separate its nutrition business, including Ensure, Pedialyte, and Similac, into an independent public company.
What it means for brands: A brand leaving a larger parent keeps its products and its customers, but often loses the finance, HR, IT, and supply chain support it used to share. We’d hire in roughly this order. Finance comes first: a CFO or controller who can build reporting and manage cash before transition services from the old parent run out. Supply chain and operations come next, because suppliers, co-manufacturers, and logistics contracts often need to be renegotiated. HR and technology follow, as payroll, benefits, and systems move off the parent’s platforms. The commercial team is usually the last gap to fill, because it is often the part of the business that transfers intact.
Three growth brands changed who leads them, each in a different way.
Succession. At Olipop, first non-founder CEO Christian Patiño Webb is aiming for $1B in sales, and execution is central to his plan. Allies of Skin named Alicia Valencia CEO as founder Nicolas Travis steps away. She helped build Makeup by Mario into a global brand after leadership roles at Pat McGrath Labs, Bobbi Brown, and Estée Lauder.
Reinforcement. Patrick Ta Beauty kept its founder in place and added two senior leaders. CMO Angela Simpson comes from Haus Labs by Lady Gaga, after nine years at NARS, where she helped take the brand from No. 13 to No. 7 in U.S. prestige makeup. VP of Creative Carolyne Rapp joins from MERIT Beauty.
Takeaway: The handoff is where these hires succeed or stall. Before the search starts, write down what the founder keeps, what the new leader owns, and what results will count as success in the first year. A candidate with a strong résumé still struggles if every major decision goes back to the founder.
The biggest snack companies are going after the protein demand that helped smaller brands grow.
Meat sticks. General Mills brought Epic into meat sticks, putting it in direct competition with brands like Chomps.
Bars and snacks. PepsiCo expanded Good Warrior into protein bars and kept adding protein across its snack portfolio.
Takeaway: A protein claim alone gives shoppers less reason to choose one product over another. Brands need a clear advantage in taste, format, ingredients, price, or occasion. That puts more weight on product development and on commercial leaders who can explain the difference to buyers and consumers. Chomps is a good example: it grew by pairing protein with a short ingredient list and an easy, on-the-go format, not by protein alone.
Emerging brands reached bigger retail audiences in October, and the way shoppers find products is changing.
New distribution channels. Sunshine Buns’ Target launch and Neutonic’s Walmart expansion showed emerging brands reaching larger retail audiences.
New shopping technology. Walmart also announced tools that would allow outside AI agents to shop on customers’ behalf, adding another potential route through which products get discovered and purchased.
Takeaway: Winning distribution creates work across the business. Teams need to keep products available, manage promotions, and turn trials into repeat purchases. As shopping tools evolve, accurate product information and strong digital merchandising also become more consequential. Sales, operations, and eCommerce leaders need a shared plan.
Job cuts. Food producers announced 29,693 job cuts through September, up 76% from the same period in 2025, according to figures reported in October.
Closures. The month also brought news of Nestlé’s planned Ohio factory closure, PepsiCo’s Tennessee bottling plant shutdown, and Diageo’s decision to close its Guinness brewery in Baltimore.
Takeaway: Restructuring puts experienced operators back on the market. That gives growing brands access to talent they couldn’t reach a year ago. Candidates coming from a layoff will ask harder questions about funding, stability, and what the role is really for, so be ready to answer them. If the business isn’t ready for a permanent hire, an interim leader can cover the gap while the plan comes together.
The job market is cooling: September added just 29,000 jobs, and unemployment rose to 4.2%. Companies are responding by hiring more carefully, planning succession earlier, and using interim executives to cover senior gaps while they find the right permanent fit. For brands that raised, sold, or found new owners this fall, the next few months are when the org chart catches up.
If you're weighing your next leadership hire, we'd be glad to share what we're seeing.
Sources
Industry news reported in Food Dive, BevNET, Nosh, Modern Retail, Glossy, Beauty Independent, Cosmetics Business, and Hunt Scanlon Media.