Mondelez buys Grenade, Kraft Heinz changes strategy & Timpson’s director of happiness – with guest Chris Dee

Julia and Laura are joined by Chris Dee, former CEO of Booths and director of food and home at Harrods and now an online startup founder, NED, chair and advisor.

They chat about Mondelez’s eye-catching £200m acquisition of Grenade and what it tells us about the healthy snacking, protein and low-sugar trends, Kraft Heinz’s new strategy and quest to become “cleaner and greener” and James Timpson’s latest column for the Sunday Times about the importance of mental health and wellbeing in the workplace.

Plus, Chris shares his take on the pandemic and which shopper changes are here to stay, what he looks for in a startup or challenger brand – and why he hates robots.

Articles discussed in this episode:

‘Cadbury-owner Mondelez takes £200m bite of healthy snack-maker Grenade’ | Sky News

‘Change of menu: Kraft Heinz bets on old brands to win new consumers’ | FT

‘Meet my secret weapon: a director of happiness’ | The Sunday Times

‘Meet the new breed of work from home chefs’ | The Observer

‘This Mars bar rover will chase you around a store and tempt you to buy candy’ | Gizmodo

'I’ll buy five items and only keep one of them' | BBC News

 

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