CEO Collie out as New Seasons retrenches

Under a restructuring announced by Portland, Oregon-based New Seasons Market, three planned stores in California will not open, another that’s just been open for just five months will close, and CEO Wendy Collie will leave the organization this month. Its current chief people officer and chief financial officer will take on the role of co-presidents. New Seasons has more than doubled in size since Collie joined in 2012, going from 12 to 25 stores, and acquired New Leaf Community Markets in California. But in November, some of the retail chain’s employees said they would attempt to unionize because of rollbacks in healthcare coverage and other moves that allegedly made it less hospitable to employees, despite its B Corp status. Read more at Winsight Grocery Business…

The founders of RXBar, acquired by Kellogg for $600 million, built the company by ‘having a bias toward action’

“It’s in our DNA, this idea of taking action and doing it yourself,” says RXBar co-founder Peter Rahal, who along with Jared Smith mostly bootstrapped the nutrition bar startup for more than four years. Last year, it sold 105 million bars and brought in $130 million in revenue. But RXBar’s humble beginnings were in CrossFit gyms in Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Indianapolis. Retailers came on board after the company redesigned its packaging with the ingredients list up front in 2015. Rahal says that when he started taking to big food companies last year, he was nervous that they would be arrogant or pushy. But, it turned out, "They’re just people, their companies are awesome, they’re great cultures,” he says. “They mean well; they actually respect you.” Read more at Entrepreneur…

Amazon promises to fix Whole Foods’ crisis of empty shelves

Amazon execs blamed weather issues and shifts in demand for out-of-stock problems being reported by shoppers and employees across the country. Employees, meanwhile, have blamed a new order-to-shelf system that Whole Foods began rolling out last year. Read more at Business Insider…

How carob traumatized a generation

“The chocolate substitute that never could.” That’s how The New Yorker characterized carob, the plant-based ingredient that infiltrated natural foods stores and raw food cookbooks in the 1970s, in this piece on its history. Read The New Yorker…

Gubinge, the Kimberley super fruit finding success in the health food industry

Indigenous people across northern Australia are looking to create a market for his native superfood, also known as Kakadu plum, that is high in vitamin C and possesses anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. Read more at ABC News Australia…