The Best One Yet - Burger King launches plant-based Impossible Whoppers, Kellogg’s sells its cookies for $1.3B, and Google’s Gmail turns 15

Episode Date: April 2, 2019

Nutella’s owner just bought Keebler and a whole bunch of cookies from Kellogg, even though Pringles sales are jumping. Gmail is Google’s secret weapon against Amazon. And Burger King partnered with Impossible Foods to make plant-based burgers mainstream.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. And this is Snacks Daily. It's Tuesday. April 2nd. And this is the best snacks daily we've ever whipped up. I'd say so. We have three amazing stories.

Plus, markets rose yesterday. Pretty good. The U.S. and China both reported great manufacturing data. Always like that. Markets love it. Serve it up nicely. Now, our first story today, delicious. These three stories, actually, they're so good.

We had to, like, triple check that these weren't April Fool's drinks. There's no way these all actually happened. I'm still nervous. One of these is like a fake store. We're afraid it's going to get called out tomorrow. First story was Kellogg's. It's selling off its cookie business for $1.3 billion. We know what you're thinking?

Yes, this could affect Girl Scout cookies. It very well could. Second story is Gmail. It just turned 15 years old. Happy birthday. And in celebration, Google is announcing a bunch of new updates to Gmail. But it's learning. Gmail is learning.

Third and final story is Burger King. Incredible one here. It is going to start selling this week. Yes. Meat-free, plant-based impossible whoppers. This is like a bar mitzvah. for the animal-free meats industry. Beefless beef.

Now, before we jump into all that, we've got just big news for our college listeners out there. Yeah. What is it? It's March. No, it's April. So, you know, they're sending out the emails now to get a summer internship. Yeah, and the career department's like,

you should have something set up. Well, guess what? We have found the maybe most perfect summer internship for you. It's a transatlantic partnership between NASA and the European Space Agency. They're looking for a volunteer who is willing to lay in bed for 60 days and do nothing. Here's the best part. You will be doing that over the summer while your friends are working, and you will earn more money. $20,000 they're offering this one volunteer. They're trying to study weightlessness. I think the other key here is that if you do have a job, maybe consider quitting

this job. The third key is that it's actually run by the German space agency. Like they're running this experiment. They're pretty intense. And you're going to ask the German July, can I have access to my Netflix account these 60 days? Pretty easy answer from them. Nine. You're going to ask if you can maybe take a break at some food? Nine. You're not happening. No. All right, guys, before we jump in to our snacks daily, a few keywords you got to listen to them. You're tuned in to snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers. The snacks about to hear ain't food.

It's air candy. They don't reflect the views of the Robberhood family. It's all informational just so. We're not recommending any securities. Nope. It's not a research report or investment advice. Not an offer or sale of a security. Snacks is digestible.

Business news for you. Robahood Financial, LLC, member FINRA slash SIPC. For our first story, Kellogg's just sold off its cookie business for $1.3 billion to Nutella owner Ferrar. Which is based in Italy. It's big. Now, you know what I think about Kellogg. You've told me a million times. It has a kind of evil side hustle.

It draws up these cartoon characters, slaps them on cereal boxes, and then sells sugar to kids. Wait, walk down aisle three, and you're going to see a bunch of really big-eyed cartoons like Snap, Crackle and Pop. It's like Nickelodeon on Isle 3. We're like, what are you guys on? It's really freaky. Now, what actually happened with Kellogg's yesterday is that this was the end of what was like a battle over the final piece of cake at the dinner table. So here's the deal. Kellogg announced last year that it wanted to sell these unwanted cookie brands.

And two potential bidders emerged from the grocery store. First is Ferrara, which owns Nutella and which ended up buying it. The other is hostess brands, the owner of Twinkies. Now, there are a few key brands here. We've got to talk about that are affected. First, Girl Scout cookies. Talking Samoa's. Those cookies are actually baked in.

Keebler factories. True. And that distribution deal might change. Yeah. Second, Keebler itself. True. Who knows what these elves are going to do? No one is any idea. I don't think they can have suitable skills ready. They can apply somewhere else. They look like they're from Vermont in a good way. We love their flannel game. They have great flannel. Other than that, though, there's not much the elves are doing. Okay, then famous Amos is another pecan treat company. Kind of a throwback. That's a part of this deal. And then finally, another thing that stunted my growth as a child is. So true. Fruit snacks. Oh my God. Now last year, get this. All those brands that we just mentioned brought in $900 million in sales.

Yeah. And that is particularly sad for Kellogg because it bought Keebler. Just Keebler. Just that one. In 2001 for $4.4 billion. And now it's selling Keebler plus a bunch of other things for a fraction of that. Let that sink in. Bad investment.

This story is all about really one specific thing. Neglected candies. So true. Ferraro is an Italian business, but it basically acts like a private equity firm. Here's what it does. It goes out. It shops around. It searches for like neglected candy brands that nobody else wants and that it can buy for really cheap.

Now, it just did this the other day. It bought Nestle's U.S. candy business for another $1 billion. And guess what it did? It took Butterfingers. Classic. And Baby Ruths, which are part of that portfolio, it improved them and like reinvigorated these candy bars.

A whole new campaign called the quote unquote better Butterfinger. Yeah. So it gave the Butterfingers larger peanuts. No hydrogenated oils. Less fake oil, and it also cut back on cost. And now it's probably worth more than what it bought it for. Nicely done for our. For our second story, Gmail just turned 15.

Happy birthday. Keats andiera? That is 15. There we go. Now, the celebration that Google just put on reveals just how powerful this thing is. Again, real announcement, even though it was April Fool's Day. True. So to celebrate the 15-year-a birthday, it announced a whole bunch of expansions of its

artificial intelligence, which in Gmail is called Smart Compose. Yeah. Pretty soon Gmail is going to be doing this podcast. It can predict the message that you want to send before you even realize it. And now Smart Compose speaks four new languages after yesterday. And it's like getting better at figuring out your style better than ever. Yeah. It's actually starting to sound exactly like.

Freakishly like it. It can like forge your identity really well. It pretty much says my emails are the best one yet. So the CEO of Google actually announced a Mazz Stone yesterday. He said that Smart Compost. already saves people from typing over a billion characters per week. That's like a huge number, but I have no idea if that's impressive. We can't tell.

Anything over a billion is a big number. Now, the other key here is that there's going to be a new feature called basically right now, send later. Yeah. And if anybody knows what boomerang is, this is boomerang. It's insourced boomerang. So I feel bad for that company. You can write an email tonight and schedule it to go out tomorrow morning at 7 a.m.

In fact, you can schedule a whole bunch of emails to go out at random times. so it looks like you're working 24-7. Yeah. Incredible feature. Gmail might be the most under-monetized asset ever. Think about this. Gmail has 1.5 billion active users every day. Wow.

Now, it would be one of the five largest social networks if we were ranking it among the other social networks. And if Google Plus mattered at all or existed anymore. The amount of mind share, in other words, the amount of time that human beings' minds are like using its service is gigantic. to coordinate everything in their lives. Yeah. And it's all free.

You just have to tolerate like one ad at the top of your promotions tab. Basically, Google's infiltrated every part of your life, but doing it as a public good. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Google and their powerful Gmail? Gmail is Google's secret weapon advantage over Amazon. But with Amazon and Google, they see what you search. Yeah, you search for a lot of things in Amazon and Google. But Google sees the intimacy of your email. Oh, yeah.

Amazon's Alexa. it only knows like the questions you ask it on a Saturday morning before you're going out. Hey Alexa. What's the weather? Hey Alexa. What's happening Saturday's weather? Google, on the other hand, it sees your entire 24 email back and forth email chain about your Yosemite plans. It knows who you're connecting with, what you're driving out there, what directions you're taking.

Google. How many people you're sticking in that car? Google's machines are reading your emails and it's learning about you. Alexa is a stranger. Google Home knows you. For our third and final story. I love this one, Jack. Burger King is launching a vegan burger with Impossible Foods, and they're calling it the impossible

Wopper. Very nicely done. I've seen the light. I've had an Impossible burger. Yes, you have. It's delicious. You look great. Thank you.

You've been working out? You're like, no. I've been eating burgers. They taste kind of like mushrooms in a good way. And there's a reason why. First, we've got to define what an Impossible Foods burger actually is. It is a burger that is not made of beef. No.

It's plant-based. It was founded in 2011. More invented, right? It was invented. in 2011 by a Stanford professor who wants to make us less reliant on beef. Because beef is, beef is big. Guys, beef. Yeah. Let's have to talk, as you say, Nick. We need to talk about beef. It is horrible for the environment. It's the bovine in the room. Yeah. Beef has giant carbon footprint and is very high energy resource intensive. Yeah, it takes a long time to name each cow.

Yeah. So this is trying to get rid of our beef consumption, but give us something that tastes like beef. So the second key about impossible foods is what is actually in a plant-based impossible food burger. we saw a video on the company's website. You'd throw a bunch of ingredients into a bowl, but the base is wheat and potato protein. Very nice. The X factor that makes it juicy like a burger. It's something called heem.

Extra heem, please. Which is an extract from a soybean root, and it looks like red blood, to be honest. Makes the thing bleed and basically look like meat. And then the third and final question you're probably asking is, how much is this thing going to cost me at Burger King? An impossible whopper costs a buck more than a normal wopper

has the same amount of protein. 90% less cholesterol and it requires 99% less water to like bring to your face. A little warning for our vegan friends though, it will come with Mayo at Burger King, so you're going to have to get that in the side. Yeah, hold the mayo. Now, Jack and I were listening to this and we thought, you know what, we have to dive in snack style. We did, and we thought this was a really perfect example of distribution as marketing.

Yeah, Impossible Burger was very niche. It was tough to find that stuff. A few years ago, it kicked off, and you could only find it like, a David Chang fancy restaurant in the West Village of Manhattan. Yeah, it started expanding with a partnership with White Castle, which is great. 380 White Castle had Impossible Burger. They throw down like 30 White Castle sliders at a time. It's competitor beyond meat, which makes something similar, had a partnership with Carl's Jr.

So that's a thousand more stores in America have these things. But this distribution opportunity with Burger King is going to start with just 59 locations in St. Louis. And if it's successful... Here's the big thing. 7,300 Burger King locations. That's big. If the Impossible Whopper is accessible to that many Americans, then it's mainstream.

And this is when the marketing angle comes in. Because if you see an impossible food at Burger King, then you may go and buy it at a grocery store where it's widely available. That would be huge for the meat alternative industry. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Burger King and Impossible Foods? This whole thing is all about the reducetarian trend. Americans are reducing their meat intake. Big time, but they're not eliminating.

That's right. Meatless Monday is very popular, and the number of Americans who are just reducing the amount of meat is growing faster than the number of Americans who are becoming vegetarians. Taco Bell, just two months ago, said it was introducing a vegan menu. That's right. Taco Bell and Burger King are both introducing vegan products. Let that sink in. The world has changed.

It is really big, and this move is big for the whole industry. Now, if you're wondering, all right, these are private companies like impossible foods or beyond meats, how can you? get involved? Beyond meat is actually the one that's getting closer to IPO territory. So eventually shares will be public and it'll be accessible. Because it's part of the reducitarian trend. Jack, why don't you whip up the takeaways for us? Keybler cookies just got sold and we learned marketing can save dying brands. We kind of feel bad. I don't know. Actually, we're excited for our Kebler elves. They're Verma-as. Yeah, they are Verma-Sas. Second story, Gmail. It's the giant

dataset of personal data and it's also Google's advantage over Amazon. Happy 15th birthday, Gene-Mail. Now, please unsubscribe us from those like LinkedIn endorsement emails. The Impossible Whopper is a real thing. Finally. And it's all about the reducitarian trend. If you're a reducetarian, please tweeted us. We are too. Now, time for our snack fact of the day.

Jack, what are we got here? You ready for this? Michelle Obama's memoir becoming, which I just started. Great one. It's on track to become the best selling memoir ever. You guys want a number? We should lift out a number here. Ten million copies have been sold since November.

Unreal. That is fast. We love that. Now, a couple other awesome stories we're covering in the Robin Hood Snacks newsletter. Okay, World Wrestling Entertainment, the WWE. Its stock is down after a brutal segment on John Oliver's TV show on HBO about the deteriorating health of its wrestling. And then we got Saudi Aramco, the Saudi Arabian oil company. They released information on their financials. Turns out it's the most profitable company in the world. By far. Big. Ever. We loved having you on the Snacks Daily podcast with us. can't wait to catch up tomorrow. We'll talk tomorrow. The Robin Hood Snacks podcast you just heard reflects the opinions of only the host who are associated persons of Robin Hood Financial LLC and does not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets,

or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. The podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a recommendation to buy or sell any security and is not an offer or sale of a security. The podcast is also not a research report and is not intended to serve as the basis of any investment decision. Robin Hood Financial, LLC, member FINRA, SIPC.