Pasta Giant Barilla To Buy Goodles
Italian pasta giant Barilla Group has an agreement to acquire Goodles, the nutrient-dense, “adult” macaroni & cheese brand we just featured as one of our R&D Teams of the Year. Sale price was not disclosed.
The Wall Street Journal said the Santa Cruz, Calif.-based company was valued at $88 million after a 2023 funding round, citing PitchBook. It turned its first profit in 2024.
A news release said Goodles was founded in October 2020 as Gooder Foods Inc. and introduced its first mac & cheese product online in 2021. It now produces boxed sides, microwavable single-serve cups and uncooked macaroni in favors like peppery parmesan, hatch chile and pesto and with added protein, fiber and nutrients.
Barilla Group is the world’s biggest maker of pasta, a fourth-generation family-owned company that was founded in 1877. It’s made a few expansive moves in the U.S. recently, this spring expanding its Avon, N.Y., dry pasta factory and in 2022 buying the Back to Nature brand of healthy cookies and snacks from B&G Foods.
The Wall Street Journal said Goodles garnered 7.8% of U.S. spending on shelf-stable macaroni & cheese in the 12 months through the end of June, up from 0.8% in the same period three years earlier, according to consumer data firm Numerator. Meanwhile, Kraft Heinz’s Kraft Mac & Cheese saw its market share decline from 42.2% to 36.6% while sibling brand Velveeta mac & cheese fell from 21.6% to 18.9%.
The Journal also reported Jen Zeszut, Goodles' co-founder and CEO, said she met Barilla’s leadership team at a Formula One race last year but didn’t talk business. Behind the scenes, however, Barilla followed Goodles’ momentum and in June expressed an interest in acquiring the smaller company.
“Upon the close of the merger, nothing will change,” Goodles’ announcement said. “Goodles will remain headquartered in Santa Cruz and will continue to operate independently as a standalone brand, free to make its own decisions about product, recipes, quality, ingredients, suppliers, marketing and more. The entire team will be retained with no reporting changes, and Cofounder & CEO Jen Zeszut will continue to lead the Goodles team.”
In addition to being one of our current R&D Teams of the Year, Goodles was one of our featured entrepreneurs this time last year.
About the Author
Dave Fusaro
Editor in Chief
Dave Fusaro has served as editor in chief of Food Processing magazine since 2003. Dave has 30 years experience in food & beverage industry journalism and has won several national ASBPE writing awards for his Food Processing stories. Dave has been interviewed on CNN, quoted in national newspapers and he authored a 200-page market research report on the milk industry. Formerly an award-winning newspaper reporter who specialized in business writing, he holds a BA in journalism from Marquette University. Prior to joining Food Processing, Dave was Editor-In-Chief of Dairy Foods and was Managing Editor of Prepared Foods.