News & Events |
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News and Events
May 2006
MVS would like to congratulate its client, Circle Peak Capital, on
the acquisition of Luxury Optical holdings. MVS conducted the pre-deal
due diligence. Click
here to view the release.
April 2006
MVS retained by Calyx and Corolla, a sister company of Vermont Teddy Bear, for a strategy project.
http://www.calyxandcorolla.com/calyx.storefront
January 2006
Mount Vernon Strategies (MVS) is pleased to announce that Carol Dalitzky is now working in our CPG and private equity practice.
Carol Dalitzky
Carol joins MVS with over 20 years of experience in CPG marketing, market research, and new product development. While at Ocean Spray, she directed new product development for food and beverage and oversaw the Marketing Services functions. She provided management and business teams with marketplace based strategies and insights and led cross-functional teams in identifying new products for long term growth. Carol launched Ocean Spray beverages in Australia and successfully drove consumption growth of the Mauna La’i brand after years of decline. During her tenure at Kraft General Foods and RJ Reynolds, Carol oversaw the management of brands such as Crystal Light, new product develpoment on Kool-Aid and provided marketing research support. Carol is a graduate of Columbia University with an MBA with a concentration in marketing from Emory University.
January 2006
MVS re-hired by the economic development agency, The British Midlands www.thebritishmidlands.com to conduct a major food, beverage and study in the U.S. Market.
December 2005
MVS client Green Mountain Coffee Roasters featured in a Boston Globe article on single serve coffee makers. MVS is pleased to have conducted the consumer research for Green Mountain Coffee Roasters on the Keurig Home Brewer.
MVS hired by Dancing Deer Cookie Company, www.dancingdeer.com
MVS hired by a leading manufacturing of breakfast sandwiches and sausages
to provide strategy and consumer insight.
November 2005
Mount Vernon Strategies would like congratulate its client, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters on being chosen as the branded coffee of choice by New England area McDonald’s franchisees. Read more at the AdAge web site.
According to T.J. Whalen, Director of Marketing at Green Mountain Coffee, research conducted by Mount Vernon Strategies was instrumental in this significant milestone for the company.
“As I think back to how the McD contract came to life, I recognize
that if we hadn't used Bruegger's as a stepping stone to introduce Fair
Trade organic coffee to the quick-casual segment, McD wouldn't have
had the confidence to move it forward. And without Mount Vernon’s
help on quantifying customer satisfaction at Bruegger's, we wouldn't
have gotten Bruegger's on board. So, this McD win is directly attributable
to the work of Mount Vernon Strategies. Thank you!”
-- 11/01/05 T.J. Whalen, Director of Marketing, Green Mountain Coffee
Roasters, Waterbury, VT
October 2005
MVS retained by a leading private equity firm to conduct consumer research in the family dining sector.
August 2005
MVS CEO Charles Collier is quoted in a Minneapolis Star Tribune news article (August 7, 2005) regarding the end of the Atkins era.
From the article: (click here to read online)
And then it was gone. In many ways, the Atkins craze was just like any other diet fad that's come and gone. But last week's bankruptcy filing by Atkins Nutritionals Inc. belied the deeper meaning of low-carb mania, which ripped through the mainstream food industry with greater force and speed than anyone anticipated.
In short, Atkins rewrote the way food companies have to approach their business, experts say.
Companies also need to research consumer tastes in more nontraditional ways, such as monitoring blogs, said Charles Collier, chief executive of the Boston consulting firm Mount Vernon Strategies.
One aspect of Atkins that is likely to live on long past its death is a new focus by both consumers and foodmakers on obesity, Collier said.
August 2005
Mount Vernon Strategies hired by Wachovia Capital Partners to research the gourmet grocery and take-out food sector.
July 2005
MVS hired by a leading private equity firm to perform a market study for one of its portfolio companies in the card and gift sector.
June 2005
MVS client The Vermont Teddy Bear Company announces that it will be taken private by an investment group led by The Mustang Group, LLC, a Boston-based private equity firm. Click here to view the complete press release.
May 2005
MVS CEO Charles Collier is quoted in the May 4 edition of The Boston Globe in an article regarding the sale of Dunkin' Donuts parent company, Allied Domecq PLC.
From the article:
Pernod SA, the French distiller that is buying the British parent of
Dunkin' Donuts, Baskin-Robbins ice cream, and Togo's sandwich shops,
said yesterday it has a long list of suitors for the restaurant chains.
Pernod, which is not in the restaurant business, is buying Allied Domecq
PLC along with US consumer products company Fortune Brands Inc. in a
$14.2 billion deal to bolster its portfolio of liquor brands and more
effectively compete against its largest rival Diageo PLC.
Pierre Pringuet, Pernod's joint managing director, said the company plans to sell the Canton restaurant business, Dunkin' Brands Inc., once its acquisition of Allied is complete sometime this summer because it wants to keep its focus entirely on liquor and spirits.
...
Charles Collier, chief executive of Boston strategic marketing firm Mount Vernon Strategies, said private equity investors are certainly interested in Dunkin' Brands, especially the company's crown jewel, Dunkin' Donuts.
But with Dunkin' Donuts in many Northeast cities and entrenched competitors from Starbucks Corp. to regional mom-and-pop shops in other regions, investors are wondering if there is enough growth left to merit the investment. If a private equity firm were to buy Dunkin' Brands for $2.3 billion, Collier said, it would want to sell it for a minimum of $5 billion down the road.
Collier said there may be more value in Baskin-Robbins and Togo's. Though the chain's sales are a fraction of Dunkin's and their growth in recent years has been disappointing, with the proper attention, Collier said, they could potentially offer a bigger return than Dunkin'.
''There's tremendous interest, but right now, people are waiting on
the sidelines and seeing who jumps in," Collier said.
March 2005
MVS hired by leading private equity firm to analyze frozen food market and potential acquisition.
February 2005
MVS hired by leading private equity firm to analyze the US mattress market.
January 2005
MVS CEO Charles Collier is quoted in the Dec 2004/Jan 2005 issue of New Nutrition Business in the article "Trend 4: Good carbs, bad carbs: the rise of whole-grains and low GI Good carbs, bad carbs: the rise of whole-grains and low GI."
From the article:
Nestlé, General Mills and Sara Lee are all doing it and soon, some say, the pressure will build on all food companies to head in the same direction.
Dr. Walter C. Willett, Chairman of the Department of Nutrition in the Harvard University School of Public Health, told New Nutrition Business that he foresees, “other mainstream companies joining this movement. The evidence that refined starches are not just empty calories but also have adverse health effects, including increasing triglylcerides, reducing HDL, and raising the risk of heart-disease and diabetes, is overwhelming. On the other hand, there is strong evidence that moderate intakes of whole-grains have positive health benefits.
“Thus,” Willett adds, “moving toward whole-grains is not only the right thing to do, it is a defensive move that companies will need to adopt unless they want to shrink.”
General Mills’ recent decision to re-formulate its entire breakfast cereal portfolio with whole-grains has been widely hailed (not least by this publication) as a visionary move by nutritionists and business people alike. It’s a move that both re-defines food and health strategy and serves public health goals (see Key Trend 1) – new dietary guidelines due out in January 2005 will call for increased consumption of whole-grains by Americans, whose whole-grain consumption is currently only a third of the minimum recommended level.
As America’s low-carb frenzy ebbs and consumers increasingly learn to discern between “good carbs” and “bad carbs” – the whole-grain and the refined and over-processed – the future for many companies will be to follow where General Mills is leading.
“You’re already seeing the mainstreaming of whole-grains,
and it will continue,” said Charles Collier,
chief executive officer of a Boston-based consumer-research consulting
firm that specializes in the consumer sector, Mt. Vernon Strategies.
“Companies like General Mills have seen the drop-off in low-carb
options and now have taken stock of where the consumer is in regard
to carbs. In my opinion, the consumer now is much more focused on what
is healthy for them, not just on losing weight. The no-carb trend kind
of peaked a year ago; since then, there’s been an upward trend
toward real carbs that aren’t bleached, adulterated foods.”
January 2005
MVS is hired by a leading private equity firm to research the scrap booking sector.
January 2005
Dear Clients and Friends of MVS:
We wanted to take this opportunity to wish everyone a prosperous, healthy, and safe 2005. Mount Vernon Strategies (MVS) is optimistic that the economy will continue to grow this year as companies become more focused on brand expansion and consumer outreach.
Consumers in 2004 continued to be bombarded by discounters and private label products, putting pressure on brand oriented companies to reconnect with the emotional heartstrings of their customers. MVS has thus continued its commitment to providing valuable consumer insight and brand strategy to retail, food and beverage, restaurant, gift, pet and packaged goods companies in response to this growing trend. We hope that our clients have valued our efforts in providing cost-effective, result-oriented services focused on return on investment.
We are honored to have continued working with many of our long standing clients in addition to developing relationships with many new and exciting companies. Furthermore, we are pleased to have established strong synergistic relationships with several national Private Equity firms that have significant consumer portfolios. MVS has provided numerous PE firms with vital consumer research and brand strategies for their portfolio companies as well as conducted due diligence and market research for potential acquisitions.
Our team, including Ed Haft, former President of Sara Lee, Tom First, Co-Founder of Nantucket Nectars, and Kevin Murphy, former COO of Ocean Spray is looking forward to a promising 2005. Again, all the best for the New Year and we look forward to hearing from you soon.
Regards,
Charles Collier
CEO
Mount Vernon Strategies
