TLL Feature
Food and beverage licensing has become one of the fastest growing categories in our industry and there has been one licensing agency dominating the genre for over 20 years: Brand Central.
With a combination of well-known clients, including top CPG brands and leading restaurants, and a consulting business with top food manufacturers, the agency is eating up the competition. Brand Central is not only the top agency in the Food and Beverage category by sales of licensed revenues; it also ranks at fifth by revenue for agencies across all categories.
For our 2024 Food and Beverage issue, I spent time with Ross Misher, the CEO of Brand Central, a pioneer in food and beverage licensing, discussing everything from trends to clients to new product launches.
TLL: How were your recent tradeshows and what were some of the highlights?
Ross Misher: We’ve had an exciting few months of tradeshows and new client announcements. The Sweets & Snacks Expo in May has become a particularly important show for Brand Central, as we meet with our clients and licensees to strategically plan the year ahead and showcase many of our new product launches. We also have a team at the show looking for new opportunities, partners, and noting the trends emerging in the sweets and snacks categories.
Then, a few days later, we turned around and headed out to Licensing Expo. This is our 23rd year at the show and we had nearly 1,000 meetings and walk-ups in just three days. One highlight was winning the Licensing International Excellence Award for Best Food, Beverage, or Restaurant brand for our program with Mars Wrigley’s M&M’S brand. We launched over 80 SKU’s with Mars Wrigley last year and it was a thrill to be recognized by our peers in the industry.
After six days in Vegas, our team headed out to the next show, the International Dairy, Deli, and Bakery Association (IDDBA) show. Again, many of our licensed products were on display, like Kraft Heinz’s Grey Poupon, A1, and several Tapatio licensees. We also met with some very exciting new licensees responsible for fast-growing and innovative products that may define the category in a few short years.
TLL: After all of these shows, you must have seen some of the latest food trends. What is going to be big in grocery stores in 2025?
Ross Misher: In 2025 we’re still going to see consumers chasing nostalgic flavors and snack combinations from childhood—especially Millennials.
- We saw tons of trendy flavors like PB&J, cereals, birthday cake, and cookie dough. This trend will continue to pop up in snacking, bakeries, and frozen foods.
- 2025 will also be another big year for international flavors—Gen Z and Gen Alpha are particularly interested in Korean, Japanese, and Indian flavors.
- We’re going to see more mainstream grocery stores tap into this trend with flavors like lychee, taro, and matcha and we’ll also see an increase in international brands on shelves thanks to demand from TikTok. Products like Samyang Buldak ramen used to only be found in Asian markets, and can now be found at most grocery stores!
- Young consumers are also obsessed with croissant mashups right now—the “crookie” was one of the most-searched desserts of the year.
- Pickles will still be a major trend in 2025 expanding into multiple categories and we’ll see this trend expand into other sour flavors like sourdough, which seems to be a flavor trend picking up momentum. We saw sourdough tortillas!
- The “swicy”, or sweet and spicy trend, is poised to be one of the biggest in 2025—consumers are loving this flavor combination across snacking, desserts, and even beverages like Dr. Pepper’s spicy flavor.
- Climate-friendly snacking has also been on the rise as more consumers seek out snacks with recycled packaging, upcycled ingredients, and foods that don’t disrupt the environment.
- Lastly, consumers will be looking for more function in their food. Gut health has been a major part of this trend, contributing to the meteoric rise of brands like Olipop. In the future, consumers will seek physical and mental benefits like stress relief, better sleep, energy, and more, as we are beginning to see with the introduction of non-alcoholic adaptogenic drinks such as Kin and Recess.
TLL: How did Brand Central first get expertise in the food and beverage category and why are you focusing on it?
Ross Misher: Back in 2005, we signed Kellogg’s, which was our first food and beverage client, and we worked together for many years. Over the next 20 years, we have been fortunate to work with some of the world’s largest and most desired food and beverage brands including Mars Wrigley, Kraft Heinz, Kellogg’s, Bimbo Bakeries, J.M. Smucker Co., Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Mondelez, Tapatio Hot Sauce, and restaurant brands such as Sonic Drive-In, Domino’s, Krispy Kreme, just to name a few.
Working with such a variety of food companies and interacting with their brand teams, marketing, and ad agencies, we have gained invaluable expertise in fostering win-win licensing partnerships in the food and beverage category. Our team knows the nuances of food and beverage licensing, from food innovation and R&D to stage gate processes and food safety. Although all our clients have different objectives and unique ways of working, we have found their goals to be fairly consistent: drive new consumers to the brand, build relevance and brand love, broaden the brand footprint beyond the core categories, amplify the brand to create cultural conversations and drive incremental, recurring revenue.
We continue to lean into our strength in food and beverage licensing because we realized that our deep relationships with the top CPG and category leaders give us a competitive advantage. In addition, food and beverage products are constantly turning, so the volume and scale of a successful program cannot compare to many slower turning categories in licensing. According to The Licensing Letter, Food and Beverage is the second largest category in licensing!
TLL: Do you have any exciting new food and beverage product launches you can share with us?
Ross Misher: This year we had an incredible mix of new product launches including exciting food products, buzzy collaborations, and everyday merchandise that people love! A few food and beverage highlights include a Kool-Aid collaboration with Rita’s, Kraft Mac & Cheese and Oscar Mayer Bacon cheese popcorn, a home run collaboration with Starburst and Sparkling Ice, a new line of Skittles beverages, and a co-branded line of Idahoan whipped mashed potatoes with Tapatio Hot Sauce.
On the merchandise side, we’re launching a collab with Heinz and Kate Spade in July. We launched Kraft Heinz pet toys, game controllers with Hyperkin, and have an upcoming program with Hallmark in October.
TLL: You have had a barrage of new clients announced in the last few months. Can you tell us about your plans?
Ross Misher: We have been working for about a year to sign several new clients and luckily, they all came on board right before the Licensing Expo. The first client we announced was the J.M Smucker Co. in April. They have the #1 brand in seven food and pet categories including Smuckers, Uncrustables, Jif, Folgers, Café Bustelo, Milk-Bone, and Meow Mix.
The response has been overwhelming across multiple categories from peanut butter & jelly snacks to pet accessories to ice cream.
Next, we announced Calypso Lemonade which is the #1 single lemonade served in the country. With a breadth of flavors and a tropical vibe, the brand will translate well into new food categories and lifestyle merchandise. In May, we announced Domino’s right before Licensing Expo. As the #1 pizza company in the world, we are so thrilled to extend the brand into delicious new food products that will be sought out by consumers everywhere. Finally, we recently announced an expanded relationship with Deutsch Family Wines by adding the viral sensation Josh Wines to our existing representation of Yellow Tail.
TLL: Your food and beverage expertise extends into your consulting business too. Tell us about some of your work helping manufacturers acquire licenses in this space.
Ross Misher: We have a dedicated team working on helping leading food and beverage manufacturers find the perfect IP to drive their business. We help these companies develop a strategy, tell their unique story and expertise, solicit potential licensors, negotiate the agreements, and help them manage the relationship with the IP owners. Our clients include manufacturers in ready to drink (RTD) alcoholic beverages, freezer bars, powdered drink sticks, nuts and trail mix, and jerky. A few exciting new launches include a partnership between our client Bimbo Bakeries’ Little Bites and Girl Scouts, a license with our client Coop Ale Works and Welch’s for an RTD cocktail, and our client Century Snacks and Hot Ones for flavored nuts.
TLL: What’s next for Brand Central?
Ross Misher: We are continuing our focus in food and beverage licensing while keeping an eye out for key trends across other verticals as well. We are grateful for all the success and support as well as recognition we received this year. If you are a food and beverage manufacturer or brand owner looking to use licensing as a tool for innovation and growth, we would love to meet you!
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