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Chinese beauty brands flock to Southeast Asia as their first step in going global | Fortune

LSD News Szerkesztőség — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 06:57:19 +0000

Following the immense popularity of Japanese and Korean beauty products, many Chinese cosmetic brands are now looking to go global. Their first stop? Southeast Asia.

Joy Group, the parent company behind C-beauty brands Judydoll and Joocyee, will open a store in Malaysia by the end of the year, after debuting its first overseas boutiques in Singapore last year.

“Southeast Asia has a huge consumer market, and people are generally very accepting of Chinese products,” Fanqi Kong, Joy Group’s general manager of international business, tells Fortune. Joy Group opened its Singapore office in 2024, which it designated as a regional hub to tap other Southeast Asian markets.

In 2025, the group’s retail sales exceeded $730 million, of which $87 million came from overseas sales. Vietnam is now Joy Group’s top overseas market.

Joy is part of a broader push by Chinese consumer brands to go global, a decision so common it’s even spawned a business buzzword, chuhai. Brutal competition at home has pushed Chinese brands like BYD, Geely, Huawei and Xiaomi to venture into overseas markets.

Chinese companies initially focused on Western markets like the U.S. and Europe in their global push. But many are now pivoting to Southeast Asia, where Chinese brands have found greater success, due to geographical proximity, cultural similarities, and generally young populations.

Between 2019 and 2024, Chinese color cosmetics and skincare brands in Southeast Asia reported compound annual growth rates of 70% and 115% respectively, according to data analytics firm Euromonitor.

“There was a perception among Chinese businesses that exporting their products to the most established markets is the best way to promote their brand,” says Dianna Chang, an associate professor at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS). “But now, they’re finding a lot of relevance in Southeast Asia—it’s closer to home and encompasses many emerging economies with young populations.”

How Chinese brands got ahead

Consumers previously wrote off Chinese goods as inferior, as Chinese manufacturers prioritized quick market entry over original designs. “There were jokes going around about how Chery QQ cars wouldn’t pass the crash test,” says Lewis Lim, an associate professor from Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU). “And when Xiaomi entered the smartphone market in 2014, it was seen as a functional, affordable option—you couldn’t expect too much from it, but it worked.”

Yet over time, Chinese workers picked up technical know-how by working for foreign multinationals. “Some of the most advanced cosmetics were manufactured in China in the past, so workers learned how to make them,” says Chang. “Skincare is built a lot on chemistry, so the foundational understanding of material science also matters.”

China has also poured large sums of money into research and development. In 2024, China invested $1.03 trillion into R&D, ahead of the U.S.’s $1.01 trillion, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

“The one big difference between the Chinese expansion and previous efforts from Japanese and Korean brands is that they are backed by a government eager to increase its soft, cultural power across the world, especially starting with its Asian neighborhood,” says Seshan Ramaswami, a marketing expert from the Singapore Management University (SMU).

Chinese firms have also learned to better market their products internationally. “They’re learning from foreign brands about the importance of branding, storytelling and packaging,” says Chang. “For instance, some C-beauty brands have opted to focus more on Chinese heritage, and weave in elements of traditional Chinese medicine.”

The growing popularity of Chinese pop culture—including minute-long microdramas and TikTok reels of ‘cyberpunk’ cities like Chongqing—is also boosting the popularity of C-beauty brands. “After drinking boba tea and watching Chinese dramas, it’s natural for people to begin to accept and purchase C-beauty products,” Lim says.

C-beauty firms are broadening their product offerings to cater to a wider array of customers. Joy Group has expanded its shade ranges to include deeper skin tone options, and is rolling out sunscreen cushions and waterproof lip ink designed for Southeast Asia’s hot and humid climate.

“Within Southeast Asia, we’re experimenting with a self-operating model, and building our own local entities and teams,” says Kong. Apart from its few boutiques in Singapore, Joy Group sells its goods through e-commerce platforms like Shopee, Lazada and Tiktok Shop and in omnichannel retail stores like Sephora, Lazada, and Watsons.

Going beyond Southeast Asia

C-beauty giants haven’t abandoned lucrative Western markets. Flower Knows, the viral fairy-themed C-beauty brand, entered the U.S. in 2024 via retail partnerships with Ulta Beauty and Urban Outfitters; Joy Group pushed into the European market last year, after acquiring Italian dermatological hair care brand Foltène. Many newer C-beauty brands, like Florasis, Perfect Diary and Catkin, also debuted with English names to boost their international appeal.

Yet whether C-beauty brands can effectively break into more culturally distinct markets, like the West and the Middle East, remains to be seen.

“It would be easier for ‘hard’ products like EVs, since the competitive advantage mainly lies in the strength of the technology,” Lim concludes, pointing to how BYD cars are already selling well globally. “But products like cosmetics have to be adapted to the biological needs of your skin, so it might be hard for C-beauty brands to break into other markets as easily.”

Harry’s and Coterie owner Mammoth Brands has ambitions to be the next CPG giant

LSD News Szerkesztőség — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 03:53:21 +0000

Mammoth Brands wants to take on traditional consumer packaged goods companies, armed with a portfolio of disruptors in the personal and baby care categories that have won over consumers and retailers alike.

For the last decade, upstarts like those owned by Mammoth have challenged the relevance and longstanding dominance of legacy giants like Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Kimberly-Clark. The trend has also played out across packaged food and beverage companies, like Poppi and Olipop taking on Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. Consumers’ loyalty no longer draws on just brand recognition. Newcomers can offer shoppers something different: better prices, higher quality or fewer ingredients that scare them.

“A lot of these companies call these smaller brands ‘ankle biters’ — tells you exactly what you need to know about how they view the threat,” said Nik Modi, co-head of global consumer and retailer research for RBC Capital Markets. “But I think that they’re taking it a lot more seriously. I think it’s gotten to a tipping point.”

With brands like Harry’s razors, Lume Deodorant and Coterie diapers, Mammoth is reshaping the consumer goods landscape, and it has ambitious plans.

“We’re trying to build a leading modern [consumer packaged goods] company, like if Procter & Gamble and Unilever were getting built today,” Mammoth co-founder and co-CEO Andy Katz-Mayfield told CNBC.

In 2024, Mammoth saw revenue of $835 million and almost $100 million in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, according to a statement from the company. While legacy consumer giants still dwarf the company with their tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue, Mammoth said it has seen a greater than 20% revenue compound annual growth rate over the prior five years through 2024.

Soon, a wider swath of investors could bet on the company’s vision. Mammoth is weighing an initial public offering as soon as the second half of this year, according to a Bloomberg report.

“Today, our private company, we make money, which is great, and we have opportunity to continue to invest in the brands in our portfolio,” said Mammoth’s other co-founder and co-CEO Jeff Raider. “We’ll continue to evaluate the right capital structure for the business over time to enable us to achieve that long-term outcome.”

In the meantime, Mammoth seems focused on challenging existing CPG giants.

Harry’s began as a razor brand but has expanded into a skincare and men’s personal care.

Source: Mammoth Brands

From start-up to Mammoth

The early seeds of Mammoth began in 2013, when Katz-Mayfield and Raider founded Harry’s. Katz-Mayfield came up with the idea for the startup based on his frustration with the status quo of buying $20 replacement razor blades.

“I called up Jeff,” Katz-Mayfield said. “We decided to build a men’s grooming brand that was a really high quality product at great value, a better overall experience, online led, and I really do think that’s really at the core of everything that guides Mammoth Brands.”

Katz-Mayfield and Raider had previously worked together at Charlesbank Capital Partners and Bain & Company. Before founding Harry’s, Raider co-founded Warby Parker.

Like the glasses startup, Harry’s began online, becoming another disruptor during the era of direct-to-consumer brands. By 2016, it had gained enough customers to land on Target shelves.

Harry’s DTC origins allowed it to tweak its razors and win over customers who were previously loyal to the traditional grooming giants.

Its DTC operating model also helped underscore who the company views as its core customer: the shopper. But traditional CPG companies typically view retailers as their customer, not the person that eventually buys and uses their products.

That perspective influences those companies’ innovation strategies, according to Katz-Mayfield. For example, a CPG company could make a few small tweaks to create a new SKU, or stock keeping unit, to replace an underperforming product SKU, allowing that brand to hold onto its existing shelf space and placate its retail customer, according to Katz-Mayfield.

“It’s not that some of those brands aren’t great and some of those products aren’t great, but … the innovation was driven by a strategy which is, the only way we can grow is to increase prices, and so on,” Katz-Mayfield said. “The only way we can justify price increases is to add bells and whistles that consumers don’t actually want.”

Harry’s made its way to more retailers after Target. The brand stuck to its DTC roots though, insisting on launching new products online first to get feedback from loyal customers.

In 2018, Harry’s launched Flamingo, a women’s shaving and body care brand with the same ethos.

Then the legacy giants came knocking.

In 2019, Schick owner Edgewell Personal Care announced it was buying Harry’s for $1.37 billion. Three years earlier, Unilever had bought Dollar Shave Club, another razor disruptor, for $1 billion. (In 2023, Unilever sold the razor brand to a private equity firm.)

Edgewell offered Harry’s the chance to use its expertise in the direct-to-consumer business model and apply it to the company’s brands, according to Raider. But the Federal Trade Commission sued to block the deal on antitrust grounds, which led Edgewell to walk away from the acquisition.

Still, Katz-Mayfield and Raider held onto their vision of helping other brands achieve success.

“The barriers to starting a brand are lower than they’ve ever been,” Katz-Mayfield said. “Our perspective is that really scaling and maintaining these brands is still really hard.”

Harry’s created an incubator lab, launching cat care brand Cat Person and haircare brand Headquarters. It has since sold Cat Person to Weruva and wound down Headquarters, teaching the Harry’s team the value of staying more focused on what it considers core personal care categories.

Harry’s Labs also invested in the seed round of Hims, but has since sold its minority stake.

“Investing is not really part of the strategy,” Katz-Mayfield said. “We did that at the time as we were testing and learning how we’re going to build the platform. It was a great outcome for us, because [Hims] had a lot of success and the investment was worth a lot.”

In 2021, the company bought Lume Deodorant, which sells sticks, tubes and spray that can be used all over the body. The brand is widely credited with establishing the whole-body deodorant segment. Within two years of the deal, Lume’s sales had more than doubled, according to Mammoth.

The Lume acquisition helped Mammoth learn more about selling on Amazon, where the brand had more experience than Harry’s and Flamingo did, according to Katz-Mayfield.

Building off of the Lume acquisition, Harry’s launched Mando deodorants in late 2022, marketing the same concept to men.

In April 2025, Harry’s Labs officially rebranded as Mammoth Brands. And its next acquisition further demonstrated its desire to be the next big CPG company.

Coterie’s range of premium diapers

Source: Mammoth Brands

Growing with a baby business

In late 2025, Mammoth bought Coterie, a high-end diaper brand founded in 2019 with celebrity investors like Karlie Kloss and Ashley Graham.

The deal was reportedly valued at over $1 billion and involved a mix of cash and stock. Mammoth said in October that Coterie surpassed $200 million in net revenue over the previous 12 months, a nearly 60% jump from the prior-year period.

Coterie’s premium diapers can cost as much as $1 per unit, a steep price for some parents. But the brand has found many consumers are willing to pay more for the product, which promises high absorbency without added fragrance, latex, rubber, parabens, pesticides or chlorine bleaching. Coterie has been “very profitable” over the last three years, according to the brand’s CEO Jess Jacobs.

“Seventy-four percent of parents are willing to pay more for better-for-you products,” she told CNBC. “Parents are looking for better and deserve better, and they’re questioning the status quo, just like we are as a brand and as a company.”

Forty-three percent of the brand’s new customers come from word of mouth alone, according to Coterie.

Under Mammoth, Coterie now has the advantages of being a part of a bigger company; it can learn from e-commerce strategies for Amazon that currently work for Mammoth’s brands. As Coterie broadens its retail exposure beyond higher-end grocers like Whole Foods and Erewhon, Mammoth can introduce it to more retailers. And diapers are complicated to manufacture, so Mammoth can help support that process as Coterie continues to create innovate on its diapers.

For example, Coterie is currently in talks to add more retail partners. And Mammoth sees bigger potential for the brand, too.

“Coterie is a brand that can really extend across baby care,” Katz-Mayfield said. “It’s not just a diaper brand.”

But Coterie’s success has caught the attention of legacy players, who are eager to adapt some of the upstart’s playbook.

Threat to legacy players

For decades, a handful of companies have dominated the household goods and family and personal care categories. Their portfolios are chock-full of iconic brands used every day by Americans, and their histories often stretch back more than a century.

In 1837, soap maker James Gamble and candlemaker William Procter became business partners, creating the company that still carries their names today.

Originally founded as a paper mill company in 1872, Kimberly-Clark now owns a host of brands like Kleenex, Huggies and Cottonelle. It went public nearly a century ago.

In 1930, a merger between a Dutch margarine producer and a British soap maker gave birth to Unilever.

While those massive companies competed with each other, it was nearly impossible for a newcomer to gain a foothold in their well-established categories. For a nascent company, launching a new product was pricey and difficult, as legacy brands held onto their shelf space with a death grip and retailers were reluctant to take a chance.

But over the last decade, these consumer giants have faced a new threat from upstarts.

“We are really seeing competition in CPG has fundamentally intensified, and it’s coming everywhere,” said Sally Lyons Wyatt, chief advisor for Circana’s consumer goods and foodservice insights division. “Small manufacturers are gaining share. Digital and social platforms are lowering the barrier for entry for a lot of these smaller brands.”

The rise of e-commerce meant launching a new consumer packaged good was not the daunting task it used to be. A successful direct-to-consumer business often leads retailers to come knocking on the newcomers’ doors.

“The big retailers have also made the case that they want these culturally relevant brands in their stores to bring in consumers,” RBC Capital Markets’ Modi said.

And social media has also transformed how consumers think about what products to buy.

“Cultural relevance is now equal to or superseded brand equity,” Modi said. “If you think about it, most of the big brands are not losing share to other big brands. They’re losing share to the smaller disruptive brands.”

Look no further than diapers, a $5.43 billion market in the U.S., according to Euromonitor International data.

In Procter & Gamble’s fiscal second quarter, which ended in December, its U.S. diaper volume shrank 2%. Its Pampers had fallen to second place in U.S. diaper sales, trailing Kimberly-Clark’s Huggies for the first time since 2021, according to Euromonitor data.

“I don’t want to gloss over the fact that we have work to do to recover share,” P&G CFO Andre Schulten told analysts on the company’s earnings conference call in January.

While Coterie is growing fast, it remains a much smaller diaper brand than Huggies and Pampers. Still, it looks like P&G has taken note of its success.

P&G had challenged Coterie’s claim that its diapers were up to four times more absorbent than leading brands. A year ago, the Better Business Bureau’s National Programs’ National Advertising Division recommended that Coterie stop using the claim, which the diaper brand followed.

In March, P&G launched Pampers Amore, a line of premium diapers that it touts as “microbiome compatible” and “hypoallergenic.” Most tellingly, the line’s own packaging directly pits it against Coterie; it claims that its liner keeps babies three times drier than Coterie.

“The reality is, they are chasing something that is already gone,” Coterie’s Jacobs said. “We carved out that premium category, we’ve grown it. It’s growing 20% since 2020 and 10% year over year. And they’re late. So it’s a question of, can they move faster? Can they be more nimble, and can they get ahead? And the reality is, at this point, and certainly in diaper, it does not seem like they can.”

Jacobs estimates that Coterie is roughly 18 months ahead of legacy diaper brands.

But CPG giants still have some advantages, according to Modi. For example, the war with Iran is complicating supply chains for key components like packaging materials. While still a headache for legacy brands, they are able to navigate the challenge more nimbly thanks to their size and bargaining power.

And then there is innovation. Modi said that he thinks that big brands still have better research and development teams, which should help them create the best product possible.

And Kimberly-Clark’s exposure to the very competitive Asian diaper market is fueling its innovation, CEO Michael Hsu said that Barclays Americas Select Conference in May.

“We’re going to go through these trial cycles where people are going to try these new things, and they’re like ‘Yeah, maybe I don’t like this as much,'” Modi said. “And they start switching back to some of the bigger brands where the products actually work.”

Rather than trying to beat them, some legacy players have decided to join the upstarts instead. Procter & Gamble bought Native deodorant for $100 million and turned it into one of the company’s dozens of billion dollar brands, by Modi’s estimate. Unilever has snapped up a number of challenger brands, like Gruns, the DTC supplement gummy brand, and Squatch, which sells personal care products aimed at men.

But those deals aren’t always a success for the buyer — or the seller. Sometimes their corporate cultures don’t mesh, or the new owner does not know how to incubate a smaller brand, according to Modi.

For many legacy players, Modi thinks that the best strategy is to create new brands, rather than trying to bring existing lines up to speed.

“It’s about how quickly they can move and how willing they are to be patient and develop a brand,” Modi said, adding that many companies lack the willingness to wait for a small brand to grow into one worth $1 billion.

Becoming a giant?

For its part, Mammoth is trying to prove itself as the kind of company with the ability to help upstarts become personal care powerhouses.

“We would rather have a small portfolio of large brands than a large portfolio of small brands,” Katz-Mayfield said.

Going forward, he and Raider want to add more brands in what they call the “everyday care and wellness” categories. They are looking to add more products to their portfolio that are in “consumable consumer categories,” barring human food and beverages.

“We’re really dogmatic about some of these things that we would never do M&A just to do M&A and buy scale and growth, because we’re not trying to flip these things. We’re trying to own them forever,” Katz-Mayfield said.

Unlike traditional consumer goods companies, Mammoth is less focused on entering specific categories to complement its overall portfolio and instead more interested in customer retention and its growth prospects across e-commerce and brick-and-mortar retail, according to Katz-Mayfield.

“We have to believe that something is online-led but has big omnichannel potential,” he said. “It can be a big $200, $300 million-plus brand because that’s where we’re going to add the most value, helping those brands scale on that journey.”

Mammoth has a team that tracks new brands, starting when they begin to gain traction on social media or Amazon. But every potential acquisition is likely also getting attention from legacy CPG companies or venture capital and private equity firms.

To founders, Mammoth gives its pitch as an owner that offers independence and autonomy, with the infrastructure and corporate support that can introduce upstarts to big retailers like Target. Mammoth also wants the founders and executive teams to stay on for a while.

“We kind of view ourselves as a little of a Goldilocks,” Katz-Mayfield said.

And a new acquisition is likely coming to Mammoth sooner rather than later. The company is primarily focused on growing its portfolio through dealmaking, according to Katz-Mayfield.

“For us, I think like one or two deals a year is probably the right pace,” he said, adding that he believes that Mammoth will have portfolio of eight to 10 brands within the next three or four years.

For all the focus on M&A, innovation hasn’t stopped at Mammoth’s existing brands. For example, Harry’s has been expanding its range of skincare for men.

“The way we think about it, these brands are still pretty early in their journey,” Katz-Mayfield said. “They all have tremendous potential.”

Mammoth still launches new products online first, demonstrating the company’s continued belief in the DTC business model, despite rumors of its demise. About half of Mammoth’s revenue still comes from online sales, according to the company.

“I think DTC is the single greatest place on the planet to build products and brands,” Raider said.

But the buzziest news for Mammoth will likely be its initial public offering, although the co-CEOs played coy about those potential plans.

“Don’t know where that came from,” Katz-Mayfield said when asked about the Bloomberg report about a potential IPO as soon as this year that identified four banks reportedly working on the deal.

“We’re fortunate that we make money as a company, and we’re able to use some of that cash flow,” he added. “We’ve always been sort of more agnostic to what the structure is, but we certainly want a set up that allows us to have access to capital, whether that’s privately or publicly, at some point in the future to pursue that strategy.”

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Dunkin’ owner Inspire Brands confidentially files for IPO

LSD News Szerkesztőség — Sat, 09 May 2026 08:29:42 +0000

A cup of coffee and strawberry frosted donut with sprinkles at a Dunkin’ Donuts location in Los Angeles, Sept. 6, 2017.

Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Dunkin’ and Buffalo Wild Wings owner Inspire Brands has confidentially filed for an initial public offering, the company announced on Friday.

If Inspire goes public, it will be one of the biggest-ever restaurant offerings. Private equity firm Roark Capital, which backs Inspire, is reportedly seeking a valuation of roughly $20 billion.

Inspire was founded in 2018 through a merger between Arby’s and Buffalo Wild Wings. Acquisitions followed: Sonic Drive-In later in 2018 and Jimmy John’s in 2019. And in 2020, Inspire took Dunkin’ and its sister chain Baskin Robbins private in an $11 billion deal.

Across those six chains, Inspire has more than 33,300 restaurants worldwide and $33.4 billion in annual sales, according to the company’s website.

Inspire isn’t the only restaurant company pursuing an IPO. Last month, Jersey Mike’s also announced that it had confidentially filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The market for initial public offerings has been tepid, although that could change later this year. Market volatility, economic uncertainty and recent poor performance among IPO stocks has led to a backlog of listings.

However, several blockbuster IPOs, such as the SpaceX offering that could value the company at more than $1 trillion, are anticipated in the coming months.

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Yum Brands earnings top estimates, fueled by Taco Bell’s 8% same-store sales growth

LSD News Szerkesztőség — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 12:15:40 +0000

Facade of a Taco Bell Cantina restaurant in Danville, California, Jan. 8, 2026.

Smith Collection | Gado | Archive Photos | Getty Images

Yum Brands on Wednesday reported quarterly earnings and revenue that topped analysts’ expectations, fueled by another strong quarter for Taco Bell.

Here’s what the company reported compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: $1.50 adjusted vs. $1.38 expected
Revenue: $2.06 billion vs. $2.04 billion expected

Yum reported first-quarter net income of $432 million, or $1.55 per share, up from $253 million, or 90 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding charges related to its strategic review of Pizza Hut and other items, the company earned $1.50 per share.

Net sales climbed 15% to $2.06 billion, lifted by higher revenue from company-owned restaurants. Last year, the company bought more than 100 Taco Bell locations across the Southeast with a goal of accelerating development and profitability.

Across Yum, global same-store sales rose 3%, driven by growth at Taco Bell, the gem of the company’s portfolio.

Taco Bell’s same-store sales increased 8%, topping Wall Street’s estimates of 5.6% growth, according to a survey by StreetAccount.

“Taco Bell delivered an outstanding 8% same-store sales growth, meaningfully ahead of the [quick-service restaurant] industry, building off a very strong Q1 same-store sales growth rate in 2025,” Yum CEO Chris Turner said in a statement.

KFC reported same-store sales growth of 2%, shy of the 2.5% increase projected by StreetAccount. While the fried chicken chain’s international business is considered one of Yum’s “growth engines,” its U.S. business has struggled in recent years, buckling under increased competition and consumers’ value expectations. KFC U.S. system sales fell 2% during the first quarter.

To win back customers, KFC is taking some cues from Taco Bell’s successful playbook by leaning into innovation and affordability.

Similarly, Pizza Hut saw stronger results outside of its home market. The struggling pizza chain reported flat same-store sales globally, although its international business saw same-store sales rise 2% in the quarter. Its U.S. same-store sales shrank 4%.

Analysts were projecting global same-store sales declines of 0.7% for Pizza Hut, according to StreetAccount.

In November, Yum said it would explore strategic options for the chain, which has long been the laggard of its portfolio. Several private equity firms, including Apollo Global Management and Sycamore Partners, are among the potential buyers vying for Pizza Hut, Reuters reported earlier this month.

While Yum did not provide an update on the strategic review on Wednesday, its earnings release did include a bullet point showing the company’s system sales, unit count and core operating profit excluding Pizza Hut.

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Constellation Brands, U.S. maker of Modelo and Corona, withdraws 2028 guidance due to uncertainty

LSD News Szerkesztőség — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 14:10:20 +0000

Modelo beer is displayed on a shelf at a Safeway store on Oct. 6, 2025 in San Anselmo, California.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Constellation Brands, U.S. maker of Modelo and Corona, withdrew its previously issued fiscal 2028 outlook on Wednesday and reported slightly weaker demand as consumers navigate a rapidly evolving macroenvironment.

The company said it was encouraged by the momentum in the fourth quarter across its beer and wine and spirits businesses, but the larger environment indicates lingering uncertainty. Constellation Brands also previously appointed Nicholas Fink as its new CEO, effective April 13.

“We expect the operating environment to remain dynamic given the evolving socioeconomic backdrop and limited near-term visibility,” the company said in a statement.

Still, the company beat Wall Street expectations for its fourth quarter and full fiscal-year results.

Here’s how the company performed in the fourth quarter, compared with what Wall Street was expecting based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: $1.90 per share adjusted vs. $1.72 per share expected
Revenue: $1.92 billion vs. $1.88 billion expected

For the fourth quarter, the company reported net income of $224.7 million, up from a loss of $370.6 million a year prior.

The company said its beer business continues to be one of its biggest sources of growth, though its overall net sales for fiscal 2026 decreased by 3%.

“We do expect that we will return to growth and that the headwinds that we’re facing today are more cyclical in nature than they are structural,” CFO Garth Hankinson said on a call with analysts on Thursday.

For fiscal 2027, the company said it expects adjusted EPS of between $11.20 and $11.90 compared with estimates of $12.36 per share. Constellation Brands said that spending behavior across alcohol categories became more “deliberate” because of broader economic uncertainty, with overall demand across its categories remaining “subdued” for most of the year.

“Things have been very volatile in terms of what the consumer reaction has been and our continuing research suggests that the consumer is still cautious,” CEO Bill Newlands said on the Thursday call.

– CNBC’s Brandon Gomez contributed to this report.

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Some baby formula brands contain lead, arsenic and other heavy metals, Consumer Reports says

LSD News Szerkesztőség — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 23:40:55 +0000

Some popular baby formula brands contain heavy metals, including arsenic, lead and PFAS, or “forever” chemicals, according to a new report from Consumer Reports.

The nonprofit consumer advocacy organization found that more than half of the 49 powdered, liquid, and alternative protein and hypoallergenic formulas it tested contained “potentially concerning levels” of harmful contaminants.

“Repeated exposure to these contaminants can lead to negative health consequences for babies, especially because they are so small and all of their organ systems are still developing,” Sana Mujahid, Consumer Reports’ manager of food safety research and testing, told CBS News. “And sometimes, this isn’t their only source of exposure to these contaminants, which can also come from water.”

While the market for infant formula is regulated, such products don’t always “escape the effects of environmental pollution or process contamination,” Consumer Reports said. There are also no limits on the levels of contaminants allowed in baby formulas in the U.S., while manufacturers aren’t required to test formula for their presence.

In an investigation last year, Consumer Reports found lead and arsenic in a number of powdered infant formulas. At the time, government food regulators pledged to increase oversight and testing of such products.

Safe brands available

Consumer Reports found that, among the 23 liquid baby formulas it evaluated, eight were either free of any heavy metals or contained low levels.

“Fortunately, the results of our tests show that there are still many safe, inexpensive options for parents on the market today,” Consumer Reports said, noting that many such products are available through subsidized programs like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.

About half of all baby formula purchased in the U.S. is made by two companies, Abbott Nutrition and Mead Johnson, Consumer Reports noted. Perrigo also makes many store-brand formulas.

Abbott and Mead Johnson challenged Consumer Reports’ findings, saying that trace levels of heavy metals occur naturally in the environment and throughout the food supply.

“Abbott’s infant formulas are safe, and parents can use them confidently,” a company spokesperson told Consumer Reports, adding that its infant formulas sold in the U.S. comply with heavy metal regulations in the EU and Canada.

Mead Johnson told the publication it employs “stringent testing protocols” and takes steps to “reduce the levels of unintended materials in our products, which meet all safety and quality standards set by U.S. and global regulatory bodies.”

Perrigo also said it assesses its products for risks and tests for contaminants.

The companies didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from CBS News.

Bill to tighten federal rules

Mujahid encouraged parents to speak with their child’s pediatrician about the formula they use and discuss any concerns. Consumer Reports also advises parents not to make their own formula and to ensure they use clean water when mixing powdered formula.

A bill introduced by Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan last year, the Protect Infant Formula from Contamination Act, would require infant formula makers to notify the Food and Drug Administration within one business day of discovering contamination, misbranding or adulteration of infant formula. The measure passed the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in January.

Edited by

Alain Sherter and

Aimee Picchi

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Restaurant Brands shares fall despite earnings beat, strong international growth

LSD News Szerkesztőség — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 16:00:31 +0000

Restaurant Brands International on Thursday reported quarterly earnings and revenue that topped expectations, fueled by strong international growth.

However, executives said that Burger King’s progress on remodeling U.S. restaurants slowed last year in response to higher costs, and the chain will no longer meet its 2028 deadline to modernize 85% of its domestic locations. The news disappointed investors, and shares of the company fell 6% in afternoon trading.

Here’s what the company reported for the period ended Dec. 31 compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: 96 cents adjusted vs. 95 cents expected
Revenue: $2.47 billion vs. $2.41 billion expected

Restaurant Brands reported fourth-quarter net income attributable to shareholders of $113 million, or 34 cents per share, down from $259 million, or 79 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding transaction costs, restructuring expenses and other items, the company reported adjusted earnings of 96 cents per share.

Net sales rose 7.4% to $2.47 billion. Stripping out currency fluctuations and sales from restaurants it plans to refranchise, Restaurant Brands’ organic revenue ticked up 6.5%.

The company’s same-store sales increased 3.1%, fueled by strong international growth.

Outside of the U.S. and Canada, Restaurant Brands’ same-store sales climbed 6.1%. International Burger King restaurants, which represents the bulk of the segment, saw same-store sales growth of 5.8%.

Analysts were projecting international same-store sales growth of just 3.7%, based on StreetAccount estimates.

And Restaurant Brands plans to keep growing its business abroad. In November, the company announced its plan to form a joint venture for Burger King China to accelerate expansion. Under the terms of the deal, which closed in late January, CPE, a Chinese alternative asset manager, owns roughly 83% of Burger King China. Restaurant Brands has retained a minority stake of about 17%, along with a seat on the board of directors.

Restaurant results

Canadian coffee chain Tim Hortons reported same-store sales growth of 2.9%, although Wall Street was projecting an increase of 3.8%, according to StreetAccount. Tim Hortons accounted for 46% of Restaurant Brands’ overall revenue during the quarter.

Burger King reported overall same-store sales growth of 2.7%, topping StreetAccount estimates of 2.4%. The burger chain has leaned into promotions, like the SpongeBob SquarePants menu that launched in December, to fuel traffic growth from families.

“We didn’t need to rely on deep discounting to drive top-line results,” Restaurant Brands Executive Chairman Patrick Doyle said on the company’s conference call.

The chain offers $5 duo and $7 trio combo meals to reach budget-conscious diners, but it has kept its value offerings consistent, helping Burger King save on marketing dollars, Restaurant Brands CEO Josh Kobza told CNBC.

Burger King has also dealt with higher costs, particularly from rising beef prices. Executives said beef costs climbed 20% in 2025, putting pressure on profits for the chain and its franchisees.

Popeyes was the laggard of Restaurant Brands’ portfolio. Its same-store sales fell 4.8%, a steeper decline than the 2.4% decrease forecast by Wall Street.

But the company has plans to revive the embattled fried chicken chain. To bring back customers, Popeyes needs to focus on its operations and core menu items, like its famous chicken sandwich, Kobza said.

In November, Restaurant Brands tapped Burger King veteran Peter Perdue to lead the chain’s U.S. and Canadian business; last month, the company also named Popeyes veteran Matt Rubin as the chain’s latest chief marketing officer.

“We’ve been very upfront that sales are not where they should be, and you saw us make leadership changes in 2025 and earlier this year,” Doyle said. “As a result, I’m confident that the steps we’re taking, particularly the renewed focus on operations, consistency and brand standards, will translate into better performance over time.”

Restaurant Brands plans to share more of its ideas to grow the business at its investor day in Miami on Feb. 26.

Lunar New Year gives luxury brands a chance to win back big spenders in China

LSD News Szerkesztőség — Sun, 15 Feb 2026 03:56:31 +0000

Luxury brands from Harry Winston to Loewe are going all in on Lunar New Year collections in a bid to attract Chinese customers.

Ahead of the Year of the Horse, which starts on Tuesday, Harry Winston unveiled a limited-edition, $81,500 rose gold watch with diamond bezels and a red lacquer horse. High-end fashion brand Chloé released a capsule collection, ranging from $250 silk scarves to a $5,300 snakeskin and leather shoulder bag with a horse head and tail linked by a horsebit chain. A slew of other brands, including Loewe, Gucci and Loro Piana, have introduced new bag charms with horse motifs.

The Year of the Horse arrives at a time of cautious optimism for designer brands and could mark the start of a China’s luxury market comeback.

Chinese consumers were once the primary driver for the global luxury sector but have cut back sharply in recent years, weighed down by the country’s slowing economy and depressed housing values.

The Chinese luxury market stood at about 350 billion RMB in 2024, or about $50 billion, according to estimates from Bain. While the consultancy estimates that market contracted by 3% to 5% in 2025, Bain analysts noted that the sector started showing signs of recovery in the second half of 2025 on the back of stronger stock market performance and consumer confidence.

Loewe celebrated Year of the Horse with storefront installation in Shanghai, China.

Ying Tang/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Bernstein senior analyst Luca Solca said he predicts Chinese luxury spending will stabilize, forecasting mid-single-digit percentage growth in 2026. However, the market is still far more competitive than at its peak, he said.

Before the Covid pandemic, Chinese consumers accounted for about one-third of the global luxury goods market, according to Solca. That percentage has since dipped to about 23%, he said.

The luxury market’s fortunes do not solely rest on Lunar New Year, but it is an opportunity for Western brands to show respect for Chinese culture, he said.

The annual holiday is associated with the colors red and gold, which symbolize good luck and fortune in Chinese culture. Each Lunar New Year is represented by one of 12 Chinese zodiac animals. Last year’s animal was the snake.

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But Solca said in order to best capture the Chinese luxury consumer, brands need to go beyond the expected motifs.

“The Chinese are no longer in awe of anything that comes from the West,” Solca said. “A perfunctory interpretation of CNY is not going to go far.”

Veronique Yang, who leads BCG’s consumer practice in Greater China, said literal interpretations can come across as lazy or even disrespectful to Chinese consumers. Younger shoppers are also looking for fresher takes, she said.

“Chinese young people, they respect the old Chinese culture, but to be honest, a lot of parts of it they don’t understand, or they want it to be reinterpreted in a modern way,” she said. “It’s important to weave a narrative that connects the heritage with a contemporary vision.”

Lunar New Year collections date back to the early 2010s, as Western brands were eager to tap into the rapidly growing Chinese luxury consumer market, according to Daniel Langer, professor of luxury strategy at Pepperdine University. At the time, newly wealthy Chinese consumers were eager to spend on designer goods, especially when they traveled abroad, he said, as there were few luxury boutiques in China outside major cities like Shanghai and Beijing.

Now, with broader access and more choice, brands have to work harder to bring in new clients.

And in the 12 years since the last Year of the Horse, Chinese high-income consumers have become more discerning, Langer said.

“They’ve been to the best places in the world. They’ve dined in the best restaurants in the world. They’ve shopped in the best shops in the world. Their expectations towards brands are significantly higher,” he said. “China has completely changed from a country where there was pent up demand for luxury goods to a country of the highest sophistication.”

Burberry’s Lunar New Year products.

Courtesy of Burberry

They also have grown accustomed to spending less on Western brands between pandemic travel restrictions and the rise of domestic high-end labels, according to Langer.

Before the pandemic, Chinese consumers did most of their luxury shopping abroad. Pandemic travel restrictions permanently changed that dynamic. According to Bain, two-thirds of Chinese luxury goods spending was done abroad in 2019. Last year, overseas spending made up only a third.

The Year of the Horse provides a natural opportunity for a sizable number of Western brands to connect to the holiday. Langer said he preferred brands who take a less literal approach, such as Loewe, which adorned its signature Puzzle bags with fringes and tassels for a cowboy aesthetic.

Yang noted, however, that the year’s zodiac animal is a good luck symbol only for people who were born in that year, which makes playing too much into horse imagery a risk.

Instead, she said, brands can use immersive experiences to connect to Chinese customers, especially younger ones, in a more authentic way.

Valentino, for instance, held a three-day lantern festival in January at Tianhou Palace, a historic temple along the Suzhou Creek in Shanghai. Burberry launched an extensive Lunar New Year campaign in mid-December, with Chinese brand ambassadors and a pop-up boutique and ice rink in Beijing.

“There’s a lot of different cultural elements that you can integrate and build a narrative around,” Yang said. “It’s not only about animals.”

Yum Brands posts mixed quarter, Taco Bell shines

LSD News Szerkesztőség — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 15:26:27 +0000

A customer enters a Taco Bell restaurant in El Cerrito, California, US, on Tuesday, April 29, 2025.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Yum Brands on Wednesday reported mixed quarterly results, despite strong demand for Taco Bell.

Here’s what the company reported for the period ended Dec. 31 compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: $1.73 adjusted vs. $1.77 expected
Revenue: $2.51 billion vs. $2.45 billion expected

Yum reported fourth-quarter net income of $535 million, or $1.91 per share, up from $423 million, or $1.49 per share, a year earlier. The company’s tax rate was higher than anticipated by Wall Street, according to Kalinowski Equity Research.

Excluding tax benefits, acquisition costs and other one-time items, the restaurant company earned $1.73 per share.

Net revenue rose 6% to $2.51 billion.

Yum’s global same-store sales increased 3%, fueled by strong performance at Taco Bell and in KFC’s international markets.

Taco Bell’s same-store sales spiked 7% in the quarter, topping Wall Street expectations of 5.6% growth, according to StreetAccount.

The Mexican-inspired chain is the gem of Yum’s portfolio, regularly outperforming the broader fast-food industry, thanks to a mix of value offerings and buzzy menu items. The chain is stealing market share from competitors, and consumers aged 18 to 24 years old are flocking to its restaurants, Yum CEO Chris Turner said on the company’s conference call.

KFC saw its global same-store sales rise 3%. The fried chicken chain’s international locations reported same-store sales growth of 3%, while restaurants in the U.S. saw a same-store sales increase of 1%.

Wall Street analysts had expected KFC to report same-store sales growth of 2.1%, according to StreetAccount.

KFC has been undergoing a turnaround in its home market, where it has ceded market share to upstarts like Raising Cane’s in recent years. To win back customers, it is taking some cues from Taco Bell’s successful playbook. The chain is planning to unveil new menu items, like sauces and beverages, at a more rapid pace than it previously did. The chain will also try to offer customers more affordable options, whether it is a “profitable low-price point products” or targeted individual value offers, executives said on the company’s conference call.

And once again, Pizza Hut was the laggard of the portfolio. The embattled pizza chain reported that its same-store sales declined 1%, driven by a 3% drop in the U.S. and slightly edging out Wall Street estimates of a 1.7% decline during the period.

In November, the company said it would explore strategic options for Pizza Hut. Yum on Wednesday said that the review had begun but did not share more details.

“As of now, we intend to complete the review of options this year,” Turner said. “Given the ongoing nature of the process at this time, we cannot share further details on the strategic review.”

While Pizza Hut undergoes the review, Yum is also implementing a strategy that will act as a “bridge to a longer-term acceleration of the brand,” according to CFO Ranjith Roy. As part of that plan, Pizza Hut will shutter about 250 underperforming U.S. locations in the first half of the year.

Samsung launches its first multi-folding phone as competition from Chinese brands intensifies

LSD News Szerkesztőség — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 06:24:40 +0000

Samsung Electronics’s Galaxy Z TriFold media day at Samsung Gangnam in Seoul, South Korea, on Dec. 2, 2025.

Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images

Samsung Electronics on Monday announced the launch of its first multi-folding smartphone as it races to keep pace with innovations from fast-moving rivals.

The long-anticipated “Galaxy Z TriFold” will go on sale in South Korea on Dec. 12, with launches to follow in other markets including China, Taiwan, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates, the company said in a press release.

The phone will be available in the U.S. during the first quarter of 2026, with more details to be shared later, the South Korean tech giant added. The Galaxy Z Trifold will ship as a single model in black with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage, priced at 3,594,000 South Korean won ($2,449).

With Apple’s expected entry into the foldable segment, Samsung is positioning this device as a multi-fold pilot to reinforce its technology leadership.”

Liz Lee

Associate Director at Counterpoint Research

The device uses two inward-folding hinges to open into a 10-inch display — a tad smaller than the 11th-generation iPad’s 11-inch display — with a 2160 x 1584 resolution.

When its screen panels are folded, the device is measures 12.9 millimeters (0.5 inches) thick — slightly more than the Galaxy Z Fold6 at 12.1 mm and the latest Galaxy Z Fold7 at 8.9 mm.

“Samsung’s first tri-fold model will ship in very limited volume, but scale is not the objective,” Liz Lee, associate director at Counterpoint Research, said in a statement shared with CNBC.

“With competitive dynamics set to shift materially in 2026, especially with Apple’s expected entry into the foldable segment, Samsung is positioning this device as a multi-fold pilot to reinforce its technology leadership.”

A Samsung Electronics Co. Galaxy Z TriFold smartphone on display during a media preview in Seoul, South Korea, on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Lee added that Samsung’s latest product is meant to test durability, hinge design and software performance while gathering real-world user insights before wider commercialization.

The phone’s three foldable panels can also run three apps vertically side by side, and offer a desktop-like mode without a separate display.

The TriFold features Samsung’s largest battery capacity among its foldable models and supports super-fast charging that reaches 50% in 30 minutes.

TM Roh, who was recently appointed Samsung Electronics co-CEO and head of the Device eXperience division, said the Galaxy Z TriFold reflects years of work on foldable designs and aims to balance portability, performance and productivity in one device.

Samsung was an early innovator of folding smartphones, unveiling its first foldable device in 2019. While the market has remained relatively small, new competitors have continued to enter, including Chinese brands that have proven competitive in both price and dimension.

Visitors try out the Galaxy Z Trifold during Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Z TriFold media day at Samsung Gangnam in Seoul, South Korea, on Dec. 2, 2025.

Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images

In September, telecommunications giant Huawei announced its second-generation trifold phone for the Chinese market, measuring 12.8 mm thick when folded.

This year has also seen Chinese brands like Honor launch foldable smartphones in international markets. Honor was spun off from Huawei in 2020 in a bid to avoid U.S. sanctions and tap international markets.

Like Samsung’s other recent foldables, the TriFold is rated IP48, meaning it is water-resistant up to 1.5 meters for up to 30 minutes but offers limited dust protection.