Barilla Group just agreed to acquire GOODLES, the insurgent brand that captured
By hollenshead · September 19, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Barilla Group just agreed to acquire GOODLES, the insurgent brand that captured 7.8% of the $2.3 billion mac and cheese aisle in under four years.
The single most important data point in this acquisition:
- Founded in 2021 by Jen Zeszut.
- Valued at $88 million in 2023.
- Turned its first profit in 2024.
- Scaled from 0.8% of U.S. mac and cheese spending to 7.8% in thirty-six months.
Most CPG operators looking at those numbers assume GOODLES simply stole market share from incumbents by putting protein, fiber, and pastel branding on a box.
That is the consensus read. It completely misses how modern consumer value actually gets created.
Eighty percent of GOODLES sales did not come from consumers switching away from legacy brands. They came from people who had not bought mac and cheese in years, or who started buying significantly more of it.
GOODLES did not fight for a slice of an existing pie. They brought lapsed adult consumers back into a dormant $2.3 billion grocery category.
Barilla did not buy this business for its manufacturing lines. Barilla has been making pasta since 1877. They already have global supply chains, massive grain procurement, and shelf space in every major grocery door in the world.
What Barilla bought was retail headroom paired with proven category expansion.
Ninety-two percent of the U.S. population has not even tasted GOODLES yet. With just 73 employees operating out of Santa Cruz, the brand was already generating enough cultural pull to expand a category that had been flat for decades.
That is why Barilla kept all 73 employees and left Jen in the CEO chair.
If you are building an insurgent brand today, stop obsessing over stealing two points of market share from an incumbent.
Build a product that brings entirely new buyers into the aisle. When you expand the category, the legacy giant does not compete with you. They write the check to own the growth.
PS: And the mac & cheese aisle keeps heating up: Sir Kensington’s co-founder Mark Ramadan just launched Riff alongside chef Daniel Humm.