Matt Frankel

McCormick gets it just for interest, just for that, because they are doing this.

They're using this kind of cool thing where they are merging with part of Unilever and Unilever gets to spin it off tax-free.

I'm real curious about this because it used to be

Deals like this made sense.

Shelf space mattered.

Jamming more things into a truck that's heading to the store, that gives you scale, that gives you synergies, that was supposed to matter.

Recent history, including Kraft Heinz and some other deals we can get to, it's less settled science now whether that works.

Maybe this is an opportunity to find out how much of what went wrong in other deals was the management execution compared to just the strategy.

My theory here is it's not the deals, it's the companies.

The value of brands have been diminished over the course of the last 20 years or so.

I kind of blame the internet, better flow of information, but who knows?

But consumer goods to me today is a barbell.

Most consumers will pay up for certain specific items, whether it's on holding shoes in any given moment or one just kind of splurge.

But otherwise, consumers are happy to buy generic.

That's a nightmare for these mid-tier brands.

And that's most of what we're talking about with Kimberly Clark, Kenview, Kraft, and Heinz.

If that's the case, this is a bad move for McCormick.

And honestly, I believe in enough that I personally try not to invest in brands in the middle.

The bottom line is, I don't think people still find value in buying, say, Tylenol versus Kroger brand Tylenol.

And that's a problem for anyone selling these kind of wide distribution, but a little bit extra because it's a brand name sort of products.