To give you a sense of the sheer size of the US consumer packaged goods industry, the number of jobs it supports (22.3 million) is almost three times the population of New York City, while its GDP contribution ($2.5 trillion) is bigger than the total GDP of Canada in 2023.
So says the Consumer Brands Association (CBA), the trade association representing 75 CPG companies from Procter & Gamble to the Coca-Cola Company, last year adding five new members like Kraft Heinz, Kimberly-Clark, and J&J Snack Foods, and so far this year, three new members, including Tyson Foods.
Newly at the helm of the CBA is Melissa Hockstad, leading as president and CEO since January after the departure of David Chavern last year. Hockstad knows her way around a trade group; she was previously president and CEO of the American Cleaning Institute—which has a few overlapping members with the CBA—and her résumé also includes exec roles at the Plastics Industry Association and American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers.
Hockstad told Retail Brew she was eager to join the CBA to tackle the “broader issues impacting the collective CPG industry,” of which there are many, especially as she grabbed the reins just weeks before the start of the second Trump administration and the flurry of changes that have been imposed since. So to jump into the role, she’s been attending events like CAGNY and CBA’s CPG Legal Forum and speaking with member companies to understand their challenges, while also meeting with new members of Trump’s cabinet to discuss policy priorities.
“The wonderful thing about a trade association is that what we can achieve as a collective is so much stronger than any one company,” she said.
Hill to dye on: Earlier this month, Hockstad, along with executives from CPGs like PepsiCo and General Mills, met with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to discuss his Make America Healthy Again agenda. At the headline-grabbing meeting, Kennedy shared his intention to eliminate the use of artificial food dyes during his term, a move that would impact many of CBA’s member companies. “Decision time is imminent,” Hockstad wrote in a letter to member companies, according to the New York Times. She told Retail Brew the CBA aims to ensure “ingredients meet rigorous evidence-based safety standards that are set by the federal government as well as state regulators.”
“What’s important for us with HHS is continuing to work with them; we know there are areas they’re focused in on, around enhancing transparency, ensuring ingredient evaluations continue to be grounded in science, and identifying healthier options for consumers,” Hockstad said. “And we really see this as a partnership, working together with HHS, specifically in this realm as we look ahead to the year.”
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In these and other policy meetings with government agencies, like the FDA, EPA, or USDA, Hockstad said her role is to offer a “high-level overview” of the CPG industry, and make sure the agencies’ moves “continue to be grounded in science.” Depending on the meeting, they’ll discuss specific policy issues and garner feedback that “helps shape our thinking and where we might want to head next,” she said.
Tax to grind: Tariffs also remain a top issue on the minds of CBA’s members (along with the minds of most other retail trade organizations), Hockstad said, and the group is pushing the administration to take a “more strategic approach” to tariff implementation. President Trump is preparing to announce a more narrow tariff strategy on April 2, per Bloomberg.
“We think about that ripple effect: If costs for inputs go up, that can impact manufacturing costs, which then impact consumer costs, which could reduce demand, which could then potentially impact job losses here in the United States,” she said.
Hockstad named oats and coffee as examples of global imports that can’t be sourced in the US, while the CBA has previously pointed to meat, grain, oilseeds, and processed cocoa in Canada, and fruits and vegetables from Mexico during the winter months in a blog post outlining the “tariff toll” earlier this month.
Looking ahead: A lot has happened in her first two and a half months, and a major challenge Hockstad is anticipating in her role going forward is the fact that “the world is moving at a faster pace than anything that we’ve seen ever before,” requiring CBA to potentially “pivot and be agile” as challenges or opportunities arise.
“We’re walking into an environment where things will be moving quickly, we’ll have to assess quickly, make decisions quickly, which really important, in my mind, is always being really clear on what are our priorities, being very clear on what success looks like, because that helps give us that roadmap,” she said.