Goodles retains Santa Cruz headquarters and all 73 employees under CEO Zeszut
Italian pasta maker Barilla Group has agreed to acquire Goodles, the Santa Cruz, Calif.-based mac-and-cheese brand known for its colorful packaging and flavors such as “Here Comes Truffle.” Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Goodles was valued at $88 million after a 2023 funding round, according to PitchBook. The company turned its first profit in 2024 and reached 7.8% of U.S. spending on shelf-stable macaroni and cheese in the 12 months through the end of June, up from 0.8% in the same period three years earlier, according to consumer data firm Numerator.
Kraft Heinz’s Kraft Mac & Cheese saw its market share decline to 36.6% from 42.2% over the same three-year period, while sibling brand Velveeta fell to 18.9% from 21.6%, according to Numerator. The figures, derived from an app where consumers share their shopping data, cover all sales channels and retailers except direct-to-consumer sales.
Goodles says its rise has come from expanding the category rather than displacing incumbents. Mac and cheese generates an estimated $2.1 billion to $2.3 billion in annual sales of shelf-stable products in the U.S., according to data firm Consumer Edge, which analyzed purchase data from point-of-sale systems. Eighty percent of Goodles sales come from consumers who had not eaten mac and cheese in the past or who are buying more than they had before — not from people who switched from other brands, according to Zeszut.
Goodles introduced its take on mac and cheese online in 2021, marketing its products as “Noodles, Gooder” by virtue of their added protein and fiber. Since then, the company has expanded distribution to retailers including Target and Whole Foods and rolled out a broader variety of pasta noodles.
The brand’s growth mirrors wider shifts in the U.S. dry pasta market toward healthier, organic and gluten-free options, said Arielle Rose, an analyst at IBISWorld, in a March report. “This shift has encouraged brands to rethink traditional recipes and ingredient sourcing, investing in products that align with health trends, allergies and dietary restrictions,” Rose said. Acquisitions in the space remain common, she added, with major players frequently buying smaller rivals for their loyal customers or product innovations.
In an interview, Zeszut said Goodles’s relatively small size had constrained further expansion. “Ninety-two percent of the U.S. population hasn’t even tried Goodles yet, so we’re just getting started,” she said, wearing a pasta-noodle choker during a Zoom call to discuss the deal. “It was really either us choosing to get big on our own and raising a bunch of money and hiring a bunch of people,” she said, or finding a larger partner with more resources.
Zeszut said she met Barilla’s leadership team at a Formula One race last year but did not discuss business. Barilla said it had been following Goodles’s momentum in recent years and reached out in June to express acquisition interest.
Guido Barilla, chairman of Barilla Group, said in a statement that the company was “impressed by the Goodles brand, the products’ quality and the company’s momentum.”
Goodles will continue to operate from its headquarters, with Zeszut at the helm and all 73 employees retained. Zeszut acknowledged potential consumer anxiety about the acquisition. “I know that consumers are going to probably be like, ‘Oh no, Goodles is going to get gutted,’” she said, and worry that the ingredients will change. “That’s totally natural. There’s many data points from many other companies to make them feel that way, and the only thing we can say is, ‘Just watch us.’”
Barilla said the deal will close following regulatory approval.