Galley Solutions, a foodtech software company that’s working to help businesses stop wasting food—and money—announced on Friday that it scored some $$ of its own, raising $14.2 million in Series A funding.

• The round was led by Astanor Ventures, with Zetta Venture Partners also participating, and brings its total funding to $20 million.
• The company said it will use the capital to add staff in sales and engineering.

Galley developed a kitchen-productivity platform that helps food businesses—including foodservice, restaurants, ghost kitchens, and DTC platforms—track operations data to guide purchasing and reduce waste and labor costs.

• CEO Benji Koltai was previously an engineering manager at food-delivery platform Sprig, which shut down in 2017, and co-founded Galley that year with brother-in-law Ian Christopher.

“The standardization of food data into a universal language is the next major technology shift that’s changing how food is planned, prepared, and profited from across the industry,” Koltai said in the funding announcement.

Waste not: With partners like DoorDash Kitchens, Thistle, and &pizza, the company said it grew subscription revenue by 280% last year, with 146% net dollar retention in Q1.

• Galley said it’s helped its partners slice their food waste by 25%.

Restaurants, grocery stores, and foodservice companies contribute to 40% of food waste in the US. But when a biz loses food, it also loses $$: According to a study by ChefHero, food-waste prevention strategies could save foodservice businesses ~$2 billion a year in profits.—EC

Supply chains are all over the place…still. ICYMI, we recently spoke to two very different companies—Bask Suncare and Danone—about how they dealt with their respective challenges.

Looking for cover: Bask ordered “tens of thousands” of bottles from its Chinese manufacturer last September to prep early for the summer. The sunscreen company anticipated receiving its bottles in December or January at the latest. But Covid lockdowns kept delaying the order, CEO Mike Huffstetler told Retail Brew.

“After kind of hounding our suppliers and manufacturers,” he said, they kept saying: “‘Oh, we’re delayed another two weeks.’ Okay, we can deal with two weeks. ‘Oh, we're delayed another two weeks. Oh, we’re delayed another two weeks.’”

The company quickly went into “scramble mode,” Huffstetler explained. To find an alternative, it reached out to roughly 60 contacts within the DTC retail space—from manufacturers to fellow founders and more—to see if there was anyone who could supplement the delayed bottles.

Luckily, the Miami-based facility that distributes Bask’s sunscreen is also a contract manufacturer for other companies. It happened to have a “few thousand” suitable extra bottles “laying around,” as Huffstetler put it.

• Bask ended up spending twice as much on its pre-summer inventory than expected and predicts it will spend 3.5x more in 2022.

Lid adieu: Danone, meanwhile, used supply-chain crunches as an opportunity to keep things simple. “There is one statement that comes to my mind all the time, which is, ‘Never let a good crisis go [to] waste,’” Pedro Silveira, president of yogurt for Danone North America, told us.

With 400+ SKUs across 10 yogurt brands (plus various pack formats), Danone found it produced nearly 300 different lids across its yogurts with unique health and flavor info on each one, Silveira explained, forcing its supplier to spend 40 hours a month just stopping the line to do changeovers.

Recognizing consumers read front labels way more often, the company questioned if it really needed all that complexity.

• It didn’t. Danone “dramatically” reduced the amount of lids it produces by creating more generic ones suitable for multiple flavors, Silveira said.

Click here to read more about how Bask is rethinking its approach to sourcing and production—and how Danone is balancing price increases and promotions.—KM, EC

Today’s top retail reads.

Reboot: After going bankrupt in 2020, department store Century 21 is poised for a comeback in New York City next year, thanks to its owner’s real-estate portfolio. (Gothamist)

Fungi, but make it fashion: Fashion brands like Stella McCartney and Balenciaga are turning to mushrooms as a sustainable alternative to leather for handbags, coats, and shoes. (Business of Fashion)

Supply pain: Supply-chain managers have seen the highest turnover rates since at least 2016 as they face burnout and seek higher pay. “So much became the exception versus the rule,” said supply-chain director Michael Martin. “I think that’s where a lot of the stress came from. We can’t solve problems as easily as we used to.” (Bloomberg)

Candid convos with industry icons: Hosted by Brew co-founder Alex Lieberman, the Imposters podcast delves deep into the personal and mental challenges some of the biggest names in biz have faced while reaching their most resounding achievements. Listen here.

What happened in the world of retail this week in…1785 and beyond? Retail Brew takes you way, way, way back.

Grab your glasses and read closely:

• On May 23, 1785, Benjamin Franklin claimed he invented bifocals. If he could see them now…
• On May 26, 2021, Amazon, in its continued quest to become way more than retail, announced that it would buy MGM Studios for $8.45 billion.
• Also on May 26, but in 1927, David Edgerton, a founder of Burger King, was born in Lebanon, Pennsylvania.
• Also, also on May 26, 1927—to the T—the 15th million Model T Ford was made on its last day of production.

Catch up on the Retail Brew stories you may have missed.

• Tools of the trade: How an Ohio saloonkeeper came up with the cash register
• Hair-care brands take on the Gen Z trend cycle
• Will more retailers start charging shoppers for online returns?