Investment banking team supports scaled baked goods and gifting platform founded by Cheryl’s Cookies creator
NEW YORK CITY, NY, UNITED STATES, February 5, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — Branded Hospitality today announced that Branded Capital, the firm’s investment banking and capital markets platform, has partnered with C. Krueger’s (“CKE”) to support the company as it explores strategic partnership opportunities. The engagement marks Branded Capital’s first publicly announced advisory mandate since expanding the team with the recent additions of Evan Veryard and Cameron Hanson.
C. Krueger’s is a scaled baked goods manufacturing and corporate gifting platform that operates a state-of-the-art facility with extensive co-manufacturing capabilities and institutional-grade food safety credentials. The company was Founded by Cheryl Krueger, who previously built and sold Cheryl’s Cookies into a national brand. Following a multi-year operational rebuild, CKE is coming off another strong year and is now positioned for its next phase of growth across three core business lines: corporate gifting, wholesale, and direct-to-consumer.
Why Gifting Works—and Why CKE is Built Different
Gifting isn’t about impulse buying. It’s about behavioral habit, and that drives lifetime value. B2B gifting is higher volume, less price-sensitive, and more predictable. Corporate buyers value reliability and execution, and once you’re in the system, switching costs rise quickly.
At scale, gifting businesses benefit from standardized SKUs, centralized fulfillment, predictable volume spikes, and technology-enabled personalization. This is where gifting stops being cute and starts being operationally interesting: predictable demand, sticky customers, and margin resilience.
That’s not a trend. That’s a business.
Putting the Expanded Team to Work
CKE operates across three business lines that reflect this strategic advantage:
• Corporate Gifting: Long-standing enterprise accounts with 80%+ retention and a growing number of new seasonal clients
• Wholesale: Branded, co-branded, and private label partnerships with national retailers, positioned for high growth
• Direct-to-Consumer: Virtual storefront serving as lead generation for corporate gifting and wholesale
The CKE engagement comes just weeks after Branded Capital announced back-to-back hires, signaling the firm’s commitment to supporting larger, more complex mandates across M&A, capital formation, and strategic advisory.
“CKE is exactly the type of engagement we’re looking for as we scale Branded Capital,” said Jimmy Frischling, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Branded Hospitality. “Cheryl built a world-class operation with institutional-grade capabilities and meaningful scale. This isn’t a startup looking for product-market fit—it’s a proven platform with predictable revenue, high retention, and real infrastructure. We’re working with CKE to navigate the right opportunities and connect with strategic partners who understand the value of what’s been built.”
Building Momentum
The CKE engagement demonstrates Branded Capital’s ability to attract and execute meaningful mandates as the platform continues to scale. Branded Capital provides end-to-end support across M&A advisory, growth and structured capital raises, strategic partnerships, and private market investing, leveraging Branded Hospitality’s broader ecosystem and industry reach to drive results for founders, operators, and institutional partners.
About C. Krueger’s:
C. Krueger’s is a scaled baked goods manufacturing and corporate gifting platform based in Columbus, Ohio. Founded by Cheryl Krueger, who previously built Cheryl’s Cookies into a national brand, CKE operates a state-of-the-art facility with extensive co-manufacturing capabilities and institutional-grade food safety credentials.
About Branded Hospitality:
Branded Hospitality (www.brandedhospitality.com) is the leading investment and solutions platform dedicated to the hospitality & foodservice industry. As experienced restaurant operators, hospitality experts, venture capitalists, strategic investors, advisors and corporate matchmakers, we leverage relationships with industry leading restaurant & hospitality operators, software vendors, and corporate enterprises to best create and capture value for our clients and partners.
Julie Zucker
Branded Strategic
julie@brandedstrategic.com
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