McKeany-Flavell

What McKeany-Flavell does

McKeany-Flavell is a privately held, US-based commercial intelligence and advisory firm founded in 1948 in Lafayette, California, that serves the food and beverage industry with commodity ingredient market intelligence, procurement advisory, and commodity price risk management. The firm transitioned from a West Coast sugar brokerage into a specialized consultancy covering sweeteners, edible oils, cocoa and chocolate, sugar, corn sweeteners, wheat, nutmeats, and fruit concentrates, with documented operating reach into Mexico and Brazil and a stated global footprint through international conference engagement. Its core offering is the IQ Ingredient Intelligence Platform, a subscription-based portal delivering 24/7 access to commodity market updates, supply and demand fundamentals, price forecasts, dynamic charts, and downloadable briefings, sold standalone or bundled with premier consulting agreements.

The business operates a hybrid platform-plus-services model. Subscription recurring revenue streams include annual and hourly consulting engagements and IQ Platform subscriptions, supplemented by fee-based professional services revenue from 101 Market Education Seminars in Strategic Sourcing, Sweeteners, Sugar, Wheat Flour, Cocoa and Chocolate, Edible Oil, and Corn Sweeteners. Go-to-market is sales-led, driven by expert consultants delivering personalized counsel to over 90 national and multi-national food and beverage companies, supported by a content distribution engine comprising a weekly market blog, the Hot Commodity Podcast (400+ episodes, approximately 60,000 downloads), recurring webinars, and public speaking at ASA, Sosland, and F.O. Licht industry conferences. The firm holds no external funding, reports 11-50 employees, and does not disclose revenue or ownership structure, but is led by President and CEO Michael Caughlan alongside a senior team with more than 200 combined years of F&B industry experience and multiple Series 3/30 securities-licensed commodity advisors.

Name

McKeany-Flavell

Legal name

McKeany-Flavell

Website

https://mckeany-flavell.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1948

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

McKeany-Flavell is a privately held US advisory firm, founded in 1948 and headquartered in Lafayette, California, that provides commercial intelligence, procurement strategy, and commodity price risk management to food and beverage manufacturers through its IQ Ingredient Intelligence Platform and expert consulting services.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Lafayette

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Consulting Services: Annual and hourly consulting agreements providing personalized service and advice about commodities, ingredients, and market factors. Includes commercial intelligence briefings, daily technical outlooks, and risk/opportunity assessment meetings.
2. IQ Platform Subscription: Stand-alone subscription to the IQ Ingredient Intelligence Platform offering 24/7 access to market intelligence, price forecasts, dynamic charts, and downloadable market overviews. Can also be bundled with premier-level consulting agreements.
3. Market Education Seminars: Fee-based educational seminars including 101 courses on various commodity topics. Seminars can be conducted at client offices, company offices, or online. Webinar access is included with consulting packages and basic IQ subscriptions.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

McKeany-Flavell is a food and beverage industry advisory firm that delivers commercial intelligence, supply chain expertise, and risk management solutions across commodity ingredients such as sweeteners, edible oils, cocoa, chocolate, wheat, nutmeats, and fruit concentrates. The firm combines a subscription-based intelligence platform (the IQ Ingredient Intelligence Platform) with personalized consulting, market education seminars, podcasts, webinars, and a portfolio-based commodity risk management offering.

Product overview

McKeany-Flavell is a food and beverage industry advisory firm offering a platform-plus-services model centered on the IQ Ingredient Intelligence Platform as the core digital product, complemented by human-driven consulting services. The IQ platform provides 24/7 subscription-based access to market intelligence, forecasts, and analysis. Supporting services include Commercial Intelligence advisory, Information Services with daily/weekly/monthly publications, Market Education seminars and webinars, the Hot Commodity Podcast, Risk Management consulting, and Client Relations operations support. Together, these offerings provide clients comprehensive commercial intelligence, supply chain expertise, and risk management solutions for commodity ingredients including sweeteners, edible oils, cocoa, nutmeats, and fruit concentrates.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• IQ (Ingredient Intelligence Platform): On-demand information platform offering intelligence reports, studies, dynamic charts, live commodity market updates, podcasts, webinars, and downloadable PowerPoint market overviews.
• Hot Commodity Podcast

Products and services

• IQ Ingredient Intelligence Platform On-demand subscription platform providing 24/7 access to real-time commodity market updates, technical and fundamental analysis, price forecasts, dynamic charts, and downloadable market overviews for food and beverage procurement and supply chain teams.
• Ingredient Advisory Services Ingredient procurement advisory covering sweeteners, edible oils, cocoa and chocolate, nutmeats, fruit and fruit concentrates, and premium ingredients, designed to help food and beverage clients develop ingredient purchasing strategy and supplier relationships.
• Commercial Intelligence Consulting Personalized advisory engagements available on annual retainer or hourly basis, providing commercial intelligence briefings, daily technical outlooks, supplier/market coverage analysis, and risk/opportunity assessment meetings for food and beverage clients.
• Market Education Seminars Industry-acclaimed 101 seminars covering Strategic Sourcing, Sweeteners, Sugar, Wheat Flour, Cocoa and Chocolate, Edible Oil, and Corn Sweeteners, delivered in-person at client or company offices or online via web conferencing.
• Commodity Price Risk Management Portfolio-based commodity price risk management combining fundamental and technical analysis, structured products, timed purchases, and systematic models to balance supply assurance, cost reduction, and volatility management for client ingredient programs.

Quantifiable outcome

• Clients account for 80 percent of industry volume in the food and beverage sector
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Mintec: Mintec provides commodity market intelligence and price data specifically for the food industry (edible oils, grains, sugar, meat), directly comparable to McKeany-Flavell's IQ platform and ingredient advisory. Both serve F&B procurement teams with subscription data feeds and consulting; Mintec is UK-headquartered while McKeany-Flavell is US-focused.
• Urner Barry: Urner Barry provides market reporting and price intelligence for food commodities (poultry, seafood, eggs, meat) via subscriptions and printed/digital reports. Highly comparable model to McKeany-Flavell: long-standing niche commodity intelligence firm serving food manufacturers with price discovery and market analysis.

Emerging players

• Gro Intelligence: Gro Intelligence is an AI/data-driven agricultural intelligence platform covering crop forecasts, supply/demand, and climate. Represents the emerging tech-enabled model that competes with traditional advisory firms like McKeany-Flavell in food/ag commodity intelligence.
• Barchart: Barchart provides commodity market data, analytics, and trading tools across agricultural, energy, and metals markets. Competitor in the data subscription layer that McKeany-Flavell's IQ platform competes in, though focused more on data infrastructure than advisory.

Regional players

• F.O. Licht: F.O. Licht is an Informa-owned commodity intelligence publication and conference business focused on sugar, ethanol, grains, and biofuels with European and global reach. McKeany-Flavell's experts speak at F.O. Licht conferences; comparable niche intelligence and events business.

Broad incumbents

• Argus Media: Argus Media is a global commodity price-reporting and analytics firm covering energy, fertilizers, and agricultural commodities, including food ingredients. Much larger scale and broader scope than McKeany-Flavell, but directly overlaps in food-commodity intelligence subscriptions and consulting.
• S&P Global Commodity Insights (Platts): S&P Global Commodity Insights (formerly Platts) is the leading global provider of benchmark commodity price assessments, analytics, and research across energy, agriculture, metals, and petrochemicals. Significant overlap with McKeany-Flavell in agricultural commodity intelligence serving enterprise procurement and risk management.
• Fastmarkets: Fastmarkets provides commodity price reporting and market intelligence for industrial and consumer commodities including agricultural products. Comparable subscription intelligence business serving enterprise commodity procurement teams.
• CRU Group: CRU offers commodity intelligence and consulting across mining, metals, fertilizers, and agriculture. Overlaps with McKeany-Flavell in agricultural commodity advisory and subscription data services.
• ICIS (Independent Commodity Intelligence Services): ICIS provides pricing, market intelligence, and forecasting for commodity markets including agricultural products, chemicals, and fertilizers. Comparable subscription intelligence model serving buyers and sellers in food ingredient supply chains.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/Mckeanyflavell
• Facebookfacebook.com/mckeanyflavell
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/mckeany-flavell

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about McKeany-Flavell