Top 5 Biggest Sports Nutrition Brand Winners of 2019
I don’t know about you, but there is just something special about year-end calendar flips that get me in the mood to reflect. If you’ve been following my content for awhile, you remember that I created a handful of “Top Lists” at the end of 2018. These particular pieces of content were either a reflection towards the past year or provided predictions for the next year. From looking at last year’s reader statistics, it seems everyone enjoyed these different “better for you” functional CPG & FMCG lists that ranged from insightful to entertainment. If you are interested in reading last year’s articles, click on this Medium profile link (and give me a “follow” when you are there!).
In this first “Top 5 List” of 2019, I will be covering the biggest sports nutrition industry brand winners of the year…
For those that might be interested in my rubric for evaluating these sports nutrition brands, I used a mostly qualitative approach, but added available quantitative data sources even though I wasn’t necessary ranking these by revenue or volume growth. My ability to lean on qualitative data inputs comes from being involved in a strategic decision-making level of the sports nutrition industry for over a decade. In the last 7+ years, I owned a successful and growing management strategy consulting firm that has helped numerous sports nutrition, functional “better for you” food and beverage, and ancillary CPG brands achieve meaningful growth.
Before I count down from 5 to 1 (plus a few additional honorable mentions), I wanted to quickly recap why several brands from the 2018 List were not included this year.
2018 Forgotten List
- Man Sports = This was a quiet year in terms of new SKUs, but I still highly respect their unique marketing angles to find untapped sales opportunities. They used 2019 to build support for its push in 2020, so this is a sports nutrition brand that will be looking to get back on next year’s list.
- Myoblox = This was the smallest brand I included last year, but I did so because of the potential that I saw and the unique strategies and tactics they were using for a brand of its size. The issue was that 2019 didn’t seem to build on any of that momentum.
- The Genius Brand = I actually don’t have much bad to say about this brand’s performance over 2019, but it came down to how it seemed like the channel diversification and maturity left them slower as a company.
- Glanbia Performance Nutrition (whole portfolio) = I had them ranked 5th last year, but wow is it amazing what a year can do! My biggest fault of naming them on the list was that I included the whole brand portfolio, instead of picking only the ones I thought had the best performance (ie. Optimum Nutrition and Amazing Grass). I will give them a ton of credit in how great the performance of the SlimFast acquisition has turned out!
- Sparta Nutrition = To be honest, if they announced all back-half of Q4 activity (ie. licensed flavor launches, label adjustments, etc.) in early 2019, I could have assessed its market activity and maybe had them on the list again.
2019 Honorable Mention List
- 1st Phorm — I like the strong culture that has been built at this sports nutrition brand. The company has seen extensive revenue growth over the last several years by mainly mostly focusing on direct-to-consumer and specialty supplement retailers. They have one of the best brand ambassador programs in the sports nutrition industry that helps them provide a great service element. They are also vertically integrated with manufacturing and retail stores (Note: 1st Phorm was originally a private label creation of Supplement Superstores based in St. Louis).
- Bowmar Nutrition — Similar to my inclusion of MyoBlox last year, I wanted to throw in a “smaller brand” that has potential. I believe Bowmar Nutrition could follow Alani Nu’s 2019 hockey stick growth trajectory next year if they can land (and create pull) at GNC or The Vitamin Shoppe.
- MyProtein — In stark contrast to Bowmar Nutrition, MyProtein is the largest brand on my list. They benefit from having The Hut Group, a $1.2 billion digital retail portfolio, to share digital talent and resources, technology, and global operational infrastructure. This gives them superior margins to aggressively use in digital customer acquisition and retention. I also love that they have localized websites for each country/region to provide a better customer experience. This is important because 75% of MyProtein’s revenue now comes from outside its home country of UK.
I hope you enjoyed those honorable mention choices, but without further ado, my list for Top 5 Biggest Sports Nutrition Brand Winners in 2019!
#5 — Nutrabio
When sports nutrition customers are asked about their thoughts on NutraBio, they boast about the company’s quality and ethics. If you push them for more details, they talk about CEO Mark Glazier and the fact that NutraBio manufactures their own products in a “beyond cGMP” facility attached to the company’s HQ. I have always respected NutraBio for those reasons, but it wasn’t until this year that I started to see them leveraging it for a deeper competitive advantage. It has always been ingrained in the brand’s storytelling, but owning a manufacturing facility can provide much more in today’s competitive sports nutrition market.
As the industry competition rises, brand’s need to consider mind share along with market share. NutraBio leaned on its vertical integration to create mind share by launching at least one SKU every week of 2019. That kept the attention on the brand and allowed many diverse entry points for new customers. After a customer was trialed a NutraBio’s product, the brand knew it had a good chance of retention based on their quality, improved flavor systems, and variety.
#4 — Alani Nu
I rarely get caught off-guard spotting hyper-growth brands, but I must have had a severe blind spot with Alani Nu. I remember seeing the brand around its launch in 2018, but figured it would be just another D2C influencer-led brand. After seeing their placement at GNC, I figured I might see some more activity, but nothing like what happened next…
It is rare when GNC C-Suite executives bring up a third-party brand on conference calls, but it happened several times in 2019 with Alani Nu. GNC also included them in several investor conference decks, even calling out traffic demographics and volume that Alani Nu was driving to the supplement retailer. They went from GNC launch to full walls of products in stores faster than any brand in my recent memory.
#3 — Outright Bar (Outright Foods)
Marc Lobliner’s founding story of the Outright Bar is a quintessential entrepreneurship one where a frustrated consumer can’t find a product to fit his/her needs, but instead of giving up and waiting for it to be created, they create it themselves in hopes that others in the market have similar interests.
I believe the Outright Bar is the “next” bar format that will rise to the top (Note: Mondelez Int’l acquired Perfect Snacks in 2019 with similar attributes), as it’s a more enjoyable iteration to the RXBAR . In its first full year, Outright Bar grew past traditional sports nutrition channels and into 1000s of convenience and grocery stores. I also like that Outright Bars have vertical integrated with internet retailer Tiger Fitness, which helps distribute the product nationally as larger retail distribution signs on with proven sales velocity.
#2 — Redcon1
There is a lot to like about what CEO Aaron Singerman (and his leadership team) has built at Redcon1. While in the Redcon1 offices around Black Friday, I got to experience that “it” culture that is hard to define, but is very real. That feeling is something that I’ve always felt inside the handful of hyper-growth sport nutrition brand offices that I have been lucky enough to work at or with over the years.
They have been able to build an aggressive D2C business, but also overcome potential channel conflicts with building a strong brand that pulls off the shelf. That is important because Redcon1 have been going deeper on the convenient nutrition categories of RTE and RTD…with more coming in 2020. Finally, I appreciate their ability to create balance between quality and quantity in their content creation.
#1 — GHOST Lifestyle
Before GHOST Lifestyle even launched in mid-2016, I reached out to Co-Founder Dan Lourenco to give him props on building something special. I didn’t even know him at the time, but I could see what his vision was before the first units were sold, which is likely because we see the industry through a similar lens. GHOST has consistently made smart long-term strategic moves, such as having a…
- Controlled Brand Message = they are highly aware of what is and isn’t GHOST
- Controlled Distribution = if you can control your distribution, you can control your destiny today (aka “all sales aren’t created equal”)
- Thoughtful Product Map = launch home runs or don’t even try
- Consistent Creative Experience = if anything is created by them, you know its them before you even see a logo
- Focus on Customer Relationships = they will make you feel special for being a fan of the brand through creating exclusive experiences and being authentic in everything they do
- Transparency within the Brand = customers want to know episodically what is happening at their favorite brands and GHOST is creating the reality TV version of it for sports nutrition industry
