Beverage Startups
Grrana Energy is healthy energy boost – “The High Without the Crash”
My name is Johnny White and I am MD and one of two Directors of a Company called Grrana Energy (Europe) Ltd. We are an Irish Ltd Company with the European/Russian rights to Import and distribute an Energy Tonic which was developed and is produced in Johannesberg ,South Africa. The product is called Grrana Energy Tonic. It is a functional Energy product (not a gel or a drink but a tonic) used by people in many differnt life situations. It is used in Sports (Pro & Amature), it is used by Students, it is used by Mothers and Fathers, Office workers or just about anybody over the age of 12 years who needs a prolonged, slow released healthy energy boost. Grrana Energy Tonic has a low sugar content and contains botanicals (22% Guarana seed extract and Yerba Mate) and vitamins. It does not have any aspartame, alcohol, taurine, processed caffeine or animal derivatives (it has Halal and Kosher certification). It is the healthy energy boost and provides “The High Without the Crash”.
We did not come up with the original formulation but were instrumental in the 2nd generation formulation which was suitable for the European market. The original contained HYPOXSIS ROOPERI (aka African Potato plant) which was not suitable for the European market. So we tried other botanicals and it was decieded to use Yerba Mate. The Yerba Mate provides an extra “Natural Boost” to the tonic and makes it taste even better. The Tonic was developed with a view to giving “active Lifestyle” people a choice of what they consumed to supplement their energy levels. With some research we found that people were tending to move away from the usual high sugar/high calorie energy drinks to more healthy lifestyle type herbal/botanical based product’s but we wanted to give them something different and Grrana Energy Tonic was born. Now you can take a 10ml serving of the tonic for a sustained elevation in energy levels, improved focus,concentration and mental clarity. It is not used for hydration and we would recommend to people to use a good quality bottled water as their hydration source-simplicity is best!
Drink/beverage trends change as fast as the products do. We wanted to create something that was going to #1. Work and #2. last the test of time. We know that we have produced a product that works and are confident that Grrana Energy Tonic is here to stay and will grow and grow and be one of the best selling alternative energy products in Europe.
As the product was in very early sales development in South Africa, but was created and pretty much ready for the local South African market. We only had some packaging tweeks and 1 ingredient change to make, the toughest decision was where to spend our VERY LIMITED funding and how to create a marketable and recognised brand in Europe without any real funding. Growth has been slow but steady and the product is now available in Ireland, Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg and we are exploring some options for the UK and German markets now.
Manufacturing is currently done in Johannesberg, South Africa and together with a local pharmacutical Company – a member of the Health products association (HPA), who are leaders in the research and development of such products, have created an over the counter energy solution that all retail centers and their customers have been waiting for. Challenges however include a slow manufacturing process and is limited to certain quantities at a time. GrRANA needs a larger production facility closer to the larger markets of Europe/Asia/USA. Sourcing the ingredients can also be problematic, getting quality ingredients from reliable sources and maintaining the quality. That been said we now have a regular and reliable source for our ingredients and this does not present a problem going forward to larger markets.
The product was designed to be funky and functional. We wanted to produce something that was different, that worked effectively compared to a lot of the other available products and was marketable worldwide. A lot of colours were used in the design of the packaging so it would stand out from the crowd on the retailers shelves. The product was designed to be an effective alternative to the usual high sugar/high calorie beverages which only really deliver a short lived spike in energy levels and more often than not followed by a big crash! This is not the case with Grrana Energy Tonic-the Guarana/Yerba Mate combination delivers a long lasting slow released energy without loads of sugar and processed caffeine, this ingredient combination works to deliver as promised.
In Ireland we are currently involved with many sport people who will agree how well the product works, we are currently involved with product support sponsorship deals with many different sports including (but not limited too); the Irish Ladies National Volleyball team, Kona Racing Ireland (Mountain biking, Downhill Biking and road racing) in Ireland and Europe, National BMX champs, White Water slalmon conoeist, Motor sports, Mixed martial arts and many, many more. All of whom will testify to the effectiveness of the product and will not go back to using whatever they were using before they tried the GrRANA Energy Tonic.
The current trends in beverages is for the healthier options – moving away from the high sugar beverages to the more natural Green Tea, botanicals, herbal infusions, low sugar and no artifical sweeteners type products is where is seems to be going. There are many of both the aforementioned products on the retailers shelves and it presents a difficulty for the consumers because there is so much choice.
