Beverage Startups
Ywater – healthy alternative will compete in the DrinkPreneur Live this June
The world is full of high calorie, high sugar drinks. Even fruit juices, originally thought as healthy, have a high calorie count per ounce.
At best, most children’s syrupy, high sugar / calorie or carbonated beverages contribute little to no health benefits to a child’s nutrition creating obesity issues for our youth of today.
Banning these sugary or carbonated beverages at schools is one way to tackle the global childhood obesity epidemic. Here is where we see a huge potential with Y Water, we offer a healthy alternative that also contributes to the children’s nutrition intake.
Developed based on guidelines from the President’s guidelines on health and fitness, Y Water is a “healthier – organic” alternative, aimed at attracting kids or pacifying parents who will buy a healthy, organic beverage in place of sugary, high fructose syrup drinks.
With beverage industry giants like Coca-Cola (KO) and Pepsico (PEP) agreeing to a self-imposed guideline on the sale of such carbonated – sugary drinks in schools, Y Water makes perfect sense for getting kids to drink a new, vitamin-infused, organic flavored beverage.
Y Water is available in a unique pouch and comes in four varieties (Bone, Brain, Immune, Muscle), each with a mix of flavors composed of ingredients such as coriander or black carrot juice along with a dash of calcium or zinc. Schools and Mom’s love the pouch design as it is easy for kids to handle and recycle when through. The pouch in itself is also still unique in Europe, there are several varieties of beverages aimed for children available in the market, but yet we have not seen anything like the Y Water pouch, which I can foresee will be a huge success in Europe, says Christian Tomelius, managing director for Fifty-Eight Marketing Ltd., who is responsible for establishing and grow the brand in the European market.
Targeting kids from Kindergarten to Fifth grade is part of a broader strategy by Y Water to tailor drinks to niche consumer segments. “What we are seeing are a finely targeted product segment for a particular need, or a time of the day, or a demographic – and that includes kids, which is an underserved category,” says Mark Work, Principal Marketing Director for Fifty-Eight Marketing / Y Water. As a result, Work adds, “there are fewer one-size-fits-all products” in the beverage market. This is where Y Water comes in play. Our aim is not just to market the product to build/grow the brand of Y Water, but also to “educate” mom’s in the value of the drinks – Health benefits, rather than kids drinking soda or high sugar content fruit drinks. Our vision is that kids will have Y Water for their lunch boxes, rather than sodas.
What’s more, value-added “Healthy” drinks are booming as increasingly health-conscious parents look for alternatives to current sugary – carbonated beverages for their kids.
Currently we are in the process of developing the drinks further, we are making some changes to the recipe to improve taste. Other products we are working on that will come rapidly will be new approvals UPC numbers to let our customers offer the pouches as “single serve” for the institutional market (schools, hospitals, etc.) we are also looking at a large Tetra box type containers for larger single serve pours, say at the office or home and to operate in vending machines. Further we are planning to have also the very innovative Y Water bottle, which also doubles as a collectable toy developed and produced.
Don’t you want your kids to start drinking healthy beverages?
Ywater will be launching in Europe in key selected markets and is currently seeking distribution.
Now when your kids say “Why Water”, you can answer them with Y Water !
