Partner search
Experienced beverage development and manufacturing partners for RTD functional shot
Client overview
Established FTSE100 company had already developed various successful consumer brands for their customer base and wanted to leverage their knowledge and supply chain to offer new and differentiated products to the growing functional beverage market.
The client did not have development expertise in this market, so required experienced partners that could provide some or all of the following support over the next 6-12 months – Ideation / Branding / Liquid formulation / Ingredient selection / Regulatory support / Packaging / Pilot Scale facilities / Production.
The search
SAL initiated a 6 month partner search to identify and directly verify a shortlist of potential partners with experience in ‘on the go’ shot formulations serving the sport supplements, functional drinks, energy, nutritional supplement markets.
SAL worked with the client to review potential partners (100’s over 3 continents) against an evolving company strategy to target primary markets including the US, Europe and Asia. We provided continually updated intelligence (as commercial criteria changed) of:
1) Leading formulation partners to work with internal R&D team to develop concepts
2) Market landscape of functional shots/energy drinks and go-to-market strategy
3) Qualified partners to rapidly scale up production (millions of units per annum) for global markets
“…really good knowledge…”
“…excellent output”
Outcome
Within 4 weeks client was engaged with initial companies and was able to benchmark against future potential partners.
Within the 6-month search period* the client had signed a joint development agreement with the chosen partner; completed initial development; in advanced discussions (under NDA) with ~20 further development / manufacturing partners.
* This would have been quicker but the global pandemic prevented the client from visiting and initiating development.