Energy-snack startup in the game
A Scottsdale-based startup that makes energy drinks and snacks is ready to take on a couple of 800pound gorillas. There’s the one that dominates the sports-drink marketplace. And there’s that other one that climbs on your back about 20 miles into a marathon. Glukos began shipping sports drinks, powders, gels, tablets, gummies and energy bars last week. And its direct-to-consumer sales launched Wednesday, all with an eye toward taking on the giants of the $40-billion-year sports energy industry, like Gatorade and PowerBar.
“These products are game-changers,” said Mick McCormick, the company’s chief executive officer.
To successfully tackle the Gatorade gorilla, Glukos will have to produce results when endurance athletes and other users need energy most.
The products are based on a simple premise: that what the body uses most efficiently for energy is glucose combined with the right electrolytes.
Glukos got its start 13 years ago when former Brigham Young University track athlete and Nike footwear manager Mark Jensen, training for a triathlon, looked at yet another bottle of Gatorade and wondered why nobody had come up with anything better in 45 years.
Because of his contacts at Nike — namely, elite runners and their coaches — he started asking questions. He found that none of them used the top-selling products.
Most said they received an intravenous drip either before or after hard workouts and races, and nothing worked better for pre-race energy or recovery.
“They said, ‘Just give me an oral IV,’ ” McCormick said. “So can you believe this guy went out and studied IV bags at hospitals? He found that they have four things in them: water, glucose, potassium and sodium.”
That combination was far different from what Jensen saw on labels of other energy products, such as high-fructose corn syrup and artificial dyes. Most used sucrose (ta- ble sugar) or fructose (fruit sugar) as carbohydrate sources.
Jensen found research showing that those sugars must be converted into glucose during digestion and that takes energy. Glucose is absorbed directly, resulting in more energy available in less time.
He started toying with combinations of IV ingredients and natural fruit and vegetable flavorings and colorings. He increased potassium and decreased sodium. He didn’t add caffeine, which many sports-energy products include.
And his products, which he first began making more than 10 years ago, quickly found favor with endurance athletes in the Portland, Ore., area.
His company, then called Gleukos, provided energy drinks to the Oregon Track Club.
But it wasn’t until Jensen joined forces with McCormick about a year and a half ago that the company began to take shape as a challenger to the sports-nutrition Goliaths.
“The amount of sugar in our products is the same and the amount of calories is the same as other products,” McCormick said. “The difference is, it’s the good kind that is absorbed by the body.
“And we are firm believers, and passionate about, having products that are all natural. There are zero unnatural additives to our products.”
The natural aspect of the products figures to sell with women, whom the company is targeting along with young athletes. The company has signed women’s soccer star Tobin Heath to an endorsement deal, and will add Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Antonio Brown in July.
McCormick said negotiations are underway with two NBA stars and a number of endurance athletes in running and triathlon. If that model sounds familiar, it should.
Like Jensen, McCormick has roots at Nike. He was the company’s director of national sales before moving to Callaway Golf, where he was executive vice president of global sales and marketing. Later, he held that title at Columbia Sportswear.
McCormick left Columbia to launch Growth Operators, an intellectual capital company. He was sold on the potential of the Glukos products and on Jensen’s passion for them.
McCormick, a University of Arizona graduate, also wanted to base the company in Arizona, where he was born and raised.
“I love being back,” he said. “It is something that’s special to me. I lived around the country and traveled the world, and there’s no place like this.”
When I visited last week, the tiny company’s seven employees were just settling in. McCormick said the work force will increase to about 20 soon.
An aggressive social-media campaign is next to launch, and the first products were shipped to Dick’s Sporting Goods stores on May 1. McCormick said the products will be available at bicycling and running specialty shops and at GNC stores in the weeks ahead. They also will be available at PGA Tour Superstores and Golfsmith locations and at glukosenergy.com.
Meanwhile, the company’s founder will be busy this week doing what one might call product testing. Jensen will be competing at Ironman Texas on May 16.
Try this next week
The first River, Rocks and Rabbits Half Marathon and 4 Miler is Saturday, May 16. It follows the New River Trail, so participants don’t have to run on streets or encounter traffic, and it takes its name from the stuff you’ll see while you run. There are technical T-shirts for all who enter and finisher medals in the half marathon.
Details: Saturday, May16. 7:30 a.m. half marathon, 7:45 a.m. 4-mile run, 8 a.m. kids run. Rio Vista Community Park, 8500 W. Thunderbird Road, Peoria. $50, $20, $10. 623-7737186, peoriaaz.gov/running.