As the market for functional beverages and foods continues to expand, the demand for premix companies is heating up. Once a kind of weak sister to the flavor house, the premix company has come into its own by developing a broad assortment of nutrient mixes for beverage makers.
For beverage marketers, the claims are becoming as important as the flavor – and the ability of premix houses to deliver the proper mix puts the proof or lie to them. Additionally, technology is allowing those vitamin mixes a new level of solubility, meaning that they are more evenly dispersed in the beverages, creating the opportunity for better, more accurate flavors that are uninhibited by off-tastes.
Nevertheless, premix companies are still kind of odd birds: like flavor companies, they develop products for numerous applications. We couldn’t find any that only service beverage markets. Still, at a time when the vast majority of functional products are beverages, it shouldn’t be hard to find one that can fill your needs.
BevNET Innovation went into the field to find out a bit more about some of these premix companies.
BY JEFFREY KLINEMAN
Fortitech
INTERVIEWEE: Rich Schlief, Director of Marketing
Could you please supply some basic information about your company?
Our two founders started 20 years ago, basically working out of a garage, after seeing a need for premixes in the supplement industry. Now we’re over a $100 million company. It’s a great story. We’re global, with six locations, 350 employees. The bulk of our people are in manufacturing.
Currently, what kinds of beverage premix offerings do you have? If there is a specific area of nutrition, function, or materials type that your company specializes in, can you please describe it?
The thing is, everything is custom – it’s not like we have a specific pre-selling one. It’s all based on the manufacturers’ specifications and what they want to put on the label. We work with them to meet a premix that meets the specification we have or a label claim they’re trying to achieve. Depending on all of these things, a custom premix would be built to meet that specification
What are the most popular kinds of blends you offer?
We can pretty much fortify anything – if you can consume it we can fortify it. If you were to identify the most vibrant and creative application, I’d say it’s definitely functional beverages. Categorizing it further, I’d say overall health and wellness – it’s trending toward health-condition specific: people are turning to beverages for total overall wellness, but now they’re looking for cardiovascular disease, weight management, gut health. The nutrients that are increasing exponentially are the B-complexes, taurine, vitamin C, antioxidants, caffeine.
Are there any new innovations in product type or existing product evolution that your company has brought to market recently? Which of your products are having the most impact on the market?
Everything is custom – there’s no off-the-shelf product we produce. We can source over 1200 different nutrients. There isn’t one thing we’re super-proud of.
Basically, we’re the only company globally that’s dedicated to premixes. Our single defining factor is experience. We have over 20,000 premixes. It’s an in-depth science. Major factors include appearance, taste, texture and stability – it’s a massive equation and we’re constantly tinkering.
Where do you see the demands from beverage companies heading in the future with regard to the types of premix products they want? What are the greatest challenges when it comes to filling those kinds of needs?
The hardest thing, the biggest barrier is they need to define how targeted their product is going to be. The more specific they are from a marketing standpoint, you’ve got to have your ducks in a row before you start ordering stuff.
How do most beverage companies go about doing business with you?
We try to make our web site a first stop from a technical standpoint. Visitors can listen to podcasts, webinars, they can read reports, and we encourage people, once they get in there, to use it. We’re visible at trade shows, and we’ve got a 24-7 web site with technical advisors available. Customers can request samples or call us – we’d send them a premix sample free of charge – and we’ll work with them from the start about their product.
Fortitech
Riverside Technology Park
2105 Technology Drive
Schenectady, NY 12308