Dive Brief:
- Companies such as Rebbl are promoting products with adaptogenic ingredients as a way for manufacturers to use "super herbs" to deliver nutritional and functional benefits to health-conscious consumers.
- Since Rebbl brought onboard Sheryl O’Loughlin, former CEO of Clif Bar and co-founder of Plum Organics, the company has closed a seed round of $4 million with leading investments from PowerPlant Ventures, co-founded by Zico water founder Mark Rampolla. Rampolla told Fortune he foresees a $1 billion opportunity for the company.
- However, sales in the nutritional drink and tonic category—where Rebbl drinks featuring adaptogenic herbs like maca, reishi, and ginseng reside—fell 22% to $1.36 billion from 2012 to 2015, according to Euromonitor. Prior to that decline, sales had jumped 32% between 2010 and 2012 to $1.74 billion.
Dive Insight:
Adaptogenic ingredients and "super herbs" are advantageous for manufacturers looking for ways to boost the nutritional and functional properties of products beyond the protein, probiotics, and fiber, which receive much of the attention in the functional foods market. Adaptogenic ingredients receive their name from enabling the body to adapt to certain stressors, with stress relief one of most significant benefits manufacturers can market to consumers.
Manufacturers have paid attention to how their product shapes and packaging can prove more convenient and work to make life easier for active consumers. But their ingredients lists can also offer ways to relieve stress for busy consumers, and adaptogenic herbs fill that role.
Euromonitor's nutritional drinks and tonic sales data doesn't seem to phase O'Loughlin. She told Fortune that Rebbl's sales velocity is beating out other competing brands, and the numbers resemble what she experienced at Clif Bar and Plum Organics.
But if nutritional drinks are a struggling category, then manufacturers could instead pursue using adaptogenic herbs to spice up packaged foods. Adaptogenic herbs made a strong showing earlier this year at the Natural Products Expo West, but the key challenge is informing American consumers about what these adaptogenic herbs and their benefits entail.