![]() The next month, the conglomerate announced a new exclusive agreement with Bang set to last through October 2023, but by October 2020 the collaboration was already deteriorating. ![]() In March 2020, PepsiCo cleared the way to bring Bang on board its blue truck fleet by purchasing Rockstar Energy for $3.85 billion, thereby removing an exclusive distribution agreement it had with the Las Vegas-based brand. VPX built out a national DSD network for its beverage portfolio, including numerous Anheuser-Busch InBev and other beer houses, hired numerous energy category veterans, and by 2018 Bang had hit its hot streak, eventually breaking over $1 billion in annual retail sales. Offering consumers functional benefits with BCAAs and other performance supporting additives, Bang’s star ingredient was “Super Creatine,” a proprietary supplement developed by Owoc that claimed to be a more effective and water-soluble version of creatine – a notoriously difficult ingredient for beverage due to its bulkiness and tendency to separate. The company introduced Bang in 2012, presenting its new caffeine-packed beverage (a whopping 300 mg per 16 oz.) as a better-for-you alternative to mainstream energy drinks with zero sugar and added ingredients to support fitness and muscle growth. Redline had maintained sales throughout the 2000s despite its own trademark battle with Red Bull, which VPX won, and controversies over health risks, but the brand never rose to the level of the category leaders Owoc sought to supplant. ![]() Founded in 1993, Owoc had been a high school science teacher prior to starting the business and through its first two decades VPX mounted several launches into the sports nutrition and ready-to-drink beverage segments, including shake line Protein Rush and Redline, an energy drink line that amped up the category’s caffeine content by offering 250 mg per 8 oz. VPX was a 25-year long overnight success. As the company’s struggles have been met with intrigue, opportunism and occasional schadenfreude, understanding how the billion dollar brand fell apart is just as important as knowing what will happen next. Extended to 52-weeks, Bang’s dollar sales were down -33.5% for the full year with volume at -35.7%.Īs of this writing, Owoc is no longer with the company he founded and VPX is set to go up for auction – originally scheduled for April, it was pushed back to this summer. Bang’s dollar sales performance was matched by its volume, which fell -61.4% in the two-week period. “Monster, all Banged up, takes another Bang beat down into negative obscurity and irrelevance!”īut even a year later, the cracks in Owoc’s energy empire were beginning to show as an exclusive distribution deal with PepsiCo, signed in April 2020, turned sour, and a wave of insurgent performance energy brands – bolstered by Bang’s success – presented themselves as worthy competition who were ready to serve as level-headed alternatives to Bang’s over-the-top reputation.īy October 2022 the company had filed for bankruptcy, owing more than $478 million in combined damages to Monster after multiple legal defeats.Īccording to NielsenIQ, in the two week period ending May 6, 2023, retail dollar sales of Bang fell -58.8%, and the brand has lost its long-held third place spot in the energy category, falling to fifth behind PepsiCo and fellow Florida brand Celsius, which took over Bang’s position as Pepsi’s exclusive energy drink distribution partner last year. “Bang #1!” Owoc declared in a social media post that summer. ![]() Within the fitness and performance energy niche, the brand’s only serious competition was Monster’s newly launched Reign, which had ignited a fresh set of lawsuits between the companies over alleged trade dress infringement (which Monster ultimately won). The company certainly had every reason to invest in expansion: In the 52-week period ending June 15, 2019, per NielsenIQ, retail dollar sales of Bang grew 724.7%, while its top competitors were facing muted growth or declines. In May 2019, around the height of Bang Energy’s rocketship rise towards becoming a billion dollar brand and the number three player in the energy drink category, Jack Owoc, the bombastic founder and CEO of Bang parent company Vital Pharmaceuticals (VPX) agreed to an email interview with BevNET to discuss the rapid growth and its ongoing legal battles with its chief rival, Monster Energy.Īt the time, Owoc wrote that Bang had surpassed then-independent competitor Rockstar Energy in sales, achieved its first $5 million sales day, and opened a 250,000 square foot warehouse with seven canning lines, capable of producing 2,000 cans per minute.
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