Energy products trends 2024: Can challengers go the distance?

Russ Cook (pictured above) is an energy drinks marketer’s dream. In April, he adopted the persona “Hardest Geezer” on Instagram and hot-footed it from South Africa to Tunisia in 342 days. The self-described former “fat lad” from Worthing became the first person to run the full length of Africa.

His energy drink of choice? Not market leaders Red Bull or Lucozade, which have both spent big on marathon and ultra-running sponsorships in the past, but a brand that may be unfamiliar to conventional energy enthusiasts: PerfectTed.

The brand may soon become more familiar, thanks to snapping up shelf space in the likes of Tesco, Asda, Waitrose and Holland & Barrett. It’s also in talks about rolling out latest launch Hardest Energy Strawberry Daiquiri – inspired by Cook’s incredible feat of endurance – into retail in July.

“Big change is coming to energy drinks,” says Teddie Levenfiche, co-founder of PerfectTed, which won a £50k investment from Steven Bartlett and Peter Jones on BBC show Dragons’ Den in March 2023.

“Traditional, hyper-masculine brands are fighting for the same small consumer group”

“Traditional, hyper-masculine brands are fighting for the same small consumer group, while we’re attracting new people who see natural ingredients as a given and don’t want the sugar crash and caffeine spikes of traditional energy drinks,” he explains.

PerfectTed, which has won listings in Tesco, Asda and Waitrose since its launch in 2021, isn’t alone in making such claims.

Brands such as Tenzing, Virtue and Coca-Cola-owned Reign Storm, which made its UK debut in May, are marketing their drinks as natural or clean alternatives to the likes of Red Bull and Monster.

So how are they performing at the tills? How different are they really? And can they go the distance?

There’s a long way to go at the moment. Presently, there’s only one brand explicitly marketed as natural in NIQ’s list of the UK’s top 10 bestselling energy drinks.

That’s Britvic’s Purdey’s Natural Energy, which has seen sales sink by 6% to £13m on volumes down 12.6% [NIQ 52 w/e 23 March 2024]. It’s hardly a ringing endorsement for natural energy drinks.

Yet Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) certainly thinks the category has legs. “Clean energy is an area that’s taken off in the US in recent years,” says associate director for portfolio development Helen Kerr, pointing to NIQ data. “Whilst this area is still in its infancy here in Great Britain, the wellness energy segment grew by 12% in 2023.”

Beyond young men

The clean challengers are certainly reporting strong growth. “We’re currently growing faster than Prime,” says Levenfiche, citing figures that suggest PerfectTed has driven 51% of growth in natural energy drinks [North Star/Circana 52 w/e 7 October 2023].

“We’re doing this by attracting people who have never thought about touching traditional energy drinks: women, young working professionals and health-conscious millennials,” he explains.

Indeed, conventional energy drinks are consumed by surprisingly few people. “Penetration of energy drinks is 35%, which is significantly lower than cola at 73% [Kantar 52 w/e 17 March 2023],” says Tenzing Natural Energy founder Huib van Bockel. “This is driven by health, taste, and image concerns. Our research indicates 40% of our customers are new to the energy category.”

It’s also worth noting Kantar’s analysis relates to households, which are fewer than individual shopper numbers. Analysis of shopper behaviour in forecourts, which is one of the biggest retail channels for energy drinks, reveals just 2.1% of roadside retail shoppers buy energy drinks. That’s despite the category being worth £109m to the channel [Britvic Soft Drinks Review 2024].

“We’re  attracting people who never thought about buying traditional energy drinks”

“The larger brands tend to attract mostly younger male consumers,” says Rahi Daneshmand, founder of Virtue Clean Energy, which sells its zero-sugar drinks through Waitrose, Asda, Morrisons and Motor Fuel Group, among others.

“Smaller brands like ours are appealing to those who want energy but are looking for better options that aren’t packed with sugar, artificial sweeteners or the synthetic lab-made caffeine found in leading energy drink brands,” he sums up.

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Of course, “natural” and “clean” can mean different things to different people. Virtue gets its kick from caffeine-rich South American herb yerba mate and green coffee bean extracts, and uses stevia as a sweetener. Tenzing, meanwhile, relies on beet and fruit sugars and extracts of green tea, guarana and green coffee beans. PerfectTed uses fruit juices, green tea and matcha, the antioxidant-rich cornerstone of Japanese tea ceremonies.

For CCEP, “clean” is a broad term. “Clean energy drinks are defined by their better-for-you claims – such as zero sugar, natural, plant-based, no artificial ingredients, etc – and are typically enhanced with functional ingredients that provide health benefits such as immunity support, digestive support, cognitive support or antioxidants,” says Kerr.

CCEP’s new clean energy brand Reign Storm shows just how broad the term can be. It uses ingredients typically found in natural or clean energy drinks, such as the herbal stimulants ginseng and guarana.

However, it also uses artificial sweeteners sucralose and acesulfame K. These are also present in many mainstream zero-calorie energy drinks, such as Red Bull Sugar Free and CCEP’s Monster Ultra (which also happens to contain ginseng and guarana).

UPF concerns

This may lead some to question how clean or different Reign Storm really is. That could pose a problem in the current climate.

“You just need to walk past a Waterstones and see how much space is dedicated to the book Ultra Processed People to see how front of mind ultra-processed foods are,” says Jess Blake, a management consultant at food and drink consultancy HRA Global. “This is spinning across into the drinks category.

“Ultra-processed foods are font of mind – this is spinning across into the drinks category”

“People are becoming more conscious of what they’re putting in their bodies. When you look at the back of cans of brands like Red Bull and Monster it’s mad to see what’s in them,” she adds. “There are so many ingredients, like sucralose and acesulfame K, that people struggle to pronounce, let alone want to ingest. In contrast, when you look at brands like Purdey’s or Tenzing, they contain ingredients that people recognise and are likely to be happier about consuming.”

Caffeine content is another concern for many consumers – but not one that’s translated to category-shaking reformulations, as yet. Litre for litre, Tenzing, Virtue and PerfectTed pack as much caffeine as Red Bull and Monster (320mg/litre) while Reign Storm has 340mg/litre and Prime Energy contains a head-spinning 424mg/litre.

Unit size is key, clearly. Monster’s 500ml cans pack the most punch: 160mg, roughly more than a double espresso; Prime’s 330ml cans have 140mg; 250ml cans of Tenzing, Virtue, PerfectTed and Red Bull have 80mg.

It goes to show, for brands as for consumers, ditching sucralose and its ilk is one thing, but cutting caffeine is quite another. After all, what’s an energy drink without the buzz?