Wow Hydrate racked up cumulative losses of almost £50m and burned through £29m of investment before collapsing into administration as major sponsorship deals with big-name sports clubs and stars – such as Manchester United, Harry Maguire and Tyson Fury – backfired.
The company owed trade suppliers £1.5m, including £30k to Poundland and £56k to WH Smith Travel, when recovery firm Leonard Curtis was appointed as administrator at the end of June, according to a new report.
There is expected to be money available for a repayment to the unsecured creditors, with secured creditor ECapital, which provided invoice finance facilities, and HMRC both repaid in full.
It follows a pre-pack deal completed for the assets of the sports drink brand by its management team – as revealed last week by The Grocer – with Wow Hydrate set to relaunch next month.
Replenish+ Ltd, the newly incorporated business set up to buy Wow Hydrate, paid £150k for the stock, goodwill, IP and equipment, the report by Leonard Curtis showed.
Wow Hydrate finance director John Blake is the sole director of Replenish+.
The business was previously owned by Simba Investments, a Dubai-based investment firm, as majority shareholder.
Simba was founded in 2022 and has $150m of assets under management, according to its website. Managing partner Lee Humphreys is currently acting as interim CEO at Replenish+ while a search for a new leader is underway. Humphreys has helped with the restructure as Wow prepares it relaunch but Simba is no longer an investor in the company.
Huge marketing outlay
The business was not big enough to file full accounts at Companies House, but the administration report has now revealed its total losses over the years amounted to £47.5m as a result of the huge outlay for sponsorship, brand ambassadors and marketing.
It lost £26m in the three financial years to 30 June 2025 on turnover of £11.2m across that period.
The administration report also revealed the business raised equity funding of about £29m from private and corporate investors and shareholders.
Blake told The Grocer this week: “The losses were largely driven by legacy decisions to pursue aggressive brand growth through high-cost sponsorships and marketing, without putting the right commercial structure or profit model in place.
“At the same time, there was significant investment into retail and wholesale distribution, often with poor margins and limited return.
“When the business came under new leadership, we focused on improving margins and introducing financial discipline. But the scale of historic commitments made the previous structure unsustainable without major further investment from existing shareholders. By that point, external investors were no longer willing to step in, and we had to look at alternative ways to make the business viable for the future.”
Leonard Curtis said an attempt to run a new funding round in March 2025 was unsuccessful, with “a key investor” also withdrawing support from the business.
Wow Hydrate then made operational changes in an attempt to improve its financial position, including significantly reducing overhead costs.
In addition, the business faced quality control issues in May, resulting in about 700,000 units being recalled, with the costs needed to replace the contaminated bottles piling on more pressure from creditors and customers.
Wow Hydrate met with Leonard Curtis later that month and a process to market the business for sale was started after it was determined the company was insolvent, which ultimately led to the pre-pack deal with Replenish+.
The Leonard Curtis report revealed £1.9m owed to Wow Hydrate by a subsidiary based in Dubai was not expected to be repaid.
All 18 Wow Hydrate staff transferred to the new owner, but The Grocer understands the majority were subsequently made redundant following a structural review ahead of the planned relaunch next month.
The report does not detail how much was paid for the sponsorship deals with the sports clubs and stars, or if any money was still owed from those deals.
“Replenish+ will take a very different approach, focused on targeted partnerships, commercial discipline and measurable return on investment,” Blake added.
Manchester United did not respond to several requests for comment.
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