PREMIUM SEARCH Search by job title, geography and build a list of executive contacts
Last Labor Day, Steve Collette, 47, who has owned Dallas-area pickle processor Goldin Pickle Co. since 1976, read in the papers that when the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Dallas Cowboys 41-14, they had a secret weapon -- pickle juice. That's right. Allegedly, the Eagles drank pickle juice prior to the game. Some players boasted that the juice kept them from dehydrating in the 111-degree heat -- the third hottest day ever recorded in Dallas.
The news was naturally intriguing to Collette, since his company processes 4 million pounds of cucumbers per year, turning them into whole and sliced pickles and relish. In the past, his company had sold buckets of pickle juice -- the brine used to make pickles -- to local vendors for dill snow cones. More importantly, Collette is a huge fan of the dust-kicking Cowboys.
So when Brandon Brooks, a 25-year-old assistant manager at a local grocery store, proposed making a sports drink based on pickle juice, Collette never flinched. He was in -- never mind that he personally doesn't care for pickle juice. Collette's wife, Beverley, cooked up the recipe: pickle juice, fructose syrup, antioxidant vitamins C and E, zinc, potassium, and -- yes -- some secret ingredients. The drink is not scientifically proven to keep the body hydrated, but hey, it's got vitamins.
The drink, Original Goldin Pickle Juice, debuted in the Southwestern United States a month ago, and the first 9,600-unit batch of 8- and 16-ounce bottles is long gone. Yes, it looks like yellow brine and tastes, well, just like pickle juice. The marketing pitch goes: "The sports drink with a bite," and "The great taste of pickles, without the warts." (And just FYI, a perfect pickle exhibits seven warts per square inch, according to pickled vegetable industry association Pickle Packers International.) "I am absolutely convinced that in America and everywhere else in the world, people are looking for a new and unique flavor," says Collette.
TURBO-PORK? Collette's pickle-juice saga is just one example of a recent trend in the American food industry: The health-foods market is exploding with new products. And that's doubly true of foods and drinks packed with supplements that promise health benefits and/or a boost in energy. In May, for example, energy-bar leader PowerBar (which is a unit of Nestle) launched its Pria bar, crispy rice with chocolate or yogurt and 23 vitamins and nutrients.
Other manufacturers are exploring the limits of consumers' appetite for energy/health foods. Belgian delicacies distributor Del Diche, for instance, has a local hit with Dynameat, which contains pork, beef, salt, mixed spices, and additives normally found in energy bars. Pork, beef, and salt in a health nostrum? Belgians certainly seem to be going for it. Since the product's introduction three months ago, more than 8 million Dynameat treats have been sold through Belgian gas stations at $1.10 each, says Del Diche owner Luc DeCock.
The sausage is such a success that the company plans to start selling it in Scandinavia, France, Spain, and Portugal. And in September, Del Diche intends to launch Explosion, an energy product similar to Dynameat but with soy instead of meat. Customers like Dynameat for the taste, says DeCock, but they also appreciate the benefits of the supplements.
Why the rush to foods and drinks enriched with supplements? "It's a big trend towards convenience," says Alyssa Berman, manager of corporate and brand affairs at PowerBar. "People don't have the time to cook, and tend to eat on the go." Of 2,500 consumers surveyed last year by consumer-marketing and consulting firm Yankelovich Partners, 43% agreed with the statement: "More and more, I am eating on the run and rarely have a sit-down meal." And consumers pick nutritious foods over empty calories, Berman says.
HEALTHY GROWTH. More importantly, as Baby Boomers grow older, they've become enthralled with products promising to boost their energy levels and slow down the aging process, says Barbara Caplan, a partner at Yankelovich Partners. The 76 million Baby Boomers comprise 29% of the U.S. population. "It's part of youthfulness to be energetic," says Caplan. "Probably many of them think it's ridiculous, but maybe [these foods and drinks] will help."
For food and beverage manufacturers, a few nickels' worth of supplements can often translate into several extra dollars worth of profits, says Varro Tyler, a food-supplements expert at Purdue University. "The companies are in it big time," he says. Sales of many supplements sold alone, such as herbs and vitamin C, have fallen by as much as 15% this year. But manufacturers hope to make up some of the slack by adding supplements directly to foods, Tyler says.
Over the past five years, sales of so-called "functional foods" (those with supplements added) have been growing at twice the rate of both supplement sales and sales of traditional foods, says Patrick Rea, research director at Nutrition Business International (NBI), a research and consulting firm serving the nutrition industry. With 36% market share, functional foods now make up the biggest segment of the $48 billion U.S. nutrition market, according to NBI. They grab more consumer dollars than supplements, and more than natural organic foods and personal-care products (such as creams and antioxidant lotions) combined.
Nutrition bars and beverages lead the functional-foods category, according to NBI. Calcium-enriched orange juice is just one example of a supplemented drink that has gained huge sales. But the market will likely diversify further. Already, PowerBar offers carbo-enriched gels that also contain vitamins C and E and minerals.
PECK OF PICKLE PACKERS. Such mutations don't always please the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). A few years ago, for instance, the agency ruled that Uniondale (N.Y.)-based Hain Celestial Group had to stop marketing soups as health-food supplements. According to FDA rules, a supplement should look like a pill or something easily identifiable as a supplement. Another concern is that some health products' promises -- higher energy levels and a slowdown in aging -- are unsubstantiated. Consumers' expectations of the products' magic effects are greater than the actual results and functional-food users often are disappointed, says Yankelovich's Caplan.
Manufacturers, however, say taste is as big a selling point for their products as nutrition. Apparently, this applies even to pickle juice. Encouraged by its initial success, Goldin Pickle Juice is now working on new flavors. In this market, anything is possible. After all, U.S. consumers already eat 20 billion pickles each year, enough to circle the moon more than two times, according to Pickle Packers International. It might take a while for Goldin and its ilk to skyrocket to those kind of sales, but hey, they've got the juice.
By Olga Kharif in New York Edited by Thane Peterson
Copyright 2001 , by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
Printer-Friendly Version
