Need to Know

• The blurring of lines between beverage categories presents major opportunities for Joyburst as it builds a functional beverage platform.
• Joyburst is building its beverage portfolio around the way consumers live. Different occasions, same consumer.
• Joyburst’s distribution footprint across the United States plays key role in brand’s growth story, while Canada remains an important market as it continues to build its international business.

“Hydration used to be a sports occasion,” he says. “Today, it’s becoming an everyday behavior. Consumers are drinking hydration products when they wake up, at work, after a workout, while traveling, during a night out, and really throughout the day. It’s moved well beyond the traditional sports drink consumer.”

Woodgate adds that consumers also have become more educated about what they’re putting into their bodies. 

“They want function, but they don’t necessarily want the sugar, calories, or ingredients that historically came with it,” he says. “That creates a massive opportunity, but it also creates a very crowded market. The brands that win will be the ones that deliver real functionality, great taste, convenience and a brand people actually want to be part of.”

Woodgate also points to another important shift in the beverage market — wellness has become mainstream.

“You don’t have to be a professional athlete to care about hydration or protein anymore,” he explains. “A mom heading to work, a teenager going to school, someone sitting at a desk all day, or someone going to the gym can all have very different reasons for choosing a functional beverage.

“And consumers increasingly want convenience,” he continues. “They don’t want five different products to solve five different needs. The consumer isn’t asking, ‘What beverage category should I buy?’ They’re asking, ‘What do I need right now?’”

Building a beverage platform

Founded on the principle of living a healthier lifestyle, Joyburst is continuing its goal to support consumers’ healthy lifestyles through a diverse drink portfolio.

When Joyburst first launched, Woodgate says the idea was simple: create products people genuinely want to drink while removing some of the compromises traditionally associated with beverages.

“What’s changed is the size of the opportunity,” he explains. “We’re no longer thinking about Joyburst as a hydration company. We’re building a portfolio around the way consumers actually live. Different occasions, same consumer. That’s the opportunity we see.”

For example, Woodgate points out that Joyburst Renew Hydration gives consumers hydration and electrolytes without sugar, while the brand’s Protein Coffee brings 30 grams of protein and zero sugar into an everyday coffee occasion. 

“Protein Soda takes protein into a completely different beverage occasion,” he says. “And we’re continuing to develop products around ingredients like creatine and other functional benefits.”

 Joyburst also recently launched new hydration drink stick-packs.

“We want Joyburst to show up in those moments,” Woodgate says. “The stick packs are about portability and convenience.”

As for what differentiates Joyburst’s portfolio from others in the market, Woodgate says the biggest difference is that the brand is not trying to build one beverage.

“We’re building a functional beverage platform,” he says. “That’s where our innovation comes from. And we’re very deliberate about it. I don’t want to launch a product just to add another SKU to the portfolio. If we’re going to put something new on a shelf, I want consumers to look at it and say, ‘I’ve never seen that before.’”

Woodgate adds that although Renew Hydration has been the foundation of Joyburst and put the brand on the map, what’s exciting now is seeing the portfolio develop beyond hydration. 

“Protein Coffee has been a particularly strong innovation because it combines two huge consumer behaviors — coffee and protein — into one product,” he says. “Protein Soda has also created a completely new conversation for us. And Protein Soda MAX, with 30 grams of protein, takes that concept into the active nutrition space. What’s most exciting to me isn’t necessarily one individual SKU. It’s the opportunity to create multiple major product platforms within one brand.

“We recently crossed $100 million in annual sales, and I don't look at that as the finish line,” Woodgate continues. “I look at it as proof that the model works. Now the question is how many more big platforms we can build.”

Looking toward expansion

With innovation being a big part of Joyburst’s philosophy, Woodgate says the brand is

nowhere near finished when it comes to expanding its portfolio.

“We’re working across hydration, protein, creatine, energy, coffee and functional beverages, and some of the things we’re developing today will look very different from what people currently expect from a beverage company,” he explains. “But we’re not interested in innovation for the sake of innovation.

“I’ve launched hundreds of consumer products over my career. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that having an idea is easy. Building something consumers actually want, retailers want to carry, and that can scale profitably is much harder,” Woodgate continues. “So, we’ll continue to move quickly, but we’re going to be disciplined about what earns the Joyburst name.”

As for Joyburst’s distribution footprint, Woodgate notes that the United States has become a massive part of the brand’s growth story.

Joyburst is currently available in major retailers including Costco, Target, Walmart, Sam’s Club, BJ’s, Meijer, CVS, Dollar Tree, and other regional and specialty retailers, in addition to eCommerce channels.

“One thing I’m particularly proud of is the diversity of our distribution,” Woodgate says.

“We’re not dependent on one channel or one type of consumer. Hydration can live in club, grocery, and mass. Protein Soda can live in soda and active nutrition. Protein Coffee can live in coffee and functional beverage.

“That gives us a lot of room to grow within the same consumer base,” he continues. “And we’re still early.”

As for Joyburst’s distribution footprint abroad, Woodgate says that Canada remains an important market for the brand as it continues to build its international business.

“International expansion has always been part of my background,” he explains. “I’ve spent more than 25 years building consumer brands and have taken products into dozens of countries.

“What makes Joyburst particularly interesting internationally is that the trends we’re building around are global,” he continues. “Consumers everywhere are looking for less sugar, more function, better nutrition and greater convenience. Hydration is global. Protein is global. Wellness is global. That's a pretty powerful combination.”

Future aspirations

With eyes on the future, Joyburst is investing heavily in experiential marketing, creators, partnerships, events and sampling.

“Beverages are uniquely experiential,” Woodgate explains. “You can see a product on a screen, but the moment somebody actually tastes it, everything changes. And we’re constantly looking for ways to make Joyburst culturally relevant.”

For instance, Joyburst launched Disney's Moana x Joyburst, the brand’s newest Renew Hydration flavor: Pineapple Coconut, in celebration of Disney’s live-action adaptation of “Moana” that released earlier this year.

“Disney has been an incredible partner for Joyburst, and the Moana partnership felt very natural,” Woodgate says. “The inspiration for Pineapple Coconut came directly from the world and feeling of Moana. It’s tropical, it’s adventurous and it has that feeling of being somewhere completely different.

“We didn’t want to simply put a Disney logo on an existing product,” he continues. “We wanted to create something that felt native to the partnership, which is why Pineapple Coconut was developed specifically around the Moana collaboration. We’ve now had the opportunity to work with Disney across several major properties, and each partnership has shown us how powerful the intersection of entertainment, product and consumer engagement can be.”

Alongside partnerships, Woodgate explains that Joyburst is engaging with consumers differently from traditional CPG companies.

“We’re building a functional beverage platform. That’s where our innovation comes from. And we’re very deliberate about it. I don’t want to launch a product just to add another SKU to the portfolio. If we’re going to put something new on a shelf, I want consumers to look at it and say, ‘I’ve never seen that before.”

– Brad Woodgate, founder of Joyburst

“Retail is obviously incredibly important. Sampling, demos, merchandising and getting the product into people’s hands still matter enormously,” he says. “But we’re also building a social-first brand. TikTok, Instagram and other social platforms allow us to have a real conversation with consumers. We’re able to see what people are responding to, what they’re asking for and what they actually care about.”

As for what the future holds for hydration drinks and where Joyburst fits in with that future, Woodgate anticipates that hydration is going to become less of a category and more of an everyday behavior.

“The consumer doesn’t really care whether something is technically classified as a sports drink, hydration drink, or functional beverage,” he says. “They care about what it does for them.

That’s going to push the category toward more functionality and more personalization.

“Zero sugar will continue to matter,” he continues. “Electrolytes will continue to matter. But I think we’re going to see hydration increasingly intersect with protein, energy, creatine, vitamins, recovery, and other functional benefits. That’s exactly where we want Joyburst to play.”

As for what aspirations Woodgate has for Joyburst in the next few years, he says the ambition is “very big.”

“We recently crossed $100 million in annual sales, which is an incredible milestone for a company that was founded only a few years ago,” he says. “But honestly, I don’t spend much time looking backwards.

“I’ve spent more than 25 years building consumer brands,” he continues. “I’ve started companies from scratch, built products that have generated billions in sales, managed large teams, and taken brands into markets around the world. Joyburst is the next chapter.”

Ultimately, Woodgate’s vision for Joyburst involves building the brand to become a billion-dollar global beverage company.

“We’ve never raised outside venture capital, and that has allowed us to think long term and make decisions based on what we believe is right for the business rather than what we need to do for the next funding round,” he explains. “The next few years are about continuing to innovate, expanding distribution, building a global brand and creating products consumers genuinely love.

“We’ve proven that Joyburst can get to $100 million,” Woodgate continues. “Now I want to see how far we can take it. And that’s honestly the part that gets me most excited.”