Athletic Greens
Nutritional supplement maker Athletic Greens hires Kat Cole as president and chief operating officer.
Cole joins the company after a 10-year run at Focus Brands, where she oversaw global operations for nine brands spanning 6K locations, including licensing and CPG efforts. She’s credited with the turnaround of Cinnabon into a billion-dollar brand.
All-in One
Founded in 2010, Athletic Greens is best known for its daily, all-in-one nutritional powder. After initially bootstrapping the company, founder and CEO Chris Ashenden is accelerating the business.
- In July, Athletic Greens added its first outside capital, including funding from SC.Holdings, F1’s Lewis Hamilton, actor Hugh Jackman, and other strategic investors.
- The brand is planning to enter physical retail, starting with hotel and fitness partnerships.
- Annual sales are growing 200% YoY, putting the company on pace to exceed $100M in revenue this year.
The company also honed its branding, shifting the focus from Athletic Greens to the more accessible AG1 namesake. Broadening its base, 45% of new customers are female.
Announcing her new role, Cole said:
“Athletic Greens is a wellness rocket ship with a mission-driven founder and passionate team who are leaning in and co-creating a new consumer category of foundational nutrition.”
Teasing what’s to come, Cole said the company’s community efforts will “likely intersect with web3 and NFTs in the near future.”
Big Business
A growing segment of the trillion-dollar wellness industry, nutrition supplements are a massive business:
- In 2020, the US supplement market will surpass $50B.
- Globally, the industry is projected to reach $188B by 2025.
While 86% of US adults take vitamins or supplements, as we outlined in Issue No. 108, the efficacy and safety of said supplements are questionable.
Still, brands are bulking up their efforts to capitalize on this trend.
- In April, Unilever acquired Onnit, a supplement company backed by Joe Rogan.
- Last year, Nestlé Health Science acquired collagen bar, beverage, and powder maker Vital Proteins.
- Also in 2020, Bayer acquired personalized vitamin maker Care/of for $225M.
- To date, high-performance supplement maker Bulletproof has raised $80M+, while bone broth protein powder brand Ancient Nutrition has secured $100M in funding.
Looking ahead: No doubt Ashenden and Cole are pointing to these examples as they consider Athletic Greens’ potential.
