Take a world-champion body builder and a new form of protein supplement, and Power Crunch—protein-energy, cream-filled wafer cookies—is born. Sounds easy, right?
Not quite so, according to Kevin Lawrence, founder and chief executive of Santa Ana-based BioNutritional Research Group Inc. He noted that his company took a long time before achieving profitability. The protein nutrition company, together with subsidiary Power Crunch, formulates and manufactures hydrolyzed protein products. It has grown in the double digits every year for the past five years and anticipates reaching $100 million in sales this year.
“The first product that went up for sale was Proto Whey protein powder [in 1996],” Lawrence said. The product, which breaks down protein to smaller fragments through a process called enzymatic hydrolysis, stands out as the fastest digesting whey.
“[Unhydrolyzed] whey, soy, they can’t even remotely compare to the metabolic rate of hydrolyzed whey … but the product tasted really terrible. It took me five years to hide that terrible flavor and have a product I can sell,” he said.
For Lawrence, who was among five honored at the Business Journal’s Excellence in Entrepreneurship awards on March 8 (see related stories on pages 1, 6, 8 and 10) his story was one of never saying “what if.”
“I don’t even understand the phrase what if. Whatever I do, there’s no doubt that it will not be successful,” he said.
Let’s Eat Right
“I got my first B-complex supplement when I was 13” in the 1960s, Lawrence said. He was inspired by American author and nutritionist Adelle Davis’ book “Let’s Eat Right to Keep Fit.” The book talked about eating balanced diets and incorporating vitamins, minerals and other nutrients, and for Lawrence, “It just made a lot of sense to me.”
A sickly kid with a lot of respiratory illnesses—“I played sports, but I was down with asthma for about half of the year”—Lawrence started adding different supplements to his diet.
“I got well,” he said of his experiment. “My asthma went away.”
Bodybuilding
His childhood foray into supplements formed the basis of his interest in the industry, but it was bodybuilding that solidified his career path.
Lawrence majored in accounting in college and minored in chemical engineering, though he didn’t pursue accounting as a career. He instead first became a ceramic artist and later a bodybuilder and performer.
He found his way into bodybuilding in 1980, and soon met his competition partner, Diana Dennis. The two trained and entered mixed pairs competitions, winning U.S., American and World Pairs championships of the International Federation of Body Building.
More than aesthetics, bodybuilding opened doors for Lawrence when Great Earth Vitamin Stores President John Gorman approached him in 1981 to develop and endorse a new sports nutrition product. Great Earth was the country’s second largest health food store chain in the 1980s, with about 190 stores.
He parted ways with the company—and also Dennis—in 1987, starting his own company, BioNutritional and later Power Crunch.
Bar
Power Crunch was discovered after Lawrence’s son, Khale, was born in 1991. Due to complications with a C-section birth and subsequent antibiotic treatment, he was unable to digest his mother’s milk. His son also developed a severe case of colitis when put on commercial infant formula.
Lawrence switched him to hydrolyzed whey formula. His son got better, and the rest is history.
“Lawrence took this product born out of necessity and turned it into one of the … highest rated protein supplements on the market,” said Jeffrey Reeves, partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in Irvine.
Well, history after Lawrence decided to turn his protein powder into bars in 2004.
“The protein [powder] was great, but it was higher priced than every other protein powder out there … I needed to make a product that sells itself,” Lawrence said. Power Crunch Original Protein Energy bars started with three flavors and has since expanded to nine.
The company plans to continue to expand its energy bar offerings, adding flavors such as red velvet, lemon meringue and strawberry shortcake. It also plans to launch a kids line.
