Fitness-focused small business abounds in Orange County, and protein is a particular emphasis.
At least three makers of powders, bars and ready-to-drink supplements are based here, all in Irvine: PureFit Inc., Orgain Inc., and BioNutritional Research Group Inc.
All began as ventures that the founders said are dedicated to making a healthier protein product.
Each makes products for different buyers in a growing industry—bar form only, plant-based, and mass market.
New York-based market researcher IBISWorld showed the U.S. “meal replacement product” market growing 6% a year from 2008 to 2013 to $2.4 billion. It said growth would continue at a 4% annual clip through 2018 to $2.9 billion.
Accidental Purist
“Nutrition bars should be nutritional,” said Robb Dorf, chief executive of PureFit.
It makes protein bars with no dairy, wheat, gluten, artificial sweeteners, or trans fats, he said.
“All are 18 grams of protein, all kosher, all non-[genetically modified],” he said.
Dorf said he didn’t plan to hit the nutrition hot buttons of recent years when he founded PureFit in 2001.
“We just wanted to make the cleanest bar we could,” he said.
The bars got more attention as gluten-free demand grew and vegan eating came more into vogue.
That helped the company expand from specialty stores into general outlets.
Dorf said PureFit’s protein bars are in Albertsons and will be added to Bellingham, Wash.-based grocery chain Haggen, which is adding 11 local locations.
He plans another run at Costco, where Pure-Fit had success seven years ago but left due to competitor discounting.
“The bars are worth $2 to $3, and you have [other bars] selling 10 for 10 bucks,” he said.
Dorf said PureFit still also targets specialty retailers. Lake Forest-based distributor Torcano Industries is getting him back into bike stores, and he wants to sell to coffeehouses, too.
PureFit distributes in 15 foreign countries; international sales are about half the business, he said.
The company has five employees and revenue of $5 million to $10 million. Dorf is the sole owner.
“We’ve politely declined many, many opportunities” for equity investments, he said.
PureFit remains “very focused on just bars” for its product line.
“The protein powder market is absolutely brutal,” Dorf said, referring to that product market’s competitiveness.
No Pain, No Gain
Orgain makes powders and ready-to-drink shakes.
Founder Andrew Abraham was a board-certified physician.
He had also been diagnosed with cancer as a high school senior in 1999.
He wanted to maintain his health but said nutritional shakes at the time of his diagnosis used “cheap ingredients.”
So Abraham started blending his own and grew more interested in nutrition as a business. He said he was more passionate about nutrition than medicine and can help many more people than through a medical practice.
The cancer went into remission, and the company launched in 2009.
“People are health-conscious and willing to pay for premium products,” he said.
Orgain’s offerings are plant-based and include pea protein, chia and sprouted brown rice.
They’re sold in 25,000 retail stores, including Costco, Vitamin Shoppe and on Amazon.com.
Orgain has 15 employees and a 16,000-square-foot headquarters off Jamboree Road and Barranca Parkway.
Abraham declined to disclose revenue figures. Inc. Magazine set Orgain’s 2012 revenue at $9 million on a 2013 list of the 5,000 fastest-growing firms, and the Business Journal estimates its 2014 revenue at more than twice that, or $25 million.
One of Orgain’s new products is a protein-infused almond milk. It also contributed to a protein-infused yogurt from Londonderry, N.H.-based Stonyfield Farm Inc., whose chairman, Gary Hirshberg, is an Orgain investor.
“We’re focused on improving the lives of people by improving (on) inferior products,” Abraham said.
The company plans to add bars to its product mix of powders and drinks by the end of the year.
Be Energy
BioNutritional Research Group—BNRG, which sounds like “be energy” when said aloud—makes all three kinds of products: bars, powders, and drinks, under the PowerCrunch brand name.
It has grown from 25 employees four years ago to about 150, 40 of whom are in Irvine, as founder and Chief Executive Kevin Lawrence hired a national sales force to target “food, drug, and mass” market retailers.
Its protein bars are in Walmart, for instance, and look strikingly similar to the Neapolitan sugar wafers we ate as kids.
They’re also pleasing to the palate, he said.
“They need to taste good” to attract a wider audience.
He started the firm in 1993 as he sought a product his infant son could drink. The baby couldn’t drink mother’s milk or formula.
He’d been formulating protein products on contract for other companies since the early 1980s, and he holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting with a minor in chemistry.
He said the best protein ended up being hydrolyzed—broken down into amino acids—which made it easier to digest.
“That was the defining link,” he said.
Protein powders were his first product. He added bars—and company investors—in 2003, and ready-to-drink products came online by about 2010.
Lawrence said a recent nutrition trade journal estimate of $60 million in revenue for the company was too low but that, “We’re not at $100 million yet.”
Other Players
Orange County attracts other companies involved in protein purveying—including to pets.
Two of the largest are Nutrilite in
Buena Park, owned by Ada, Mich.-based Amway Corp., and Herbalife Ltd., with operational headquarters in Los Angeles and local facilities in several OC cities, including Lake Forest.
Others include:
• Laguna Beach-based Marifit sells “protein popper” snacks in 40 locations of Santa Ana-based Nekter Juice Bar Inc.
• General nutritional bar maker Rise Bar is in Irvine.
• Irvine-based Nutegrity, owned by Omega Protein Corp. in Houston, makes protein and fish oil products.
• Vitatech Nutritional Sciences Inc. is a 61-year-old private-label maker of powders and capsules in Tustin.
• Supplement maker Doctors Best Inc. in San Clemente recently added three protein-related products to its lineup.
• Los Angeles-based retailer Protein for Pets has local stores in Anaheim, San Clemente and Laguna Niguel.
• OC even has its own Kickstarter-funded startup.
Irvine-based HIIT Bottle LLC—HIIT is an exercise term that stands for high-intensity interval training—raised more than $125,000 from about 2,800 backers on the crowdfunding site to put its sleek, metallic-looking protein bottle into production.
Husband-and-wife founders Christian and Hannah Valencia said the ball in the bottom of the bottle better mixes protein powder to prevent clumping.
It’s scheduled to ship in June.
