I personally have been researching the energy drink market for almost a year now very thoroughly but maybe not enough so thats what brings me here to this board because i would like to ask what has your experiences have been with start up in the bag in the box product. My partner and i run a decent size soda syrup business which we provide syrup for the bar guns of approx. 300 accounts in NJ and we are expanding in NYC so we decided to start an energy drink business and ofcourse reach out to our existing customers. Where do we go from here we have the name of the product the flavor and 3gallon bag in the box concept but we just dont want to be a lost energy drink start up company like many others ! Help !! Any Suggestions would be greatly appreciated !!!

Thanks in advance - NYCEnergy

The problem with bag in the box drinks is that there is little to no brand recognition. Is your concern the cost of copacking in cans?

Energy G i do feel you are as good as your product ! You have to make the name a brand and ofcourse you have to spend alot of money to do so ! so with that in mind lets go back to bag in the box verses can or bottle. Which would be most cost effective and why? What kind of investment are we talking about 1. Bag in the box 2. can 3. bottle. Can someone let me know that has years of experience with a product ?

Thanks in advance NYCEnergy

In the end, you'll probably be looking somewhere in the ballpark of $8.00 per case for 16 oz energy drinks. Bag in the box will run you somewhere in the $4-$6 range. You're not going to have the same margins with bag in the box though because the distributor pricing that you can command with cans is higher. This goes back to what I was saying before, bag in a box energy drinks are viewed as being discount brands (because they are) whether they are inferior or not is a completely different topic.

By the way, a minimum run is going to cost somewhere in the ballpark of $100,000 for cans (depending on which copacker you go with and what size). Marketing budget is obviously going to depend on how large a market you want to start with and how quickly you plan on expanding.

Energy G Thank you very much i do appreciate the info it's nice to know that we are all here on this board for one common goal and that is to network and help each other ! So a rough ballpark number is 100,000 for cans how many cans(cases) would that be ? Also how about bottles I heard that it would be to expensive to go that route am i correct. Enlighten me on how you took your product to can ( By the way awesome website herenergy.com - HER Energy Drink)Or did you get the investors right off the bat and didn't need to have a proven product. Can you explain the process !!

Thank You In advance - NYCEnergy