Seeking to grow its international operations, functional drinks maker LifeAID Beverage Company has acquired its European distributor, HPF Solutions, trading under LifeAID Europe. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
LifeAID Europe was founded in 2014 by Netherlands-based gym owner Gijs Spaans, who began working with LifeAID individually to distribute the brand to European Crossfit locations. As part of the deal, Spaans will serve as general manager of the brand’s European arm, which covers the Benelux region of Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg, as well as the U.K., Austria, Germany and France. The company plans to expand into Italy and Spain in the near future.
“Over the years Gijs has really studied our route to market, our marketing campaigns, and how we handle outreach to that core customer group we were focused on and from that generated a splendid, high volume business that was really only focused on the gym channel,” said CEO Orion Melehan.
Founded in 2011, LifeAID was still an early stage startup when the brand began pursuing international expansion. According to Melehan, rather than focus on geographic footprint, the company’s goal was to first dominate the fitness channel, prompting it to head overseas. In 2016, Spaans helped launch LifeAID’s ecommerce business in Europe, which at the time was still a new purchasing platform for many European consumers. This year, Melehan said the brand’s European direct-to-consumer sales have grown over 400%.
According to Melehan, European revenue is expected to be at about 50% of LifeAID’s U.S. revenue within the next five years. Currently, Europe makes up about 10% of the company’s overall sales, with an additional 5% coming from Australia and Canada.
“International is a meaningful business for us and I think it shows that the brand has traction in the global marketplace, not just the U.S.,” Melehan said. “So that playbook is going to play out in other regions of the globe.”
LifeAID Europe is also not the first time the brand has acquired its international distributors — last year the company acquired its Canadian distribution partner The Good Gear Company, which was rebranded as LifeAID Canada.
According to Melehan and president Aaron Hinde, purchasing international partners allows the company to streamline operations, including funding new expansions and marketing. Hinde noted that LifeAID’s digital and social media marketing team now handles all online ad campaigns, stating that “Facebook is agnostic as to whether you’re running ads in the U.S. or Europe.”
LifeAID is continuing to add to its international sales team and is looking to expand its presence in grocery and other retail channels in that market.
“We have the benefit now, since we acquired the company, to get that revenue coming into our consolidated financials,” Melehan said. “Before it was a much smaller piece of business because we had to sell the product to Gijs for such a smaller dollar amount. Now we’re getting those gross revenues coming into LifeAID, which is really increasing our global growth rate.”