Sports Hydration Brand Thirty Drink Pivots to Cans

Sports drinks are a $6 billion-plus category in the United States. But is there room for one in a can?

While fitness-focused energy and functional drinks have long since embraced aluminum cans, traditional RTD sports beverages — as defined by the dominant players, Gatorade and Powerade, with a nod to BodyArmor as well — have almost always been packaged in PET bottles. Hoping to test that theory in search of an edge in the market, Cincinnati-based Thirty Drink is making the shift from 12 oz. PET bottles to slim cans, with the shift expected to take effect on retail shelves starting January 2021.

The change was already in the works prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic this spring, said Thirty Drink founder and CEO Patrick McGinnis. Though sold in select retail and online, the product — a line of 30 calorie sports drinks available in six fruit flavors — has made distribution in schools a cornerstone of its growth strategy over the past year; having landed placement in over 400 public and private school lunch programs, the cans were being prepped to roll out for this fall’s school year.

That approach has helped Thirty create a point of differentiation within the category, with McGinness telling BevNET last year his commitment to making the channel “the backbone of the company.” Yet while still a critical piece of its foundation, schools alone are not “big enough” to support Thirty’s broader market ambitions.

“When we first talked about getting into the sports drink category, we knew we would be competing with some of the biggest companies in the world,” he said. “But we are confident in our product and its taste, and we know how to stand out.”

The move into a 12 oz. can presents opportunities and challenges, particularly as a novelty within the sports drink category. McGinness noted that, thanks in part to adoption from hard seltzer and canned cocktails, the format is seeing rising interest and acceptance in non-traditional segments. While cans can’t be resealed once opened, he added that users typically consume the drink relatively quickly for rapid rehydration, an intentional change to create a use occasion closer to that of an energy shot rather than a sports drink.

To streamline the brand as it is reintroduced in its new package, the lineup has been reduced from six to three flavors — Raspberry Cherry, Blackberry Lemonade and Strawberry Watermelon — though the formulation has not been altered.

On shelf, McGinnis said that cans will allow Thirty to offer a more competitive price point — dropping from $1.99 to $1.49 — against premium sports drinks as well as products like enhanced waters. The brand will still be sold in singles but the packaging will give it greater flexibility to explore multi-pack formats in the future, he added. Yet in terms of on-the-go convenience and sustainability, it will also face competitive pressure from a rising cohort of hydration-focused powder mix brands, such as Hydrant, nuun and the Unilever-owned Liquid I.V. Placed in contrast to the domination of multi-serve bottles from the sports drink category leaders, Thirty’s bet on small format and instant gratification are two of the ways in which the brand is trying to jumpstart innovation.

“I just think this is a category that’s been so dominated by the big two, and even including BodyArmor also, yet has just not had a ton of innovation that has stuck,” he said.

Though the COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant disruption to the fall semester, Thirty’s new cans are due to begin rolling out to schools this month, followed by availability on Amazon. But the company will have to wait until next year to see how consumers respond to the cans at retail, as the switch will begin in January 2021. In the meantime, McGinnis said the signals sent from retail and distribution partners, including KeHE, Gordon Food Service and Sysco, thus far have been encouraging.

“When you come out with a new item, it’s a very easy out for the distributor to exit, but every one of our current partners said yes to the cans,” he said. “That’s helped give us confidence to go all in on the idea.”