Having acquired a majority stake in Bloom last month, Nutrabolt, best known for its C4 brand, is now armed with two distinct, cross-category RTD players, and is ready to nudge the throttle forward again in 2026, as we heard in conversation with Nutrabolt execs at the c-store-focused NACS trade show last week in Chicago.
First up is Bloom, the female-leaning supplement brand that has quickly captured a foothold in RTD, first with Sparkling Energy last year (now passed 100 million cans sold, per the company) and most recently with its very on-trend fiber soda Bloom Pop.
The brand is planning to speed up the pace of innovation next year, CEO Greg LaVecchia told us at NACS, with at least five new SKUs for each of its RTD lines, or one per quarter, with a combination of LTOs and permanent additions. The early signs are positive: Bloom’s first seasonal SKU, Crisp Apple, released last month, has already become its best-selling flavor, he said.
We got an early tease of next year’s products at the show: in Sparkling Energy, Bloom is doing another seasonal limited release with the pink lemonade-leaning Summer Splash. For Bloom Pop, it’s going deeper into classic soda fountain flavors in January with Root Beer Float (3 grams of fiber) and in May with red-white-and-blue Rocket Blast (4 grams of fiber), the latter timed to arrive ahead of the 250th anniversary of American independence on July 4.
Both Bloom’s RTDs have thus far moved mainly through the club and mass retailers where its supplements took off, including Walmart and Costco. Now Bloom is expecting the aforementioned new flavors to open a path into c-stores, where brands like Alani Nu have earned consumer attention through a fluid pipeline of new flavor innovation and LTOs.
It’s also a chance to see how distribution partner Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) can flex its muscles as an evolving energy powerhouse; its trucks also carry Black Rifle and Ghost alongside Bloom Sparkling Energy and C4. And as the prebiotic soda wars heat up amongst strategics, Bloom Pop brings KDP into the mix. In New York, Nutrabolt has teamed with Big Geyser for DSD.
LaVecchia was upbeat about early results from a test run for Sparkling Energy at 7-Eleven stores in New York that kicked off, ahead of a further push into key c-store chains like Buc-ees and Circle-K early next year. That process will repeat with Bloom Pop again testing in 7-Eleven in Q1 2026 before expanding wide.
“The Bloom consumers are already going to those stores, and we just need to make sure that we’re there for them,” said LaVecchia. “And so that huge side of our business that’s just distribution is where Nutrabolt’s expertise has just been a huge gasoline on the fire for our availability.”
C4’s innovation track, meanwhile, features a few subtle shifts. The brand was a pioneer in bringing popular candy and confectionery licenses into the energy space, but now it’s moving towards pop culture with next month’s release of a Godzilla tie-in (Sour Blue Razzilla) for its Ultimate Energy line. That complemented by two additions to the core Performance Energy portfolio: Cereal Killer, launching today, and Mango Fuego in January.
As Nutrabolt’s RTD plays scale, it helps that each has ample runway to expand within its core audience: for C4, its sports performance and pre-workout, including its Ultimate sub-line that pushes into category-peak 300mg caffeine per 16 oz. can. There’s little bleed over from that proposition to Bloom, which slots in 180mg natural caffeine per 12 oz. slim can alongside prebiotic fiber and apple cider vinegar in its energy drinks.
The two brands’ clear individual identities allow each to function independently, Nutrabolt CEO Doss Cunningham noted, without worry of overlapping or need to merchandise cohesively.
“The female shopper has been underrepresented within the assortment of energy for a very long time,” said Cunningham. “And I think as brands come out and really speak to her, I think there’s going to be more parity between the male and female shopper. I think Bloom’s a brand that can lead that [change].”
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