News
EX Drinks U.S. Enters Market with Healthy Trio
ORANGE, Calif.-(Business Wire)-July 30, 2007 - EX Drinks U.S., LLC,
NOTE TO EDITORS - REVIEW SAMPLES: To receive samples of the three new drinks, please e-mail Bonnie Wessig at company headquarters: Bonnie@EXDrinksUS.com with your Name, Title, Medium, physical address and phone number.
EX Drinks U.S., LLC, (EXDUS), quietly founded in Orange County in 2005 with more than $3 million in start-up capital, is beginning to make noise: noise about its marketing strategy and its healthy alternatives to industry-leading energy drinks containing megadoses of caffeine, vitamins, processed sugar and taurine.
EX Drinks U.S., without the boast or ballyhoo inherent in the energy drinks industry, has begun distributing three drinks - EX Pure Energy(TM), EX Slim Energy(TM) and EX Chill(TM) - in Hawaii and California. (Product Photos: exdrinksus.com/media.html) (The firm is located at 933 N. Batavia, Orange, CA 92867; mail to 751 S. Weir Canyon Rd. Ste. 157341, Anaheim Hills, CA 92808)
EXDUS also is offering online ordering (www.EXDrinksUS.com) as it rolls out its national marketing strategy this summer. Initially, the drink brands are being sold in convenience, health food and grocery stores in 8.4 fluid ounce cans. The drinks retail from $2 to $2.49 each, with 16-ounce cans to be introduced in October.
The company, which owns the brands in the United States, is the exclusive U.S. distributor for London, England-based Extreme Drinks LTD, a five-year-old firm which markets its beverages in 26 countries. The global roster includes Denmark, France, India and Sweden, four nations which either limit or restrict from sale drinks containing taurine. Extreme Drinks is a part of Extreme Group and Extreme International, which founded the Extreme Sports Channel, so popular with the industry's target market - youths age 18 to 30-years old.
"We realize that we've been flying under the radar for many months," conceded CEO Jarod Duggins, an Orange County, CA native. "We are well aware that we are 'David' in a $3.4 billion-a-year industry populated with tenacious 'Goliaths.' Our industry reportedly grew at 80% in 2006, with about 500 new labels introduced this past year - for the second year in a row!"
An undisclosed U.S. investment group, as well as additional individuals, comprise the company's core investors. Ex Drinks will announce this summer distributor relationships being closed in California and Hawaii; endorsements by athletes in various sports; and the company's special promotional events and involvement in various charitable causes.
EXDUS Management Team
Duggins, 28, (Executive photos: exdrinksus.com/media.html) grew up in San Juan Capistrano, CA. He played high school football and baseball and was an avid surfer, skater and snowboarder. He also coached San Juan Capistrano's Challenger League - baseball for mentally and physically challenged athletes - at the age of 17. After graduation, Duggins studied business at nearby Saddleback and Santa Barbara City Colleges.
Duggins started his sales career by successfully offering private placement investments for centers to accommodate non-invasive heart scanners. In 2003, he started Products Rep Direct, which represented beverages, clothing and apparel companies in Orange County, Hawaii and Vancouver, BC. Duggins, the father of three children, resides in Southern California.
Howard London is a business development expert with 42 years of hands-on administrative, financial, technical, creative and sales experience in advertising, design, printing, publishing and marketing for start-up and growth companies. London is responsible for all supply side, financial and marketing activities.
Norm A. Hunte, a New York native and Duke University economics graduate, is a Partner and U.S. Sales Manager. Previously, he was a Regional Sales Planner/Account Manager with the Pillsbury Co, a licensed broker and equity fund analyst with Dean Witter, and a member of CDC (Certified Development Corporation) in Charlotte, NC. At Duke, Hunte was a champion track star, and in 1992 he was on the first American team to participate in the Raidgaulosis non-mechanical adventure race.
Corey Namba, a Partner and Promotions Manager, worked with Duggins at Products Rep Direct before helping start EX Drinks U.S. The San Clemente, CA, native, who has nine years experience marketing beverages, moved to Hawaii to study public relations at Hawaii Public University. He is a member of the Public Relations Student Society of America. The former American River guide, an avid member of the Surfriders Assn., resides in Haleiwa and recently created a year-long PR campaign for USO Hawaii.
Safety Concerns on Ingredients in Other Energy Drinks
"We share the concern of educators, parents, pediatricians and poison control centers that some unhealthy energy drinks have created a whole new 'buzzed generation,'" Namba observed. "Youths and adults, turning away from carbonated and coffee drinks, are getting unnecessarily revved up on some of these beverages, particularly the ones containing taurine."
Taurine, an active ingredient in most energy drinks, is a conditionally-essential amino acid which is not utilized in protein synthesis, but rather found free or in simple peptides. Although discovered as a component of ox bile in 1827, it has been artificially synthesized for the drink manufacturing process. Red Bull(R), Monster(R) and Rockstar(R), industry sales leaders who held 76.5% of the energy drinks market share in 2005, all contain megadoses of taurine. (Market share sources: Beverage Digest; Datamonitor.) Some major U.S. insurance companies will not provide product liability coverage for energy drinks containing taurine.
EX Drinks three beverages, which management believes will avoid California's ban on junk food in schools (effective July 1), are heralded as "Great Tasting, All Natural, Life Enhancing." They contain no taurine. (PHOTOS: exdrinksus.com/media.html).
— EX Pure Energy: Contains kombucha, ingested since 221 B.C. (Qin Dynasty), and believed to inhibit harmful bacteria, detoxify the body, encourage cellular reproduction and help cell regeneration and tissue repair, as well as forming antibodies to help build the immune system. Other ingredients are guarana, a natural stimulant; Asiatic ginseng and up to 80% of daily values of Vitamins B3, B5, B6 and C. Pure beet sugar, not processed sugar, also helps avoid digestion conflicts encountered by some consumers.
— EX Slim Energy: The drink contains the same above ingredients, but less than two grams of carbs and sugar.
— EX Chill: A nonalcoholic drink, "America's First Relaxer Beverage." Contains chamomile, used for centuries as a nerve sedative and mild sleep aid which also contains anti-inflammatory, antiseptic and antimicrobial properties. Chill also contains valerian, a sedative for insomnia that provides a calming effect; lemon balm, also a sedative herb, used since the ancient Greeks, which lowers fever, relaxes spasms and improves digestion. EX Chill contains up to 40% of daily values of vitamins B3, B5,B6, B12, folic acid and biotin.
"We make no claims of miracle cures, legal highs and weight loss. We have no desire to jolt young bodies and brains. We want to secure our customers' trust, not to fuel the concerns of doctors, dentists and nutritionists," Duggins stated.
"We actually support a call by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) urging the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to enforce stricter standards for energy" drinks and other so-called functional foods and join it in urging the FDA to tighten regulations and take enforcement action," he said.
http://www.cspinet.org/new/200612051.html
"EX Drinks U.S. is delivering convenience, as well as health, to busier lifestyles. We want no skepticism associated with our products," he added. "That is exactly why we bought the U.S. brand rights and became an exclusive distributor for Extreme Drinks. These beverages are a safe alternative to energy drinks with taurine and have been marketed globally for about five years."
