Interested in starting a healthy kids vitamin/supplement juice/water brand

[Sway Ciaramello]

I'm interested in starting a vitamin water/juice for Kids (K-12) - similiar to Healthy Kids, Grape Bot or NUI kid's water - but with my own special forumulation / mix of vitamins, juices and supplements.

Any suggestions on where I should start? (Jorge - I checked out your ezine articles and found this site - you definitely got me excited about this direction - eventhough it is not directly an energy drink) - I need help with how do I get these supplements/vitamins formulated into a drink (juice/water) and try different tastes to get it right?

I also need help with getting it packaged, produced and distributed.

Thanks in advance,
Sway

[Vivi Beverages]

There's quite a few companies out there that will do a complete package for you

one of them is liquid brands management (the guys who built this site) http://liquidbrandsmanagement.com/?page_id=182

When you start working with one of these companies, you'll give them a general idea of what you want (specific vitamins and supplements), they'll give you a sample and you can go into their lab and tweak it from there.

The consutant/beverage developer you go with can help you with design packaging, manufacturing logistics, etc.

As for distribution, that's a long way down the road for you but from what it seems, the people at liquid brands management may be able to help you there too.

good luck

[Sway Ciaramello]

Thanks for the info Vivi!

Good luck with your product launch. Are you a college student with this startup? Looks like it based on some of the competitions you entered this summer? Did you have experience in the Bev industry prior to Vivi?

Did you use liquid brands management to get things going with you?
What kind of startup costs in general am I looking at to get the product forumulation, packaging, etc..?

I'm assuming they are 'consultants' in that I retain all rights to anything I engage them to help me with?Looks like they are an incubator/partner - whereas they form almost like a joint-venture to help develop beverages?

II came across 'private label' companies - have any idea about them?
Here are some of those sites:
http://www.nutritionmanufacturer.com/liquid_energizer.html
http://www.crddistributors.com/energydrinks.html

Thanks for helping out this 'newbie' :-)
Sway

[Vivi Beverages]

If you decide to use a private label company you'll end up spending way less to get started, however the amount of customization would be limited. Since you quote the term 'private label' I'll assume you're unsure of the meaning - basically they have the product finished, but you can send them custom artwork and they'll send you back their product with your artwork on it.

I haven't used liquid brands management but they seem legit, I remember reading Jorge's ebook last year and it was definitely helpful. It seems like they can take you from start to finish, I don't know what kind of contract they use but I'm sure you'd retain all the rights to the work they produced for you as long as you pay them.

It sounds like you're looking to make something very specific though, and I'm not sure if there's a private label company that can do that for you - but I'm really not sure as I haven't done much research on private label stuff. If you're willing to accept something that's merely similar to what you want to produce, you could potentially find what you're looking for.

What you need to do is figure out exactly what you want and either partner with or retain someone who has experience. Liquid brands management would be a good place to start but there are others available. Do a google search for beverage formulation and see what you come up with

You can probably go a long way by networking with other people on this website as well. also if you're doing this alone consider getting a partner or someone else to help you because it's a lot of work.

[Carlos Lopez]

Hello Sway,

This sounds like a very interesting project. Drinks for kids have been under the spot light since the regular vendors got banned from schools all over the place. It's great to see parents watching what their kids are drinking these days and that will be one of your key advantages.

We can help you in any part of the product cycle or all of it; concept, formulation, graphic design, bottling, packaging, sales, distribution, etc. We can also work with you any number of ways that make most sense to you and your companies goals.

You had a few specific questions. If you have your formula developed (custom), the formula is YOURS. This becomes your intellectual property. When you pick a bottling facility you provide the blend direct from the flavor house and the bottler just adds the water, sweetener, carbonation, etc. everything else is usually in the syrup or brik.

If you would like to discuss please give me a call or send me an email with more information. [e-mail]

Thank you

Carlos Lopez
Liquid Brands Management, Inc.

[Sway Ciaramello]

Carlos,

Thank you for the follow-up - I'll send you an email with additional details of my interest.

Thanks,
Sway

[Adam Dorfman]

Sway-my company specializes in supplying plastic and glass packaging for start up and established beverage companies. When the time is right we might be another option for you in terms of packaging. We represent all the major plastic and glass manufacturers. In addition, we are currently working with some of your competitors. Just someting to keep in mind. Good luck with the formulations.