Sports nutrition firm Provexis set for Olympic growth

The company, whose products are consumed by many of the UK’s gold medallists, particularly in cycling and rowing, has secured additional working capital in order to finance extra stock holding.

The company, whose shares are listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), has a £25M equity financing facility with Darwin Securities. It recently raised £541,122 to fund the working capital increase.

Stephen Moon, chief executive of Provexis, told FoodManufacture.co.uk that the company was expecting growth following the Olympics. But extra finance was needed now to cater for the growth the company has seen since the beginning of the year.

“The bedrock of the business was built in independent cycle track and running shops and they account for about half our sales. Then, more recently, the major multiples and the high street retailers have taken us on.”​

Moon reported growth in both export markets and e-commerce sales.

Tesco and Sainsbury​

“In the past 18 months retailers, such as Tesco and Sainsbury, have taken us on quite strongly. So that’s been additional distribution for us. We are carrying quite a bit more stock now than we were at the beginning of the year. ​

“The order profiles of things like the major multiples mean we need to have more stock at hand – the lead times are much shorter.”​

While the sports nutrition market had suffered because of the poor summer weather, year-on-year sales were still showing strong growth.

“We are expecting an Olympics effect but it would be difficult to separate out any specific growth from the general growth initiatives we have in place anyway,”​ said Moon.

Strong growth curve​

“Anecdotally we are told that there tends to be a flat period during the Olympics while people watch them, then you see quite a strong growth curve.​

He said the number of people participating in cycling was rising sharply. “The Olympics have got to help us. The country has gone sports mad so it’s got to help us but I just couldn’t put a number on it.”​

Moon said the company also had new developments in the pipeline. It will be launching a new product towards the end of the year which contains the company’s proprietary Fruitflow technology. “That will be completely novel because we own the technology and we will be positioning that as a recovery product.”​

In June last year Provexis acquired Science in Sport (SiS), which develops and manufactures sports nutrition products for use by consumers and professional athletes. “SiS products have helped win olympic golds, world championships, premiership titles and set numerous world Records. Products are used by olympic athletes, professional cyclists, triathletes and professional sportspeople in a wide range of disciplines,”​ according to the firm’s website.

SiS is the official sports nutrition supplier to both the GB rowing team and GB sailing team.