The last few years has seen demand for functional beverages rapidly increase, with call-outs to minerals and vitamins becoming firm fixtures across drinks packs.
PHIZZ spotted the trend for hydration enhancing early, launching its range of effervescent tablets in 2015.
“My co-founders and I looked at the space and we couldn’t really believe that no one had built a consumer brand around this idea of daily hydration and daily hydration enhancers,” CEO Daniel Cray told Food Manufacture.
And while the road to growth has by no means been easy, it’s paid off. Today, hydration enhancers are one of the fastest growing areas in UK retail, with PHIZZ on track to reach £15 million in revenue this year.
In 2026, more people have searched for the term electrolytes on Amazon than they have for protein or protein powder.
Daniel Cray, CEO, PHIZZ
For Cray, he believes it’s the simplicity of healthy hydration that has made it so popular, particularly against a backdrop of complicated health trends and busy schedules. As he noted: people want practical and easy solutions.
And although PHIZZ has become a leader in its category, Cray humbly admits the buzz behind the trend isn’t theirs alone to claim.
“A lot of multinationals have entered the space, throwing tens of millions of pounds into education and awareness. So the volume and potential reach of the message is being seen by a lot more people these days,” he added.
While some could look at competition - especially from the multinationals - as a worry, Cray isn’t sweating it.
“You could look at multinationals entering the space and think, ‘Oh no, they’re going to kill us.’ But ultimately, you want to see a shelf full of competitors. One brand doesn’t build a category.”
It’s been a long time and journey with lots of twists and turns to get to where we are today.
Daniel Cray, CEO, PHIZZ
Cray’s calm and collected mentality could be attributed to the twists and turns of his own journey.
Cray is one of four founders at PHIZZ, having originally headed up the brand’s marketing and sales. His appointment as CEO came later.
2020 was a difficult year for everyone. For PHIZZ it brought other challenges. Shortly after closing its first investment round amid the start of a pandemic, the business’s co-founder Rory Simmance-Freemantle was diagnosed with bowel cancer.
After chatting with his fellow founders, Cray successfully managed to convince the investors he was the right person to lead the business in its next stage of growth.
Unsurprisingly though, the impact of Simmance-Freemantle’s diagnosis was hard. Cray said the experience “shaped him” as a person as much as it did as a leader.
For him, it instilled a sense of reality and resilience.
“I’m probably less emotionally reactive to when things go wrong,” he said. “Having a co-founder go through bowel counter...show me the next set of cards that’s going to be harder than that. It’s not going to happen.”
Have a listen to the full interview here or whenever you usually get your podcasts!
