[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Hey folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now, I am honored to be sitting down with Steve Fink, who's the VP of marketing for PLT Health Solutions. Steve, it's great to see you.
[00:00:09] Speaker 2: Ray, thank you for having me here. It's a pleasure to be here and looking forward to our conversation.
[00:00:14] Speaker 1: Absolutely. So for our audience who may not be familiar with PLT Health Solutions, could you just give us a quick intro to the company?
[00:00:22] Speaker 2: Sure, PLT Health Solutions is an 85 year old company that discovers, develops, and commercializes very unique functional ingredients, rigorously studied. So these are clinically backed ingredients in many cases. Backed by double-blind placebo-controlled research, offering a range of health benefits across roughly 25 to 30 different health categories from weight management to joint health, to hair, skin, nail, to energy. We're deeply vested in research and bringing these innovative solutions to the market, often backed by IP. We've spent the last, I would say, almost decade, taking these innovative solutions and optimizing them for use in beverages and a range of applications, which would otherwise be a little bit challenging when you're developing ingredients like we do that are coming from nature. Nature derived, so often botanicals, plants, tree sources, things like that.
[00:01:21] Speaker 1: It's so important for brands to meet the needs of modern consumers, and PLT Health Solutions is doing just that. You're helping brands formulate for the moment, and the moment is so critical, but why is it so critical for beverage brands?
[00:01:36] Speaker 2: That's a great question, and it really speaks to the ethos of the company. PLT will often observe the market. We're a market facing company, so all of our research, we don't do research for research's sake. We're looking at pain points, needs, where are there gaps, where are consumer challenges not being met. And how do they be met better or how can we service or address those pain points. And so we're literally designing our clinical research around those market needs, and so that when we're getting into meetings with customers and they're trying to develop a beverage solution, for instance, that's going to provide a better energy experience. It might be something that works better. The energy lasts longer. It might be a different form of energy than merely caffeine. We're able to look at what the market need is. Develop those solutions around that pain point and need state, and then create pleasing forms of the ingredients, so they're gonna be adaptable to challenging beverage formats. You know, often it's taste is king, solubility, how fast is it working, what size is the dose, how much room is there in the formula. All these things come into play, and you've got to make sure that at the end of the day, you're meeting the consumer where the need state really is.
[00:02:55] Speaker 1: You mentioned energy, but in what other ways, what other categories is ingredient innovation expanding the ways that a functional beverage brand or the types of beverages that a functional beverage brand can offer?
[00:03:08] Speaker 2: You've been in the industry long enough to know that when most people think about energy, the first thing they're gonna go to is caffeine. Caffeine has been the go to source, you know, and while we love caffeine, I consume it. I'm a big consumer of caffeine. You can take the caffeine experience and, you know, make it better. And that's one of the areas where PLT is really focused on some of the innovation through solutions like Zoom XR which really address the needs for caffeine by creating a technology around it to provide a better extended energy experience, mitigating the The peaks and crashes and jitters that you have, so a great solution there. But you also might want energy in the form of something like endurance energy. You've gotta be going for an extended period of time, and so you might look to something like self-low 6, which is an ingredient derived from green tea extract that provides kind of endurance and blood flow support. Or you might want something like, hey, it's the middle of the day. I've been taking my caffeine during the morning, but now it's 4 o'clock or 5 o'clock. I need a little bit of an extra, of course, to get through the rest of the day, but I don't want to get a high load of caffeine at this time of day. So you'll turn to something like zynamite S, which is an ingredient from the mango leaf. Zynamite S is uh built around mangierin from the the mango tree leaf, which provides a range of non-STEM mental energy, and impact on Focus and reaction time, and you feel benefits in as little as 30 minutes for mood enhancement as well. So there's a lot of different ways to impact energy, whether you're, you're doing it through a STEM version, a non-STEM version, and you might even want to be able to adapt to stress. I'm strained, I'm stressed today. You'll turn to something like rodeo life, which is from an adaptogen, rodeola. Tried and true, one of the original adaptogens and That's another way if you can create a, a grade of material that can go into a beverage, you can give that adaptogenic energy support. It's kind of that, that body, so your body can adapt to strains and, and challenges throughout the day. So there's a lot of different ways that you can approach it. Let's say, I'm having a really stressful day and I don't want to snack. I wanna try to curb my snacking behavior. You could turn to something like uh suppress a crave control, which is, is derived from the saffron. And we've got to, again, research to help curb snacking behavior. So there's a lot of ways to use science to meet pain points head on through the application of research. So there's a lot of really great things going on here at PLT and the, the discussions and innovation calls that we have with customers are very exciting for us.
[00:05:48] Speaker 1: Well, Steve, I'm sold. I'm uh really liking what you're saying about these ingredients. But as we know, the beverage itself has to taste great. It has to feel great. It has to make the consumer want to buy another bottle or can. So, how do you go from these clinically studied ingredients that are so efficacious into a beverage, a fully developed beverage? How do you help Beverage founders go from A to B in that regard.
[00:06:18] Speaker 2: That's a great question. It's probably one of the areas where a lot of companies that are in the research business struggle, because the starting material, particularly if you're in a nature derived or plant source or a botanical, much like PLT does, they are notoriously insoluble. They are often taste challenged, and, and sometimes mouthfeel can be impacted. So it takes a dedication to the category. You have to create grades of the material that remain efficacious, and even from the beginning, you've got to be focused on the things that are gonna really matter. Is it experiential? Is it something that a consumer is going to feel quickly from the beginning. Focus on the dose. What is the size of the dose that we're working with in starting form before we can create a beverage soluble grade or a beverage dispersable grade? You, you need to make sure you're focused on the things that matter. Is it working? Is it clinically substantiated? Is it something that is gonna work very quickly, that a consumer can feel, whether you take it on a chronic style where it's something you take every day, or an acute dose format where I could take it, I'm gonna feel it within 30 minutes or 1 hour. It's gonna impact me. I'm either gonna be able to focus more, or it's gonna give me better agility, or better energy, or, or a number of different ways, and you have to remain committed to the research and committed to the solution, and it often can take years. And dedication, but when you're done, you're able to deliver on those promises. Something that works quickly, that has great mouthfeel, that can go into beverages. When you hit all of that, it's a home run.
[00:07:58] Speaker 1: As we wrap up here, Steve, I would love to hear from you in all your years of experience, how you would advise a beverage founder as the most important thing, the one thing that they cannot ignore as they are building that next great functional beverage brand.
[00:08:14] Speaker 2: I think the most important thing that you can do is understand who you're trying to target, what value your brand is going to bring to the market that differentiates you from someone else, that one of the biggest challenges that beverage companies face is standing out on the shelf. There's a lot of noise. There's a lot of offerings out there, and you have to create a value that is unique to your brand, because that's gonna get loyalty, and you need to offer an experience that really makes you stand out. Some of the best, most successful brands were bringing, it might have been taste innovation, or a Clear Way, or some of the things that were really jumping off of the shelf. What is your message? Are you able to communicate your value? It's gotta taste great. We know that it's got to deliver functional benefits and differentiation, but tastes great from the beginning. So, if you could check all those boxes, you're gonna be very successful.
[00:09:09] Speaker 1: Great advice, and it sounds like anyone listening would benefit from connecting with the team at PLT Health Solutions. The website is PLThealth.com. Upper right-hand corner, you have a contact us button, as well as a request a sample button. I imagine those are the best ways to connect with you and the team.
[00:09:27] Speaker 2: Those are the best ways and nothing gets us more excited than talking about innovation with new and emerging beverage companies. So please reach out. We're pretty excited to have an innovation discussion.
[00:09:38] Speaker 1: Fantastic. PLThealth.com. Steve, it's an honor to be speaking with you. Thank you so much for taking the time and let's definitely stay in touch. Thank you, Ray.
