By combining distinctive packaging with a scientific formula and delicious taste, More Labs has cornered the market in the US when it comes to producing a line of functional shots promising a raft of benefits, from enhancing your focus to alleviating the effects of the evening before and improving your sleep.
This year, plans are afoot to accelerate growth even further, expanding its current range in physical stores Stateside before tapping into an exciting pipeline of innovation that’s sure to deliver more game-changing products.
Here, we sit down with CEO Josh Groff to get the lowdown.
For those who haven’t heard about More Labs before, can you please give us a bit of background on the brand and products?
“More Labs makes functional shots that boost productivity to help you achieve your full potential. Morning Recovery, our flagship product, neutralises toxins to help alleviate the effects of the evening before thanks to its proprietary blend of electrolytes that help with hydration. Liquid Focus provides enhanced focus and cognition with a boost of energy that doesn’t make you crash or leave you jittery. And Dream Well helps you get to sleep faster and detoxes your body from caffeine and anxiety as you rest. Better still, all of our products taste terrific, are backed by scientific research, and are truly effective in helping you be your best self!”
What are you doing differently from other recovery drinks in terms of the science?
“Morning Recovery has two important distinctions from other recovery drinks. Firstly, the science behind the formulation that we created in partnership with University of Southern California’s School of Pharmacy allows us to pack more dihydromyricetin (otherwise known as DHM – our hero ingredient) into a soluble format in just 100ml of liquid; and secondly, the importance of liquid is that it’s highly bio-available – which refers to the extent it becomes completely available to its intended biological destination – and the body can metabolise more DHM, faster. This creates better results than most DHM pill or other format on the market.”
How does the brand deliver cut-through in the market?
“Three simple things: efficacy, great taste and attractive packaging. We work hard to create products that are effective and deliver on their promises, encouraging consumers to keep using them. And it’s imperative that they taste good, too. We’ve tasted thousands of formulations over the years and continue to improve the flavour. Lastly, the packaging has to clearly communicate what each product does and make customers want to pick them up. Once we deliver on these core items, we were able to work on a strong distribution network to ensure we meet our customers in their place of need. Our brands need to be available in stores at the register where consumers can make an impulse purchase. It's all about ‘sips to lips’, which is our mantra.”
As the CEO, can you tell us your story, from conception to launch, and where you are on your journey?
“I’ve been in the beverage business since I got out of college. I’m not sure I chose this industry, though – I think it chose me! – but I’m so glad that it did as I absolutely love it. In 2017, when the founder of More Labs, Sisun Lee, launched the brand, he got some press in an industry publication. I remember thinking that Morning Recovery was a really smart idea and that it had found a white space in the beverage category, which is difficult to do. It’s a small industry and I thought I would connect with Sisun to offer any praise, advice and counsel I could. We quickly realised that we had complementary skills and I soon became an advisor to More Labs. A year later, I was an employee running the sales team and helping with finance and HR functions. In December 2020, Sisun decided to pursue other passions in the tech space, so I took over as CEO. Leading a group of people that are so passionate, hungry and entrepreneurial has been the biggest opportunity of my career so far. I continue to learn and challenge myself to be the best leader and visionary that I can be. When I started, we were in less than 1,000 stores, and today we’re in over 40,000 in both the United States and Europe. The sky really is the limit for this business.”
Why did you choose BTV as your partner?
“BTV reached out to us just as we were starting to raise a financing round. Their reputation as a world-wide multi-national company with incredible relationships in retail was very appealing. We know that our brand will continue to grow in bricks-and-mortar and BAT’s presence (parent company to BTV offering multi-category consumer goods) in two million stores globally meant that they could open doors for us. Similarly, we knew they were looking for great brands in the health and wellness space that could help further their ambition for A Better Tomorrow™. It was a natural fit.”
What’s next for the More Labs brand?
“Firstly, we’re going to continue building brand equity in our flagship product, Morning Recovery. We’re only in about 10% of stores in the US so far, and we continue to see positive momentum in all the stores we’re selling in. In December, we rolled out to over 200 locations of Total Wine & More and saw incredible sales velocity at those locations over the holidays. This customer will be a big part of our growth in 2024 and beyond. We’re also launching our Lemon Ginger flavour of Morning Recovery in all Whole Foods locations nationally, which is over 500 stores. This is a significant expansion from the 140 stores we’ve been in for the last three years. But Whole Foods has been one of our highest velocity accounts.
In November of 2023, we launched in New York City with our distribution partner Dora’s Naturals. There’s a huge opportunity for us to grow awareness for all of our brands in this incredible city and we’ll be focusing on building local relationships across all five boroughs.
Finally, we have a pipeline of innovation we’ve created but we’re staying laser-focused on going a mile deep and inch wide with our core SKUs. We believe the timing is perfect to build our company around the pillars of healthy functionality, increased productivity and being the best version of yourself, every day!”
Discover More Labs and its delicious line of life-enhancing shots.
