The global gummy vitamins market is estimated to be valued at $5.9bn in 2020 and is projected to reach $10.6bn by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 12.5%.
Grummies is taking what founders Nick Michlewicz and Colin Darretta believe is a cleaner approach to making their gummies.
"Gummies are the fastest growing category in the wellness space, but most are not very good for you," claimed Michlewicz, pointing out the category's use of sweeteners such as corn syrup and glucose syrup, and use of artificial colors and flavors.
Michlewicz and Darretta spent two years developing their vision of a clean gummy product and this past week launched non-GMO, vegan (using pectin instead of gelatin), naturally flavored and colored gummies in four SKUs: ashwagandha, elderberry, apple cider vinegar, and turmeric (using Sabinsa's Curcumin C3 Complex ingredient). To give the products a candy-like taste profile, Grummies are sweetened with organic tapioca syrup and organic cane sugar.
The four varieties were all based on findings from Google and Amazon search data which revealed many consumers are looking for calming and healing foods to add to their diet.
In the past year, online search queries for 'ashwagandha' skyrocketed, said Michlewicz.
While proud of all four flavors, Michlewicz and Darretta believed they really cracked the code in turning ashwagandha into a pleasant consumption experience (a 2-gummy serving contains 100mg of ashwagandha whole plant extract).
"Ashwagandha tastes like dirt. It’s very hard to blend it into something and not have the flavor completely ruined," said Michlewicz.
"We took ashwagandha and spent 18 months working with one of the top manufacturers in the industry to create a flavor profile with it that worked, and to source an ashwagandha that was both efficacious and on the cleaner tasting side," shared Michlewicz.
'Candy' meets superfood health credentials
"Our goal is that when a consumer looks at this they see something fun. Something that's honoring why people take a gummy over a pill or a powder," said Michlewicz.
Darretta and Michlewicz hopes that when a consumer looks at a bottle of Grummies, they get the same excitement as they would for a bag of Skittles.
"Does it taste like modern candy? Absolutely. Does it taste as artificial and sweet as something you would pick up in a movie theater? No, and we don't want it to," said Darretta.
The servings size for Grummies is 1-2 gummies per day (totaling 3g of sugar and 15 calories for two gummies).
"Across our four products, if you took the standard daily serving of each of those (totaling eight gummies) per day, those combine to less sugar than a banana," notes Michlewicz.
Go-to-market strategy
Speaking on the availability and distribution plan for Grummies, Darretta said the early days will be focused on the company's DTC site followed by the launch of one SKU on Amazon.
"We believe that Amazon is a great discovery platform. We view it as a mechanism to increase brand awareness and get people to come and buy it on our site," Darretta said.
"We're currently in conversations with a couple of national retailers... We're also working with a handful of influencers, some of whom we've already locked in and have teed up," he added.
"It's pretty multi-pronged approach that we're going to be going full board on from the day we launch."
