Shadow Beverages And Snacks Partners With GNC To Launch Nutritional Beverage Line
New Sports Nutrition, Nutritional Water and Protein Nutrition Beverages Now Available in
Phoenix, AZ, (MARKETWIRE) - Shadow Beverages, one of the fastest growing independent beverage companies, and GNC Holdings, Inc. /quotes/zigman/4587360/quotes/nls/gnc GNC -2.11% , the nation's largest specialty retailer of health and wellness products, are proud to announce the launch of a new nutritional, ready-to-drink GNC beverage line now available in Arizona and Nevada store locations.
The new GNC line consists of 14 beverages featuring scientifically advanced nutrition across the Sports Nutrition, Nutritional Waters and Protein Nutrition categories. It includes "XP" -- extreme performance drinks -- designed for the experienced athlete and "Active" beverages formulated to meet the hydration and metabolic needs of everyday fitness enthusiasts.
"We are thrilled to introduce this new nutritional GNC beverage line. Our development team worked closely with Shadow Beverages for nearly a year reviewing hundreds of formulations to ensure the highest quality final products," said Tom Dowd, Executive Vice President Store Operations and Development. "Our relationship with Shadow Beverages allows the GNC brand to continue to offer active consumers new products they can trust to help them "live well" beyond GNC's own retail and online outlets."
The GNC beverages are currently available through distribution partners Kalil Bottling (Phoenix, AZ) and Nevada Beverage (Las Vegas, NV), and are rapidly gaining acceptance with additional independent retailer outlets including Quik Trip, Terrible Herbst, Frys, Bashes, Southwest Convenience and AMPM and many more throughout Arizona and Nevada.
"Our partnership with these distributors gives the new GNC beverage line great access to many channels of business," said George Martinez, President of Shadow Beverages. "Thus far, sales have exceeded our expectations and we couldn't be more pleased with the level of in-market execution from Kalil Bottling and Nevada Beverages sales teams. We anticipate additional distribution partners to be introduced across many states in the coming months."
GNC and Shadow Beverages entered into a licensing agreement in 2011 to redefine beverage functionality and nutrition. Under this licensing agreement, Shadow Beverages will continue to produce, market and sell drinks under the GNC Live Well trademark for sale across a wide range of retail outlets. These products will continue to focus on the strength of the GNC brand, which stands for quality, integrity and trust.
IMG Licensing serves as GNC's exclusive licensing agent and represented them in the licensing agreement with Shadow Beverages.
About Shadow Beverages and Snacks, LLC Shadow Beverages is a functionally focused allied brand company, founded in 2008 by two long time beverage industry executives with a mission of building a portfolio of beverage and snack consumer products in the fast growing "better for you" and nutritional categories. As an operating company Shadow's work is to methodically build their brand partners reach outside their current platforms and passionately execute the strategy that makes the brand successful. Value-added services provided by Shadow include: Experience -- Product Development, Distribution, Sales and Marketing Activation; Brand Building -- innovation, research & development and operations; and Brand Execution -- Distribution, Sales, Merchandising and Marketing Activation. Shadow is proud to be the home of these great beverage and snack brands: GNC Beverages (DRINKGNC), WheyUP, No Fear Energy, Ironclad Energy & Hydration and The American Outdoorsman. To learn more about Shadow visit our website at www.shadowbev.com . www.drinkgnc.com .
About GNC Holdings, Inc. GNC Holdings, Inc., headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pa., is a leading global specialty retailer of health and wellness products, including vitamins, minerals, and herbal supplement products, sports nutrition products and diet products, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "GNC."
As of December 31, 2011, GNC has more than 7,600 locations, of which more than 5,900 retail locations are in the United States (including 924 franchise and 2,125 Rite Aid franchise store-within-a-store locations) and franchise operations in 53 countries (including distribution centers where retail sales are made). The Company -- which is dedicated to helping consumers Live Well -- has a diversified, multi-channel business model and derives revenue from product sales through company-owned retail stores, domestic and international franchise activities, third party contract manufacturing, e-commerce and corporate partnerships. Our broad and deep product mix, which is focused on high-margin, premium, value-added nutritional products, is sold under GNC proprietary brands, including Mega Men(R), Ultra Mega(R), GNC Total Lean(TM), Pro Performance(R) and Pro Performance(R) AMP, and under nationally recognized third party brands.
For more than 75 years, GNC has been committed to bringing people superior GNC brand products using only the highest quality ingredients, manufactured under the strictest quality controls. Managing every stage of the process -- from formulation to retailing -- allows GNC to guarantee quality, purity and potency of GNC products. Web: GNC.com | Twitter: @GNCLiveWell | Facebook: facebook.com/GNCLiveWell
ABOUT IMG LICENSING IMG is the premier brand licensing company in the world with properties that represent more than $7 billion in global retail sale. With more than 50 years of experience, IMG Licensing, a division of global sports, fashion, and media leader IMG Worldwide, provides unparalleled licensing resources and services to build and market existing and emerging brands. IMG Licensing currently represents some of the top global sports, entertainment, and lifestyle brands in the world. In 2009 and again in 2010, IMG was named the No. 1 Licensing Agency by License! Global Magazine in its annual Top 20 ranking. Web: www.imgworld.com | Twitter: @IMG_Worldwide | Facebook: facebook.com/IMG Worldwide
SOURCE: IMG