Callum Richards and Henry Chamberlain, both 17-year-old students pursuing A-levels in business studies, developed their idea during an extracurricular ‘Dragon’s Den’-style project initiated by their teacher.
‘It’s a protein energy drink – we first came up with the idea because at the gym, you’d get an energy drink, or you’d go and buy a protein drink, so we thought why not just combine them both and make one drink? It’s just easier,’ Henry said.
As well as being made by and for gym-goers, the duo are also looking to market the item towards people who play sports, having themselves spent much of their lives as part of the island’s sporting community – even competing at the county level in tennis, padel and squash.
‘We’re primarily hoping to sell to 16- to 25-year-olds who are going to be going to the gym daily,’ said Callum.
‘But then we also thought, with Guernsey having such a great sporting community, we would also like to branch out and appeal to sporting people as well.’
While the primary purpose of ChargePlus is to be a drink that conveniently combines protein and energy, it is also being made to be a healthier, more natural alternative to many of the protein and energy drinks currently on the market.
‘We’re trying to move away from the stereotype that all energy drinks are bad, so we came up with a healthy alternative that’s not bad for you at all – it’s all natural,’ said Henry.
‘I think for both of us, when we were younger, we were never allowed energy drinks because a lot of the ingredients weren’t very healthy, so we thought, “Why not just create something that’s good for you?”.’
The pair have spent the last nine months developing their product, finding a suitable manufacturing facility, working on production plans and doing market research to establish what drink flavours would be most popular among their target demographic.
They have invested their own savings into the project and have got as far as working with industry professionals to create their final recipe, branding, packaging and undertaken a full health and safety compliance check. They said they now had samples, a production plan and a clear route to market.
Now, they are seeking to raise £12,000 via donation platform GoFundMe to support their first production run and other costs as they head towards a planned summer launch.
‘We’ve got the samples, we’ve got the recipe, we just need to raise some money to go through with our first order,’ Henry said.
About 15% of the way towards their goal in two weeks, the pair are feeling relatively optimistic about their prospects.
‘I think it’s going very well at the minute,’ Callum said.
Looking beyond the planned launch, the young entrepreneurs are hoping to expand their range of products and market audience, looking towards potentially selling their products in Jersey, and perhaps even the UK. Even with a vision for wider expansion, though, they both emphasised that the product is being made in part to give back to Guernsey and particularly the island’s sporting community. As such, they intend to donate their first £1,000 of profit to the Guernsey Sports Commission.
‘We just want to say thank you to everyone who’s donated, because they’re playing a massive part in this,’ Callum said.
You need to be logged in to comment.