Taste Radio Studio Interview with Gelita

Speaker 1 [00:25] It's Laura Niman who is the global marketing category management lead for beauty for Julita. Absolutely. How are you?

Speaker 2 [00:34] I'm doing well, Ray. Nice

Speaker 1 [00:35] to be here. It is nice to be here. Have you, have you been to Bev Night Live before?

Speaker 2 [00:38] I have not, but I guarantee, I guarantee you I. We'll be back. OK.

Speaker 1 [00:42] Do you hear that, folks? Literally been here for 3 hours and it's like, I am definitely coming back for the next decade is what you're saying, right? Am I selling

Speaker 2 [00:48] it. The innovation, the enthusiasm is absolutely contagious. So much to learn here for

Speaker 1 [00:53] sure. There's so much to learn. There's so much to see. There's so much to drink. And you know, when we're talking about Julita, we're often talking about functionality. What's really trending right now when it comes to function in beverages?

Speaker 2 [01:05] So I think we see an interesting shift where consumers are expanding beyond better for you, and consumers are asking now what's in it for me? How do I know that this beverage actually works? How do I know what it does? Can I see and feel the benefits? And can I trust the ingredients that are inside the beverage? At the same time, consumers' expectations have become more demanding, right? They want simpler labels, fewer ingredients, and ingredients that are easily recognized. They want clear benefits again coming back to what is this beverage gonna do for me and above all, it's gotta taste good. If it doesn't taste good, they're not coming back for repeat buys. So it's a really interesting paradox. Right? Consumers want more function, but they're tolerating less complexity, and that's where a real focus on your beverage positioning and your ingredient choice matters, cutting through the noise, uh, with specificity, credibility, and clarity, shifting your beverage formulations and messaging to what specifically works, why it works and how it works.

Speaker 1 [02:13] So I asked the question about functionality first because you're an expert when it comes to functionality and beverages and Jalita as a company does what specifically on behalf of beverage and food brands.

Speaker 2 [02:26] So Glita is a global leader in the production and marketing of. Colagen peptides and collagen peptides, of course, are lending themselves well to great functionality across many different categories, whether it's sports and active nutrition, healthy aging, we think about bone and joint health, and then the category where I live is in the space of beauty,

Speaker 1 [02:48] which is so interesting. I feel like beauty has been. Sort of a cutting edge trend or category. It's not really a category at this point, but a cutting edge trend that in beverage and collagen is often associated with, uh, as you mentioned, beauty, and we're starting to see a lot more collagen in beverages. So, you know, how does beauty in general fit into the future of functional beverages? Well,

Speaker 2 [03:11] first of all, beauty fits in the space of functional beverages very well, and what's interesting in the market is the conversation around beauty is shifting. Away from vanity and toward health and wellness so that connection when audiences are talking about beauty, it's not just I need to look better, it really is connected to overall health and wellness and beauty is no longer something that consumers feel the need to treat, uh, no longer looking to defy aging, it's rather embracing aging and with a focus on maintaining healthy hair, skin, and nails over a life span. Uh, and beverages really unlock something very interesting in the beauty space, especially when it's positioned as health and wellness. We know that beverages fit easily into everyday lifestyle. They become habit. They become routine, and that's where there's so much untapped potential in the space of beauty. If we can make beauty maintenance part of everyday lifestyle and routine through beverages, that's a beautiful idea.

Speaker 1 [04:16] Yeah, uh, beauty. As a beverage, such an interesting concept, and you know, consuming collagen, uh, is a relatively new thing for some consumers out there, for Americans because when you think about collagen, typically it's topical, right? So, but I have seen beverage brands do a really, really good job of educating consumers and making their products taste really good such that the functionality and the taste and the refreshment all go really well hand in hand. But I think the differentiation is the tough part. So if a bunch of brands are kind of doing the same thing, how do you choose between one or the other? Is it just on label? Is it this brand has a little bit more collagen than this brand? I mean, how does, how, how do you, how would you advise brands in this space to really stand out amongst their, their peers? Well,

Speaker 2 [05:04] I think the big takeaway message here is that not all collagen peptides are the same. And that's where Glita's focus is on differentiating different collagen peptides for different benefits. First of all, all collagen peptides are good for the body, right? They're highly bioavailable. They are delivering amino acids to the body, those famous building blocks of. The body. Where we focus though is on the level of bioactivity of the collagen peptides. So, choosing a collagen peptide that has a very specific peptide profile that has been designed to do more than deliver amino acids to the body. There are bioactive collagen peptides that have been designed with a unique peptide fingerprint to engage with different cells of the body. Now, in the case of beauty, we have a, a collagen peptide brand called Verisol that has been specifically designed to interact with the skin cells, the fibroblasts. And what we see is that variol is activating a biological process. It's stimulating those skin cells to produce more collagen. And that's part of what makes Verisol different. It's designed for specific cell interaction and function, clinically proven, scores of clinical data. Uh, delivering results such as increased elasticity, improved hydration, reduced wrinkles, improved surface structure of the skin. And all in a low dose I might add.

Speaker 1 [06:37] Well, that, I mean it, it, I think the words that you just used as opposed to saying collagen or collagen peptides or variol, but the fact that you are getting that kind of hydration, that your skin is actually looking better, all these different things from a beverage is such an interesting concept, I think for consumers again, ingestible beauty. How do you, how would you advise to, uh, amplify that message, you know, when you're talking about the science, it's one part that's definitely important. For the beverage brands, how do you advise them to support that marketing to the end consumer? Is it just in the way you were talking about, you know, just you'll be brighter, you'll look better? I mean, how is that? How is that communication happening? Right?

Speaker 2 [07:16] So we see different brands around the world doing it in different ways, but what we've seen the most successful beauty brands using bioactive collagen peptides do is that clarity in message, simplifying high level science that comes with a Verisol bio. Of collagen peptide and making it relevant to today's consumer again, not looking at aging as something that needs to be treated but looking as at aging as something that needs to be embraced and you can do it beautifully through beverages by choosing collagen peptides that have that clinical substantiation and then the real proof is in efficacy, right? The beverage has to deliver results and based on the years of clinical research supported. By that comes with Verisol we're confident in that

Speaker 1 [08:00] efficacy and, and based on brands that are already out there using Verisol, um, can you talk about any of those brands or

Speaker 2 [08:07] I, I won't mention brands specifically, but I think what's interesting is what we've seen from some of these early adopters that have been incorporating Verisol into their beverage brands over over the past few years is their ability to take that high level published clinical research and translate that into consumer. Meaningful benefits. Who doesn't wanna look better? Who doesn't want to feel better about how they look? And that's where we've seen the more successful beverage brands doing that and there's plenty more to come. I would say the beauty beverage market is largely untapped relative to the size of the opportunity. It

Speaker 1 [08:44] definitely feels like there's an, there's room for this particular category in certain retailers in some of the natural retailers have you and. I mean this is, this is one of those questions that I'm sure is in everyone's mind. Can we expect to see or would you anticipate seeing beverages, say at a Sephora?

Speaker 2 [09:01] Absolutely. I think in some of those beauty box stores we're already seeing, uh, beverages as well as supplement lines, and that's the beauty, pun intended, of Verisol is that it's a really easy ingredient with which to formulate whether it's in a beverage or if you want to expand your product. Line and go into snacks or gummies or more traditional tablets, for example. It's an ingredient that lends itself well to diverse formulations, and that's about giving consumers choices in terms of how they're ingesting their collagen. Is

Speaker 1 [09:33] there an opportunity to incorporate Verisol into. Uh, a functional beverage that already has a specific, uh, use, for example, uh, an energy drink.

Speaker 2 [09:43] Absolutely. I would say Verisol and collagen peptides lend themselves very well to stacking with other ingredients. Let's say they play nicely with other ingredients into existing formulations, and I would encourage any of those formulators out there if you're using. Colagen peptides. Colin Glita. We know a thing or two about formulation and achieving sort of that perfect balance in beverage formulations depending on your target audience and your ingredients of choice.

Speaker 1 [10:10] Laura, you're a natural because that was my next question. How do you get in touch with the team at Glita?

Speaker 2 [10:14] Well, first of all, if you're at Bevnet Live, we are here. We have a booth here. I'm here supported with a couple of colleagues, uh, who are absolutely. Salute experts look us up on our website on LinkedIn, Jalita.com, uh, stop by the booth. You can find us. We're on the socials as well promoting ourselves there, and we love to talk about all things collagen peptides, and I particularly love to talk about beauty.

Speaker 1 [10:37] I can tell, and it's great. Laura, thank you so much for taking the time. This has been amazing. Jolita.com, Verisol, look into it, folks, because you want to because this is the future of the industry. Thank you so much. Take it. I really appreciate the time. Thank

Speaker 2 [10:49] you.