A decade after leaving Australia to build a leading UK electrolyte brand, the CEO behind Phizz is celebrating a frothy homecoming – and the brand’s official debut in Woolworths supermarkets.
Phizz, which offers flavoured electrolyte and vitamin tablets, marked its official Australian launch on Monday.
Its headline product, a three-in-one tablet designed to turbocharge hydration, competes against the likes of Hydralyte, Voost, and other names familiar to local consumers.
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Its founding team hopes a business with Australian DNA, stress-tested in the UK, will help Phizz secure its place in the market in the coming summer months.
“In 10 years of building a business in the UK, there have been a lot of ‘pinch yourself’ moments,” said CEO Dan Cray, one of three Australian co-founders in the Phizz team.
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“But somehow this hits different, more on a personal level.”
UK lessons for Aussie consumers
Cray, along with Rory Simmance-Fremantle, Jon Knight, and British neuroscientist Dr. Paul Anastasiades, founded Phizz in London.
Originally devised to fix dehydration caused by long-haul flights between Australia and the UK, Phizz quickly evolved into an all-purpose wellness brand.
The pitch: a tablet for dehydrated Brits, boosting the ordinary benefits of water consumption throughout the day.
“The benefits of being properly hydrated just made sense because you feel more awake, exercise feels easier, you’re sharper,” he told SmartCompany.
Phizz has now sold more than 160 million tablets to date, and Cray believes the lessons learned abroad will help it reach health-conscious Aussies.
“The Aussies understand hydration probably better than most countries,” he said, reflecting on the nation’s hot summers and sports-mad populace.
“But even our own research into the Aussie market ahead of launching [found] about 85% of the country drink more water when the temperature gets over 30 degrees, but about 40% forget to drink when they’re busy.”
Reflecting on the term “hangry”, the portmanteau of “hungry” and “angry” popularised by OAK flavoured milk, Cray said there’s an equivalent for hydration.
“That’s a really good place for us to come in,” he added, with Phizz marketing itself as a proactive solution to the drawbacks of dehydration.
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“We want to get people thinking about their hydration habits on a daily basis, not just as a reactive recovery tool.
“We’re just really excited to get onto shelves, and make sure we deliver through on what we say.”
Phizz has launched with a range of 20-tablet packs, retailing for $16 each.
Homecoming amid founder debates
Phizz’ arrival on Australian shores comes during a heated debate among some founders: is it best to build a company in Australia, or take a good idea abroad?
Cray, who built a business thousands of kilometres and a decade removed from the new and contentious capital gains tax, said the decision to launch in the UK was born from a sense of adventure.
“In a lot of ways, we could have done this in the afterhours and got it going in Australia, but we chose to go all in and go big or go home- quite literally,” he said.
“And I think that’s not necessarily grand design. But circumstantially, it’s helped, because it removed all distractions, both professionally and personally.
“When we got over to London, it was just that fear of failure… we didn’t really know anyone in the UK, so it just swallowed up our lives.”
Ultimately, the genesis of Phizz was “not necessarily a big grand plan, but a bit of circumstance and adventurous spirit… 10 years has gone by quick.”