'This could be a £100m business' - meet the Shropshire entrepreneurs hoping to make it big in the protein drink market
A pair of Shropshire entrepreneurs are hoping to elbow their way into the global billion-pound sports drinks market.
Luis Evitt and Jesse Bate are the team behind 'nowhey', a ready-to-drink product created using pea protein which is starting to gain fans as far away as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
The duo are now hoping to build the business up to a £100 million valuation and have launched a fresh funding round to draw in new investors in a bid to raise up to £500,000 of growth capital.
Luis told the Star he was inspired to start developing the drink because he was whey intolerant and therefore could not consume traditional whey protein powdered shakes.
He said: "The drink is actually a protein water. The thing we were keen to move away from was the traditional thick, sludgy protein shake made from powder so it's more like drinking a fruit squash.
"This is not some white-label product, we worked with a food scientist to design and develop the product ourselves from scratch.
"We have found out that so many people from different walks of life like it including vegans as we use pea protein instead of whey because I am really intolerant to whey which most protein shakes are made from.
"Pea protein has a really good amino acid profile which is what's needed to help with recovery after exercise."
