A Cincinnati hydration drink maker has become an overnight sensation after spending a decade developing and refining its product.
The founders of Hoist saw sales explode last year and are anticipating they’ll triple this year to reach a whopping $22 million, co-founder Ben Schmidt told me.
“This is a milestone year for us,” Schmidt said. “We’re firing on all the right cylinders.”
St. Bernard-based Hoist is a flavored hydration drink along the lines of market giant Gatorade, but with a key difference. Although Schmidt, Kelly Heekin and two others founded the company in 2009, it wasn’t until about two years ago that it started to gain traction. Schmidt and Heekin run the company now.
“We were way ahead of a trend that is now full bore,” Schmidt said. “In any marquee retailer, you’re seeing a massive shift in what was once owned by Gatorade in sports hydration or isotonics.”
Sales doubled last year. Schmidt said he expects them to triple this year.
The fast growth has Hoist planning to add five to 10 employees in the first three months of this year, boosting its current 15-employee staff, Schmidt said.
Much of the driving force behind that growth is a deal Hoist has with the U.S. military. Hoist has become one of three authorized electrolyte providers to the military. Schmidt and Heekin expect the military to generate about half of Hoist’s ’22 revenue.
The rest comes from retail sales. Hoist plans to expand its retail outlets to about 25 states this year. It’s now available in about 4,000 to 5,000 stores around the country. Cincinnati-based Kroger, the nation’s largest operator of traditional supermarkets, carries it. So do other large chains such as Walmart and Publix, the Florida supermarket operator. Home improvement chain Menard’s began carrying Hoist in November. This year the company is going after “second-tier” chains that are a bit smaller.
The military arrangement launched in 2019 when the military authorized Hoist for field feeding. That means dietitians on a base can choose Hoist as an approved hydration drink. It added the military’s operational rations business at the end of 2019. That program is rolled out throughout the army, with Hoist available to military members in the field and in training.
The military program is “massive” for Hoist, Schmidt said. In addition to the revenue it generates, it also validates Hoist as an effective product.
“If it’s good enough for the people who defend our freedom, then that’s a platform we can build upon,” Schmidt said.
Hoist’s key difference from competing products is how fast it works. Its product goes directly into the bloodstream, Heekin said, rather than needing to be digested. Hoist touts it as "IV-level hydration."
“We hydrate faster than other drinks,” Heekin said. “It’s the perfect ratio of electrolytes, carbohydrates and water that mirrors what’s in your bloodstream, so it instantly gets your body hydrated.”
The product is available in five flavors: orange, watermelon, peach mango, strawberry lemonade and dragonfruit. It’s adding a sixth, likely by spring. It also has the product in powder form that can be mixed with water. And it’s rolling out an eight-ounce liquid pouch that generates less waste. That was developed at the request of the military.
Hoist’s four founders came up with the concept from a friend of the group’s who was in the NFL and drinking electrolyte solutions. The founders, who are Cincinnati natives and all went to Summit Country Day School, worked with local company Wild Flavors to develop a product that worked like Pedialyte but tasted better and didn’t have the connotations of drinking a product made for children.
It took years to develop the product and brand. And Hoist needed demand for hydration drinks to expand.
“We spent several years wondering if this was ever going to take,” Schmidt said. “Now I believe we have the opportunity to really lead the pack in the next evolution of hydration.”
