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    Local Beverage Company Rebrands With Plans to Release New Product

    Feedback can be a valuable tool. One local startup is taking all the information and data from their initial years of business and looking to bigger and better things. The formula AM team, including co-founders David Colina, Dan Kim and Jason Sweazy, are back on the market with formula O2.

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    An overhaul is almost an understatement for the transition from formula AM to formula O2. The team has used valuable data from their initial run and a year of research to offer a new product. Formula O2 focuses on all natural ingredients, while still providing oxygen, electrolytes and caffeine. Creating a natural drink was at the center of the new formulation. The formula contains only 12 ingredients compared to the 30 plus that are often in other types of energy drinks.

    formula-o2-logoConsumers will also notices new flavors.

    “One consistent feedback was it worked like a charm but tasted terrible,” Colina says of the previous offering. Formula O2 will roll out with two flavors, grapefruit-ginger and orange-mango, with plans to expand the set. A Kentucky-based company helped to formulate the flavors and all natural ingredients. Previously, formula AM was an in-house operation with the founders creating and formulating the beverage themselves.

    The rebranded 16-ounce drink will sell in cans. A special lined design retains the oxygen that is one of the main benefits of the beverage.

    Fomula O2 is super-oxygenated, containing eight-times more oxygen than tap water.

    “Oxygen is the liver’s fuel source for processing toxins,” Colina says. The more oxygen, the quicker the body can get rid of toxins.

    Caffeine is used to mitigate headaches and can relieve a throbbing head. Other energy beverages with caffeine may only be a few ounces, but taking caffeine without other liquids can further dehydrate the body. The 16-ounce size keeps the drinker hydrated. The electrolyte formula is modeled to resemble what’s in an IV, but in a better method of delivery.

    Formula AM was originally marketed as a hangover cure, but formula O2 is positioned as a recovery drink, specifically recovery from life, according to Colina and Kim. A new tagline of, “Do more. Recover faster.” expands the possible market.

    When they created the original beverage, recovery often meant from a night of drinking but, “Recovery has really evolved for us too from the original positioning,” Colina says. He and Kim describe how the drink grown along with their lives.

    Recovering from life can mean a lot of different beverages – coffee, sports drinks, energy drinks – but the founders want formula O2 to be an alternative that consumers don’t have to feel guilty about drinking.

    Consumers can expect the finished product on Columbus shelves in late January. Formula AM was in about 20 to 30 stores around Columbus, but with the rebrand the founders hope to expand the market to 200 locations.

    For more information, visit drinko2.com.

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    Susan Post
    Susan Post
    Susan is the editor of The Metropreneur and associate editor of Columbus Underground, and also covers small business and entrepreneurial news and the food scene in Central Ohio.Susan holds a degree in Communication with a minor in Professional Writing from The Ohio State University. She sits on the board of the Central Ohio Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and loves coffee, whiskey, cooking and spending time with friends and family.
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