Cizzle Brands Corporation (N: CZZL) is an emerging leader in the health & wellness industry. Their mission is to replace all of the unhealthy, sugary and fattening foods and fill our cupboards with healthy, nutritious alternatives.
Here to dive into the world of healthy nutrition and to teach us more about what is happening and on the horizon for Cizzle Brands is CEO John Celenza.
TMO: So, let’s kick off the conversation around industry trends. What major trends in your industry do you see shaping the future, and how is Cizzle Brands positioning itself to capitalize on them?
Celenza: I’d start with no sugar. Lyndsay, I know it’s an often talked about movement, but I don’t think enough has been done in the space. So, there’s a lot of education around it, but I don’t think people actually know what that means. If you’re a distance runner, distance swimmer, cyclist, there’s plenty of use for an organic cane sugar if you’re consuming a drink but the majority of sports drinks are sold to people that are working at their desks or going out for a quick rec league game or wherever the case may be. And there’s a huge misconception around use of carbohydrates for that activity. Cizzle brands, Cwench, our flagship sports drink is actually a new LTO SKU we have coming out with Coach Chippy. It has no sugar, no artificial flavors, no preservatives.
At the end of the day, Gatorade’s still the market leader in this space, and they’re not selling their product to these distance runners or distance swimmers or cyclists or what have you. They’re selling it to everyday people and they’re drinking as they’re driving around or going to their rec league activity. And the truth about it is the ingredient isn’t becoming active until two hours after you’re done. So, what’s happening, is it’s just getting stored as fat. Let alone that there’s artificial flavors, food dyes, preservatives in all the products. For us, we’re firmly behind that no sugar movement with the use of no artificial flavors, no preservatives. There’s definitely a space for proper carbohydrates in someone’s diet with fruits and veggies. But we’re definitely well positioned to capitalize on that and help educate people as well.
TMO: I think education around this is so key because like you said, there is so much information out there that it kind of gets cobbled all together and people don’t know what to do and where to start. Let’s go into the specific initiatives that you are currently pursuing to deliver these long-term values to your shareholders.
Celenza: Our business is made up of professional athletes and some of the top dieticians and nutritionists in the world. These are all people that will only stand behind something that they actually believe in. And even on the athlete side, they’re shareholders in the business. It’s not just a pay for play type thing. So, when you have people that are already associated with the best teams in professional sports, the best organizations, we’re all coming together to make products. They have to be the best in class. The difference between us and, I feel other companies, is our innovation is authentic. So, we start in the world of pro sports, and it doesn’t just have to be good for them. If you take protein, which has become a commodity now. Back in the day, protein was just for bodybuilders, right?
Who doesn’t have a protein shake or a smoothie or something like that in the morning? Greens was just for Popeye the sailor man.
Now there’s AG1. AG1 was a phenomenon for a bit. I bring them up because the truth came out about that product, that it wasn’t a great product. There’s a bunch of nothing in it, none of the ingredients were actually doing it. It was endorsed by people that weren’t really involved in the making of it but were paid to do so.
We’re tapping into that pro sports pipeline with what these dieticians and nutritionists are recommending for them, and we’re bringing those products to the masses. And they’re also good for you and I at the end of the day. We want to live longer. We want to perform better at our jobs.
And ultimately, we want to have more energy when we’re playing with our kids and what have you. So, we have a great pipeline into that world where all these great products are coming from. We can actually stand behind what we’re doing.
The people that are involved in it, they’re promoting in it, they’re all involved in the making of it. They’re the best in the business and their reputations are on the line. So, when you see a product from Cizzle Brands, you can have a lot of confidence in it that it’s the absolute best in class.
TMO: You said that you’re backed by a lot of different pro celebrities and things like that, and they’re the ones that are really promoting that product. Trickling that down, those are influencers for sure. With that you’re going to get that into the eyes of the children too. Is this okay to be given to children?
Celenza: Absolutely. It is. I mean, this is a great product for kids. I have a 9-year-old, a 7-year-old, five-year old, my three daughters, they drink Cwench all day long. It’s become the sports drink of choice for a lot of youth hockey organizations across Canada, youth soccer, baseball. It’s based on the efficacy of the product. Granted, we have some great influencers, and they did a good job marketing it early on. When mom and dad are picking this up, they said, well, this is way healthier than Prime. This is way healthier than Gatorade.
What are we doing here? It’s our job to make it cool and inviting for the kids, but ultimately, it’s the parents that are buying it for the most part. Some kids are tapping cards on certain vending machines. At the end of the day, we want to give something that they can be comfortable with giving to their children and themselves. So, our goal is to be part of a family’s pantry.
TMO: If we can flip to the company’s upcoming catalysts then, what key developments or milestones should investors watch for in the coming months that could significantly impact Cizzle Brands’ growth?
Celenza: We’ve kept the sales distribution, as in terms of retailers who sell the product, very tight. You know, previous brands that we’ve run in the past, we have a lot of great relationships, great retail partners. We’ve kept that very tight, and our velocity has been fantastic in the doors that we’re in. So now what we’re doing is we’re going to be able to expand that distribution, expanding our marketing presence, expanding our grassroots presence.
We’re going to see quarter-over-quarter growth for the next four or five years to come, and significant lifts over the next few coming quarters for sure as we expand that distribution.
We’ve got press releases planned, I think twice a week for the next, who knows how long.
It’s going to be new retailers pretty much every single time adding to our distribution list.
It’s one thing to get a product on shelves, and you can do that by having a good reputation and good relationships. The ultimate test is, does your product turn when it gets on shelf? And for us, we passed that test with fly with flying colors.
So now we’re going to expand that distribution and make the products more readily available.
TMO: All of that sounds super promising and very, very insightful. What about the company’s differentiation in the market then? What unique aspects of Cizzle Brands’ strategy or offerings give it a distinct edge over the competitors in a very saturated market?
Celenza: We want to change the way people live. We want to change how they receive their messaging.
Again, it works back to those influencers. Pay for play has almost become old at this point.
People are cautious about what they put their names behind because there’s a huge disconnect between the boardroom and the place of consumption.
Your boardroom’s full of margins and shipping costs, I mean, outbound shipping’s one of the biggest costs in the beverage game.
What we’ve done is we’ve connected those two worlds. We’ve connected that pro sports world, the nutritionist’s, the dietician’s world, and we’ve come together to make great products for people. A change to how products are consumed and help people feel at the end of the day.
Yes, we’re going to be a little bit more expensive for sure, a couple pennies or two.
What we feel though, is that as consumers become more educated, they’re willing to invest in not only their children but themselves when it comes to longevity.
So, we feel as though we’ve done a great job combining those worlds. To change people’s habits and to change that education.
TMO: Now, Cizzle Brands recently announced its listing on Cboe Canada, and you have reported net sales of $4.9 million Canadian. Additionally, your subsidiary company, Cwench Hydration, has secured orders from numerous professional sports teams that we briefly spoke about. These include those in the NHL, in the NBA, MLB and the NCAA. So now reporting these developments, let’s talk financial performance. With the net sales of $4.9 million Canadian and a 60% gross margin in the first five months. What strategies does Cizzle Brands have in place to sustain and enhance this financial growth in the coming quarters?
Celenza: Back to the distribution. These sales are coming from a very finite group of stores, finite group of people.
By growing the distribution, now the products are starting to become popular, you’re going to see the sales drastically increase. Those sales to the pro sports teams, that’s a testament to the efficacy of the product.
Those leagues are sponsored by some of the biggest companies in the world. They get a bunch of free product, but they’re choosing to purchase our product as opposed to consuming the free product that they get. So that’s just a huge testament.
You have the efficacy of the product, the buy-in from the professional sports, the dieticians and what have you. And as that word starts to spread, it makes it way easier to expand distribution and grow revenues.
TMO: What about your market expansion? What’s next? I mean, considering Cwench Hydration availability over 1200 points of sale across Canada now, the United States and Europe, what are the company’s plans for further market penetration and product distribution in 2025?
Celenza: Because our start was in Canada, everything was very hockey centric.
We have a ton of consumer insights. We love all sports, and Canada’s still very much a hockey country, to say the least. So, we started there.
You’re going to see a bunch of our grassroots initiatives, then there’s other sports.
Whether it’s volleyball, basketball, soccer, you name it. We’re going to start to take it broader now and kind of get away from the hockey centric look. That’s what our background was in, I mean, it’s still Canada’s, I’d argue, favorite sport.
So, you’re going to see some diversity when it comes to our sponsorship across a range of sports, but still very much focused on grassroots.
TMO: Are you finding a bit of pushback because people are so, especially in the pro sports industry, focused on one sort of energy drink or one sort of drink that they would hydrate with? Are you seeing any sort of pushback with that? Or is this becoming an easy guide into something more healthy and a better choice for them that they’re acknowledging?
Celenza: It’s so different coming in a tetra pack as opposed to a PET bottle or a can that we really cut through the clutter on the shelf.
We’re finding the transition from those other brands to ours pretty easy. It comes with education though. The more broad that education becomes and done by the right people that are in it for the right reasons that transition for consumers is becoming easier and easier for sure.
TMO: Given the endorsements by notable athletes such as the NHL MVP Nathan McKinnon and the NBA All Star Andrew Wiggins, how does Cizzle Brands plan to leverage these partnerships to boost brand visibility and consumer engagement?
Celenza: Social media is an easy one. I mean, that’s an easy one to speak to. Andrew and Nate in particular are so vested for the company, they give us that a little bit of that extra boost.
We have consumer contests where you can actually win a chance to skate with Nathan McKinnon in the summer in Halifax when he’s home.
And the cool part about winning the skate with Nate is, well, Nate also skates with a bunch of other great hockey players in Halifax, and you end up on the ice with all of them.
So that’s an example of an athlete going above and beyond into his personal training schedule, having a bunch of kids out on the ice with him.
We have incentivize retailer staff to become part of our events.
And we also have a camp. We just had one in Vail this past summer where all the top NHL players were there.
I can’t say exactly who was there due to, you know, some of their brands and group licensing and what have you. But we ran a contest where people were able to come out there and win a chance to watch their favorite NHL athletes training with the top trainers and dieticians in the world.
So we have a lot of hands-on efforts from our athletes and our influencers where they want to get in the mix and put their name out there and say, “yeah, I’ll give up my time for these consumers to come hang with me and learn a little bit more of the brand.”
And obviously these people go back into their communities and talk about it.
And we hope to keep it going. The wonderful time that they had and the experience that they had.
It’s not too often that you get a front row seat to that type of off-season training for sure.
TMO: Absolutely. You’re definitely trailblazing and you know what, it’s been a long time coming with drinks like this. This has been a really great conversation. I have one last question. If you could leave potential investors with one core message about Cizzle Brands, what would it be and why?
Celenza: We’re changing consumers’ habits for sure.
We’re going to change how people eat; we’re going to change how people drink for sure.
And to me that’s an important deal. Everybody always seems to be nowadays, in this Instagram era. Worried about what kind of shoes they’re wearing or how they associate with different material things.
To me, our basics in life are your shelter and what you’re putting into your body.
If we can change and alter the course on what people are putting into their body and allow people to live longer, healthier lives, we’re making a difference.
I think that definitely sets us apart from everybody else.
And we have the team and set of authentic people to be able to do so and the growth potential is really unlimited for something like that.
Stocks of Cizzle Brands Corporation last traded at $0.3100
That was John Celenza, CEO of Cizzle Brands. You can find them on the Cboe Canada under the ticker CZZL.NE. If you would like to learn more about them, their website is cizzlebrands.com.
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