With New Offerings, Health Warrior Aims to Be “Plant-Form” Brand

Health Warrior wants to go beyond bars. The plant-based food brand announced today that it is launching new lines of protein powders and microwavable muffin cups in a quest to become a superfood-based platform brand.

The muffin cups have 12 grams of plant-based protein and six grams of sugar. Available in blueberry, banana nut and peanut butter chocolate chip, the cups will retail for $17.99 per six pack or $2.99 each.

The protein powder — which comes in chocolate or vanilla flavors — has 20 grams of protein and also includes prebiotics and probiotics. It will retail for $29.99 for an 18 serving container.

After taking its first steps beyond chia-based products last year (with pumpkin-seed bars) this launch marks Health Warrior’s first expansion beyond bars. Julia Wing-Larson, Health Warrior VP of innovation and marketing, told NOSH that the powders and muffin cups offer the brand an opportunity to target new day parts as well as new use occasions. The company was particularly interested in finding a new breakfast solution — where Health Warrior’s original chia bars may be too small as a full meal — as well as a post-workout offering — when consumers want more protein per serving.

But more importantly, the launches offer the brand an opportunity to stretch to its full potential and become a platform — or as Wing-Larson calls it, a “plant-form” — brand.

“[The pumpkin seed bars] made it clear that we weren’t just a chia company,” Wing-Larson said, adding that launch set the company up for this next phase of growth this year. “By having the pumpkin seed bars, the chia bars, plus two other things outside of the bar category, we think this tells the story in a stronger way than if we just had one thing outside of the bar category — which would show potential but not a fully developed platform.”

Both the muffin cups and protein powder will initially be sold on Amazon and HealthWarrior.com The powder will also launch on Thrive Market in September. Wing-Larson told NOSH that the company has a strong focus on ecommerce sales, so when developing the new product lines Health Warrior focused on categories that were highly searched for online and would ship well.

“If you have to ship a really huge package with not much product and not much dollars worth of product in that package, then the business model falls apart,” Wing-Larson said. She added that previous redesigns also influenced packaging choices. “We’ve had to make sure that we’re connecting the product to the brand very closely. Because we don’t have the awareness level yet.”

The company plans to watch the response to the two new lines and continue to innovate both within these categories and in new ones. Founder and CEO Shane Emmett previously told NOSH he believes food companies should always continue to optimize their product lines. However, he said, the protein powders and muffin cups are just the beginning of a larger journey.

“Our starting thesis is the main ingredient in packaged food should be superfoods. They should be as clean and close to the pantry as possible, and specifically low in sugar without fake stuff.,” Emmett said. “If you apply our thesis to a modern grocery store, well, there is a lot of headspace.”