Corbion Discontinues Thrive Oil Line

While it’s been a tumultuous path for Thrive Oil, it seems the road goes no further — Its current owner, ingredient company Corbion, announced the algae-based product line has been discontinued.

In an email, a Corbion spokesperson said the move is part of the company’s “strategic realignment of its business,” which was announced earlier this year in March. The company, she added, felt Thrive did not fit with its current goals since Corbion is “not active in the consumer products space.”

Thrive’s website notes that most retailers have depleted their backstock of its oils and its social media channels have been shut down. Customer service lines will remain open until October 2020.

Thrive launched in 2015 under then-owner Solazyme, which later renamed and repositioned itself as TerraVia. With a focus on algae-based ingredients, Solazyme launched the product to establish proof of concept that consumers could be convinced to use its algae based oils, butters and proteins. Solazyme had seen success with the strategy, launching a skin care line called Algenist.

Thrive was unique for its high smoke point, neutral taste, sustainable origins and nutritional profile: Thrive had low levels of saturated fats, zero trans fats and high levels of monounsaturated fats. Solazyme claimed that one tablespoon of the oil contained as many “good fats” as an entire avocado.

“For us there was a strategic reason to launch Algenist and Thrive,” former TerraVia CEO Jonathan Wolfson said, as he reflected. “We launched [them] as signals of much bigger proof points to demonstrate that consumers cared. If I learned anything from Thrive, it’s that consumers did care.”

TerraVia itself struggled, though, and the company declared bankruptcy in 2017. Corbion purchased its ingredient lines, algae-based aquafeed business and Thrive for $20 million.

Corbion’s spokesperson said the company remains committed to algae as an ingredient. It will continue to “explor[e] opportunities” to bring its algae butter ingredient line to market and sell AlgaPrime DHA to aquaponic farms as well as AlgaWise algae oils and AlgaVia protein-rich powders to food producers. The spokesperson added there was some “confusion” when Thrive’s discontinuation was first announced, leaving the impression that AlgaWise oils had also been discontinued. While that website is still online, the company appears to have removed all information from it and no longer links to it from the Corbion website.