ReGen Brands Recap #36

Susan Buckwalter @ Recoup

Next-Gen Regen Hydration

Susan Buckwalter is one of the Co-Founders of Recoup. Recoup is an all-natural, ginger-powered hydration beverage with regenerative organic maple water as its lead ingredient. Recoup is the first beverage brand to be Regenerative Organic Certified® across its entire product portfolio. 

The Brand

Recoup is an organic hydration and health beverage which has a clinically proven dose of ginger to support muscle recovery, digestion, and immunity. They currently have three flavors – watermelon blood orange, pineapple coconut, and lemon lime – all available as single flavor or variety packs on Amazon. Recoup is also in over 100 stores in the New York metro area and several retailers on the West Coast.


Ginger Up

The two heroes of Recoup’s product are maple water and ginger. As proven in over 100 medical studies, ginger supports recovery and a reduction in post-workout muscle soreness, pregnancy and chemo-related nausea, surgery, and digestion in general. Unlike a fruit juice which loses flavor and nutrients when heated, ginger doesn’t denature; in fact, the properties in ginger become more potent when heated. Maple water is incredibly hydrating with electrolytes, 46 bioactive ingredients, minerals, nutrients, and amino acids. Regeneratively sourced from upstate New York, their maple water is Regenerative Organic Certified®. 


Real Recovery

The story of Recoup began with Susan’s Co-Founder Siwat Siengsanaoh. Having endured 10 major surgeries by age 12, Siwat was nursed by his mother who supported his recovery with ginger-based home remedies. Flash forward many years, after working in the same hospital where he had been a patient himself, then working in the startup world, Siwat committed to creating his own recovery product. He bought a juicer, sampling 20 different recipes with his friends and workshopping down to a few recipes that he produced in a commercial kitchen. 

And that’s when Susan and Siwat were introduced by a mutual friend at Cornell, realizing that Siwat’s product could use some branding help. Susan had plenty of branding experience, having worked at Unilever and EOS. But their real meeting of the minds was driven by Susan’s past experience as a college athlete and her work in wellness fitness. 

“I wanted to work on something that I was really able to mold, to build the brand and build the formulas and create something that helps people feel better and has a positive impact. It was so personal for me. To have ginger as a remedy instead of reaching for ibuprofen all the time was really interesting, and to find a good person who wants to do the right thing. It all came together at a time in my life when I was ready to take a leap and try something different.” – Susan


Female First

Trying to introduce a new product concept in a category dominated by men wasn’t easy, particularly when most Americans associate ginger with sushi. The good news is that it’s actually millennial women who are driving the functional beverage category.

“It’s a huge growth category that’s underserved and largely ignored by traditional hyper-masculine brands. The same woman willing to spend +$25 on a fitness class is out there looking for something natural or organic that doesn’t have added sugar. And the zero-calorie version of most sports drinks just swaps sugar for chemicals. What we’re offering is a better-for-you product in this category that goes beyond hydration to deliver health benefits from ginger.” – Susan


The Regen Tie-In

Consumers are still trying to build understanding around regenerative, what it means and what are the different standards. Recoup’s target consumer is on the leading edge of what’s healthy and good for the world. And while regenerative might not be the primary decision driver, it’s on the list of things she’s looking for. 

When Recoup made the decision last year to become fully organic, they became aware that their primary ingredient, maple tree water, was already Regenerative Organic Certified®. Seeing that Whole Foods flagged regenerative as an important factor and how it’s gaining traction among buyers, Recoup joined the bandwagon, believing it was the right thing to do for their business, the planet, and their end consumers. For Recoup, its about telling the regenerative story while they're building the brand.

"What we find is this consumer is on the leading edge of knowing about what's healthy and what's good for you and what's good for the world. And regenerative is still building a lot of understanding and force in the ecosystem, right? People are still kind of trying to wrap their heads around: What exactly does it mean? What's the standard over here versus what's the standard over there? But what we find is, our consumer is starting to perk up when she hears regenerative. She's looking for that. Maybe not as a primary decision driver, but it's on the list and it's going to help move the needle when she sees it." - Susan

“There’s obviously a very fragmented marketplace and fragmented understanding and definition of regenerative right now. It will become more clear and more defined as certification agencies rise to the top. But even with organic, that’s been around a long time, and the average person can’t define it well. We’d do focus groups at EOS and we’d hear consumers say 'organic is good, it doesn’t have chemicals' – but there was still a lot of education that needed to happen. As people embedded in the industry, we sort of take it for granted that everyone understands what it is and why it warrants a higher price.” – Susan


Our Path to 50% Market Share 4 Regen

While Susan loves the idea of this goal, she thinks it might be unrealistic. She believes there’s a compelling angle with the climate piece, but there needs to be more consensus about what regenerative means. She gives kudos to multinationals like Unilever for their work on a lot of sustainability fronts and hopes they get the appetite and embrace regenerative.

“It doesn't hurt to have everyone talking about it because it's building buzz and it's getting people to type it into a search bar and start to understand. But to actually grow the market, it has to be clearly defined. It’s hard for small brands to shout it loud enough. To have some big companies behind it is going to help – but we need to make sure their version meets our criteria.” – Susan



This ReGen Recap was written by Kristina Tober

You can check out the full episode with Susan from Recoup HERE

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