B-Yond Performance enjoys expanding opportunities since moving beyond CBD
Former professional footballer Simon Church and former health and fitness model Russell Short co-founded the brand CBD Performance in 2019 after Church discovered the pain relieving benefits of CBD oil in his last year of professional sport.
Thanks to a wealth of connections and insider knowledge of its audience's needs, the brand was an immediate hit with professional athletes looking for an acceptable and effective alternative to pain killers and sleeping tablets.
Following several years of regulatory and innovation limbo caused by the ongoing Novel Foods processing of CBD products in the UK, the firm rebranded to B-Yond Performance in January as it looked to reduce its focus on CBD and expand its portfolio with other herbal adaptogens and mushrooms.
Church explained that the move allowed his team to innovate while firms await the end of the drawn-out FSA Novel Foods authorization process—only then will brands will be allowed to innovate and launch new CBD products to market.
As part of the rebrand, the firm removed some CBD products and launched its first three Informed Sport tested non-CBD products in capsule format: Focus, containing ashwagandha, gotu kola, reishi and turmeric; Vitality, with matcha, maca, moringa and ginseng; and Immunity with chaga, lion’s main, maitake and reishi mushrooms.
Church said the Focus supplement has become one of their best-sellers with athletes and non-athletes looking to boost focus and reduce brain fog.
He explained this product launch was a reflection of his personal experience as a professional footballer. “When I played professionally, I would take a lot of caffeine and that had a lot of adverse effects, and it affected sleep,” he said.
In addition to the new products being an immediate hit with health and wellness consumers, Church pointed out that the new additions have opened up more marketing opportunities for the brand, whereas they faced strict restrictions on marketing CBD products.
He shared that the brand has further non-CBD supplement innovations in the pipeline and is focused on expanding its community of shoppers.
"We want to provide more of an overall health and wellness brand and provide more of a consultative service," he told NutraIngredients. "Coming from a professional football background and my co-founder being an ex-health and fitness model, we feel we have more insights value we want to add to the offering."
That said, the other best seller in the range remains the CBD Night Spray with magnesium, and Church noted that interest in CBD is absolutely still apparent.
"There’s still a demand for CBD with companies doing really well, going from strength to strength—TRIP’s growth has been magnificent which shows interest in the retail space," he said.
Mushrooms moving in on CBD territory
Speaking in a recent webinar on the topic of CBD for athletes, Graeme Close, professor of human physiology at Liverpool John Moores University and head of nutrition to England Rugby and The DP World Tour Golf, noted the challenges in trying to market CBD products to a pro-athlete population undergoing regular drugs testing.
Close concluded that he did not believe CBD would just be a fad as there was promising science behind the ingredient but said the regulations "currently make it impossible for athletes to explore" so they may be turning to other supplements for similar health benefits. “Maybe mushrooms are the next kid on the block,” he said.
