From supplements to SuperBites, Tosí expands its ecosystem of plant-based protein products at Expo West

At last week’s Natural Products Expo West show, we caught up with the mother-daughter duo behind Tosí to learn about their strategy of creating a healthy product portfolio that can stand out in the crowded snack bar and supplements crowd.

California-based Tosí came to market with a line of supplements and some snacks seven years ago. Among the supplements in its product portfolio today are powders (a meal replacement shake and a ‘Complete greens’ antioxidant shake) and capsules (probiotics and digestive enzymes).

But it was the company’s nutritious snacks, which they call SuperBites, that became their flagship product, making around 87% of the company’s sales in its first year of business.

At last week’s Expo West, the company expanded their SuperBite line to include new flavors: Dragon Fruit Almond, Coconut Cashew, Peanut, and Chocolate Sea Salt Peanut.

The bars are marketed as plant-based protein snacks, containing 5g of protein per serving from almonds, flaxseed, and chia.

“We believe the SuperBites, when we developed them, is a good support tool for somebody trying to improve their health,” Stefanie Hults, president of Tosí who co-founded the company with her daughter Chelsea, told NutraIngredients-USA at the show last week.

The company markets its products as a Health System, a collection of products consumers can take to ensure “simple and complete nutrition for busy-bodies,” as the website says.

Products are available in kits and bundles. A Quickstart bundle with probiotics, digestive enzymes, a meal powder, greens powder, and two SuperBites is available for $136, while a 30-day bundle with everything in the Quickstart plus one more meal powder is available for $190.

The probiotic blend contains the DDS-1 strain of Lactobacillus acidophilus owned by UAS Labs.

Watch the video above to learn about why the founders think functional bars go hand-in-hand with supplement products, and how the company plans to stand out in a crowded aisle of functional bars in the marketplace.