NutraCast: Rave Doctor CEO Scott Bartnick on shifting gears amid the pandemic
To get an idea for how the pandemic has impacted supplement sales, strategy and more, Scott Bartnick, CEO of Rave Doctor, joined the NutraCast.
“We market specifically to the EDM community," explained Bartnick. “It was a slow start as a new entrepreneur, but especially in the last two years, we had huge growth, 300-400% year-over-year growth. Then obviously with what’s going on now, the Rave Doctor product itself has dropped to almost zero sales.”
Bartnick revealed that Rave Doctor nearly went bankrupt after they spent all their money on marketing and product for the upcoming Electric Daisy Carnival, only for the event to be cancelled. EDC is the largest electronic dance music festival in North America.
“We had more inventory than you could imagine for EDC Las Vegas, we were very ramped up for a huge year.”
Bartnick added that thankfully his product HydroRx, an electrolyte hydration powder, is doing quite well. He explained that HydroRx was initially formulated for the festival industry, specifically those who dance all day and need help with muscle recovery. However, with raves and music festivals cancelled, the company was forced to pivot their marketing strategy.
“We’ve actually been slowly rebranding it more toward sports and fitness just because of the fact that there are no festivals out there.”
While the cancelling of raves and music festivals did not impact HydroRX sales so much, the pandemic did usher in a number of supply chain challenges.
“We got hit really hard especially with the HydroRX. That one was less affected by festivals being shut down, but more affected by supply chain. We had all our packaging done overseas and we had packaging go missing, it was left sitting on docks when we reshipped it, it was really a mess.”
To prevent this from happening again, Bartnick said the company now has multiple suppliers and things are flowing well.
To hear more about how Bartnick has overcome the many challenges of running a nutrition business, his predictions for the rave community, and his surprising other roles, listen to the NutraCast in its entirety. You can also subscribe on iTunes here.
NutraCast is a podcast that focuses on insights from inside the nutrition industry. It is a production by NutraIngredients-USA. Music by Kevin Macleod.
