POWER UP: ENTREPRENEURIAL GRAD STUDENT DEVELOPS, MARKETS SPORTS DRINK

By Alexis Bacharach Daily News staff writer
Published: 05-06-2006

Lance Schwarzkopf is a business-minded scientist.

Seeing a growing market in the food industry for healthy products like nutritional supplements and low-calorie sports drinks, he entered the graduate studies program in food sciences at Washington State University.

“I had an idea in my head for a while, to develop a product based on the glycemic index, that would provide prolonged energy with a low concentration of carbohydrates,” he said.

Schwarzkopf worked with a team of food science students to formulate Load N Reload, a two-component sports beverage system that received national recognition at the Institute of Food Technologists competition in New Orleans last year.

Joe Harris, from the WSU Office of Entrepreneurship, caught wind of the team’s performance and remembered Schwarzkopf from a past encounter.

“He visited my office three years ago when he was scouting universities,” Harris said. “Here I find out he developed this product that was recognized in competition.”

Harris was interested in teaming Schwarzkopf with a couple of business students to form a company and participate in a business plan development competition.

“He had a product,” Harris said. “I always have lots of business students, but we rarely have a product. I thought this was a great opportunity.”

Schwarzkopf and WSU students Daniel Appel and Brady Weldon founded ATP Beverages, LLC.

They bottled their first batch of Load, an orange-mango flavored energy drink, a few months ago and successfully marketed the product to several local retailers, including the University of Idaho Book Store and Crimson and Gray. It also is available locally through grocery store chains, including Rosauers, Safeway and Winco.

Reload, a powder-based protein recovery beverage, will be launched once packaging is secured.

“It’s very exciting,” said Stephanie Clark, an associate professor of food sciences and advisor for food product development. “This is the first time we’ve had a product make it to launch.”

Clark said the food product development teams spend almost a year preparing for competition. When that’s tacked on to the students’ regular class loads, it’s a wonder they make it through, she added.

“When they’re done with competition the main focus is graduating and finding a job,” she said. “It’s not easy to start a company and launch a product. You need investors and a business plan. These students are exhausted, which is why you don’t see them starting their own businesses right out of college.”

Clark and Harris said ATP Beverages operates for one reasons — Schwarzkopf.

The other co-founders, both of whom are undergraduates, stayed with the company as silent partners.

“Lance has really been the driving force behind this,” Clark said. “He had the foresight to make this product successful.”

She said American consumers are interested in convenience, whether a quick fix from an energy drink or a meal in a protein bar.

Load N Reload is supposed to deliver all that and more.

“Low glycemic index foods are great, because they are slower to digest and deliver prolonged energy,” Schwarzkopf said. “Most sports and energy drinks have high concentrations of sugars and carbohydrates, so you get that quick rush. The problem is, your body can’t digest them fast enough and they’re converted into fat.”

Given the success of Load’s small-scale launch, Schwarzkopf plans to run a large-scale launch toward the end of summer.

“If we can capture about 5 percent of what the market will bear, we can turn a profit,” he said. “Right now, we’re putting in a lot of labor — pasteurizing and bottling — so you know we’re not making any money yet.”

Schwarzkopf and his advisors are confident, though, ATP beverages is a good investment.

“Lance is an entrepreneurial food scientist,” Harris said with a grin. “It has been very rewarding to see a student have the ultimate learning experience — to take what he’s learned at the university and apply it in the real world.”