Beetroot power: the root vegetable powering elite athlete performance

Tell us about the James White business?

James White Drinks is a Suffolk-based soft drinks manufacturer which has been making fruit and vegetable juices for over 30 years, including Big Tom, spiced tomato mix and new Ketchup; Beet It, a range of beetroot juice and sports nutrition products; Zingers, little 7cl drinks with big zing; Thorncroft cordials and a range of classic fruit and vegetable juices. We export our juices to over 40 countries worldwide.

Since 2008 we have been supplying the world’s leading research projects on the benefits of natural dietary nitrate supplementation with our Beet It organic beetroot juice, and in particular our concentrated Beet It Sport shots, which deliver a specific dose of c400mg of dietary nitrate. These together with a nitrate-depleted placebo equivalent have now been used at over 200 university medical and research projects worldwide. Our Beet It Sport range is used by elite athletes and teams all over the world.

How long have you been at James White and what’s your role?

I have been working for James White Drinks Ltd. for just under four years, managing the Beet It Sport brand. My role within Beet It Sport involves managing and growing our export sales distribution, bridging the gap between independent scientific research and lay audiences, developing and executing our brand strategy and ensuring our brand innovation is guided by the latest evidence-based, independent scientific research.

In what ways do you get your product message out to customers?

We exhibit at many sport consumers shows in the UK and around the world, such as the London Marathon Expo, Athens Marathon Expo and Chicago Marathon Expos. These expos are a great way for us to engage directly with consumers and provide invaluable feedback for how we can improve our brand messaging. We also support monthly athlete ambassadors, from a range of abilities and sporting disciplines. All our ambassadors use Beet It Sport, which is important to ensure they convey the benefits of the products in genuine and meaningful way. Social media plays an important role in our brand messaging and we are also active on Strava, with our very own Beet It Sport Global Run Club.

Tell us more about your Beet It Sports drink that athletes love?

Beet It Sport products provides a controlled dose of dietary nitrate, derived solely from concentrated beetroot juice. For example, every Nitrate 400 shot contains 98% concentrated beetroot juice and 2% lemon juice to provide 400mg dietary nitrate in every shot. We started bottling beetroot juice in 2005 and launched our Beet It Sport brand in 2011. Over 1 million Nitrate 400 shots are now produced annually and we export to over 25 countries worldwide, including the USA, Australia and China.

What is the scientific research behind it that attracts so many athletes globally?

In 2009, the University of Exeter published the first human study using our Beet It beetroot juice for exercise performance, and reported 3 days of dietary nitrate supplementation significantly reduced the oxygen cost of exercise by 5% and delayed the onset of fatigue by 16%. Our Beet It Sport shots have since been extensively adopted by both the research community (over 300 universities and research institutions worldwide) and the elite sports world (over 150 professional sports teams) as a natural source and controlled dose of dietary nitrate (400mg per 70ml shot). All published studies that have used our products are completely independent as we do not fund research, thus the research is not subject to funding bias.

What sports do they excel in and where in the world are the athletes? 

Endurance athletes are an important constituent of our Beet It Sport consumer demographic. However, since the publication of Wylie et al (2013) ‘Dietary nitrate supplementation improves team sport-specific intense intermittent exercise performance’ and subsequent team sport-specific related publications by the Exeter team, we have supplied a substantial number of athletes and professional teams from multiple-sprint sports and in speed and power events around the world; including teams from the English Premier League, Premiership Rugby Union, International Rugby Union (7 of the top 10 ranking International Rugby teams), Super Rugby League, American National Football League, North American National Hockey League, US Major League Baseball, US National Basketball Association, US Major League Soccer and individual Olympic and Paralympic athletes from a range of sporting disciplines

Who are some of the big names and teams who drink the Beet It Sports product?

Beet It Sport is used by an extraordinarily high percentage of the world’s sporting elite, including over 150 professional sports teams from around the world. Notably, Beet It Sport is used by professional teams in Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) World Tour (e.g. Team INEOS, BORA-hansgrohe, Team Dimension Data), Triathlon (e.g. British Triathlon, USA Triathlon, Canada Triathlon), Rowing (e.g. British Rowing, US Rowing) and the prodigious NN Running Team, who collectively hold the 5,000 m, 10,000 m (both Kenenisa Bekele), 15,000 m (Joshua Cheptegei), half marathon (Geoffrey Kamworor) and marathon (Eliud Kipchoge) world records. We famously supplied Leicester City FC during their English Premiership winning season and continue to supply many teams within the English Premier League, Premiership Rugby Union, International Rugby Union, Super Rugby League, NFL, NHL, NBA, and the MLS.

How has the business fared in lockdown?

We are faring relatively well during the lockdown and feel very fortunate to still have a business. We are looking forward to when sports events and competitions can resume so we can really engage with our brilliant consumer base again!

What’s next for James White?  Are they plans to get more involved in the sports sector? Eg: team sponsorship?

We are excited to have recently launched a new range of products; our Big Tom Ketchup and a new range of Prune juice drinks. We also have a product in development for our Beet It Sport range, so watch this space! We receive many sponsorship enquiries from athletes and professional teams and we cannot sponsor them all. Instead, we will continue supporting athletes through our ambassador scheme and also our Official Partnership with the prodigious NN Running Team.