An ultra-marathon and a favorite post-workout treat inspired Claudia Dodge and Schalk Pienaar to launch a protein snack and coffee brand that is breaking out with spicy and bold flavors.
Svry Nutrition launched in June 2024 with baked snack bars, including cheddar and chive, cheddar and jalapeno, parmesan and black pepper, tomato and basil and whole grain biscuit. Additionally, the brand launched a ready-to-mix protein bone broth, protein coffee and rooibos tea.
The idea for the brand came from Dodge “looking for something that did not exist on the market” a snack that encapsulated one of her favorite post-run treats - a burrito. Dodge began experimenting with savory gels but could not find anything to satisfy her post-workout craving.
“I was training for my first ultra-marathon last year - seven marathons and seven days in the Sahara Desert. And it is a lot of training. You need to eat a lot of food, and it is all sweet - your sports drinks, your energy gels, your hydration powders. And so I started looking for some variety in that area to combat the flavor fatigue,” Dodge said.
“If you look at the non-performance nutrition, it is about 50-50 split of what is a savory product versus what is a sweet product or a treat. If you shift views to the performance nutrition space or supplemental nutrition space, basically, it is all just 100% sweet,” Pienaar added.
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Addressing texture and flavor challenges with protein
Svry Nutrition tested about 1,000 samples before ultimately finding the right protein - in this case, milk protein isolate - and ingredients to deliver on taste and texture, he added.
The first formulations featured egg whites, which was “very hard and very tough to chew,” Pienaar explained. “Protein is not forgiving from a texture perspective,” he added.
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Svry Nutrition is building its e-commerce business, but the brand has long-term ambitions of getting into national retail chains, Pienaar explained.
“One of the realities that we are very conscious of is the fact that we have a new product. There is not a lot of baked bars in the market, and there are very few savory products on the market,” Pienaar said.
“We very intentionally started off in a commercial kitchen where we could update and recycle the recipes very quickly, and then intentionally paired that with an e-commerce approach because the customer feedback cycle is so much quicker,” he added.
