Tony Castro, right, creator of the new energy drink Half Time, sells his product at Righetti's Liquor Store with the help of storeowner Alan Reghietti and his daughter Janet Jacquez.
Hollister - Forget the chicken and egg debate; for Tony Castro - founder of a new energy drink - what came first was the name: Half Time.
"The name is just so dynamic," Castro said. "I thought, 'What would be a name that could compete with the big ones?' It just made sense."
Castro, a Hollister resident, said the naming was one of the most important parts of his development of a new energy drink. Since his conception of the name more than five years ago, Castro has worked tirelessly on all the other aspects of the drink - from market research to the flavor and branding - so that his new Half Time Energy Drink could become a reality. The drink is being launched in Hollister this month.
With his launch, Castro is joining the $3.5 billion and growing energy drink market. The market is expected to reach $10 billion by 2010. In recent years, energy drinks have become the largest growing subset of the beverage industry. In 2006, sales on energy drinks were up 50 percent, eclipsing the growth of all other soft drink categories, according to the Beverage Marketing Corporation.
Castro is not the first Hollister resident hoping to get a taste of the multibillion-dollar industry. Michelle Haworth launched her beverage, Cheetah Energy Drink, in October of 2005.
For Castro, the idea for creating an energy drink came from his work as a competitive weightlifter. He said he has always been a fanatic about vitamins and amino acids, and he wanted to create something that aligned with those interests.
Although Castro had no experience with food science or marketing, he decided to go about creating a product.
"I'm not a chemist by any means," Castro said. "But I know if you study enough and create a good team, you can do it."
Castro was also confident the name of his drink would bring success to everything else.
After finalizing the name and concept behind his drink - an energy drink that wouldn't cause the huge crash a few hours after consumption - Castro set to work on his research. He researched energy drinks almost nonstop, reading articles and looking into every part of the product and marketing he could.
Castro performed his own market research, stopping people in malls and other busy areas to ask about their preference in energy drinks.
When creating the drink itself, Castro took his desire for a fruit punch flavor and the vitamins he wanted to a lab, where they fiddled with various recipes to until he was happy with the flavor.
"(Energy drinks) are like Otis Spunkmeyer or Mrs. Fields cookies - it's just chocolate chips. It's just a matter of tweaking the ingredients," Castro said.
This process, he said, took around a year of back and forth until he was happy with the recipe.
Besides time, Castro's dream was also a personal financial investment. Thus far, he has put "a few hundred thousand and climbing" into the Half Time beverage, but despite this, Castro is confident that his time and money will pay off with the product.
He plans to go to liquor and grocery stores and personally meet with customers and hand out samples to promote his product.
"I believe if you spend enough time you can get out there without the marketing," Castro said.
He has chosen Hollister as the city in which he will launch his product and plans to branch out in all directions from here.
"The whole thing with any marketing is getting people to believe in it," Castro said. "The best place is your family and hometown. I want to go out in every direction from there."
Alice Joy covers education for the Free Lance. She can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 336 or at ajoy@freelancenews.com.
Alice Joy Alice Joy covers education for the Free Lance. She can be reached at ajoy@freelancenews.com or 831-637-5566 ext. 336.
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