How Bloom Nutrition is expanding internationally

0:08Joel Contartese:Hello and welcome to the Modern Retail Podcast, our show that covers the ways the retail industry is changing and modernizing. I am senior reporter Gabby Barco, and today we are discussing the benefits and downsides of expanding overseas. For some modern U.S. brands, international distribution is the ultimate goal. In the era of digital storefronts and globalized social media presence, selling in foreign markets could pay off exponentially. But betting on this growth means navigating all the friction that cross-border operations can bring. Currently, 79 % of U.S. retailers say that they're confident in growing their cross-border sales in 2026, per an Ascendia survey of e-commerce professionals.

0:57But the transition from a domestic following to a global operation brings a complex web of logistical and cultural hurdles. To discuss these hurdles and the benefits, we are joined today by Joel Contartese, the VP of Global Growth at Bloom Nutrition. Joel, welcome to the show.

1:20Joel Contartese:Hi, Gabby. Pleasure to be here with you. Thank you for having me. All right. So, Joel, I'm excited to chat today because Bloom Nutrition is having quite a year as far as growing your presence overseas. Obviously, you've been around in the U.S. for a while, but why don't you tell us a little bit about where the brand is heading next? Absolutely. So our international journey began two years ago, roughly, with a partnership in Mexico with a group called KPS, who's been a fantastic partner for us. We then since then expanded with a company called Open Border, who's facilitated cross-border shipments.

1:59Joel Contartese:And that was really our first introduction to international commerce. Retail in Mexico and through open border, we had DTC capabilities globally. Since then, we've taken some really large leaps in an international expansion. This year, we launched our nutrition and beverage portfolio in Canada, the UK, Australia, and France, with many more markets coming in the next six months and even more in 2027. Yeah, so Bloom is one of those brands that feels ubiquitous on social media, at least from my purview. And so I'm wondering, when did you start seeing that interest from potential foreign customers, right?

2:49Those who are not in the U.S. market or, you know, you're starting to track some of that data through your D2C because something must have tipped you off, right, to see if there's interest internationally.

3:01Joel Contartese:Absolutely. I mean, we've been seeing that interest for several years now as a result of having a DTC website. And because we're primarily a digital first brand, we do all our marketing digitally, right? So we've always had glimpses of customers from different parts of the world. where we really started to learn a lot more about our international audience was two years ago when we launched on Amazon in the UK. That was our first real push into an international market through a marketplace like Amazon. And that was, I think, one of the most valuable lessons for us as a brand as to how to enter these markets and what the expectations for the local consumers are and how we could or what we would need to do in order to meet them and then scale globally.

3:52Joel Contartese:Most recently with the rise of TikTok Shop, we've identified that as probably the most valuable tool in our international expansion. Bloom is a brand that, you know, wasn't born on TikTok, but as Greg likes to say, our CEO was raised on TikTok. And with this international expansion of TikTok Shop, it's allowed us to have a variable that we feel very comfortable with. And so TikTok Shop has created an immediate feedback loop from consumers on the ground about the products, the way the products are marketed. And that's been a huge learning for us because we're able to see in real time how people feel about the product, how they talk about it.

4:33Joel Contartese:And through those learnings, we're able to then adjust whether it's our formulation or our product positioning or how we go to market in these territories. So TikTok Shop has been an incredible tool for that immediate feedback. Yeah, that's really interesting. I'm wondering if you can give us a little bit more color on how fulfillment works on that front and maybe give us some context into where these shipments are happening. Absolutely. So currently with TikTok Shop, you have the option of doing FPT, which is filled by TikTok. This is where they're responsible to deliver the package to the end consumer.

5:17Joel Contartese:Or you can do self-fulfillment. And if you have a local 3PL, then you would ship to that customer. For us, we use FPT. We think it's a much easier approach to scaling the business. And also, because it's a new service, it's heavily subsidized. And so for a lot of brands who may be new to these markets and thinking about operational costs, This is a really great way to get in on the promotion that TikTok has for this service and really test those markets early because you're going to be able to subsidize a lot of those costs. Got it. And where have you tested that so far? So we're using FPT in the UK, in Germany and in France and in Mexico, Mexico as well.

6:03Joel Contartese:Well, these are three markets where we currently have live TikTok shop accounts. And we will be expanding over the next few months to additional markets like Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland just opened up as well. And Poland, we think, has a lot of potential given their e-commerce infrastructure and their economic power. According to that data, is that something that showed that there is interest in that market? And then that's the way you're leveraging it through those partnerships with some of the retailers you're launching with soon. Yeah, so the early data on TikTok Shop has shown us that there is a demand that's growing in these territories for products like ours.

6:44Joel Contartese:More importantly, what we've been able to learn through TikTok Shop is how consumers actually feel about our products. And what are the steps that we need to take to ensure that the local customer has a product experience that matches the expectation? Yeah. Speaking of the product, I do want to talk a little bit about the category itself, because to me, that feels like where the opportunity probably lies, right? Like it's, you know, it's not just any random category that may be a fit for some other markets. But it seems like you're specifically focused on your clean energy line, right, which has been sort of your growing line the last year or two.

7:24So, yeah, tell us a little bit about why you feel like some of these markets are sort of ripe maybe for some new emerging brands. Because we'll talk a little bit later about this, but it's not necessarily easy to launch a food or beverage product in some heavily regulated markets.

7:45Joel Contartese:I think there's two angles here. One is the purely cultural element. In the U.S., entrepreneurship is highly encouraged and supported. And there's a tremendous amount of resources. And I mean, you have challenger brands almost on a monthly basis across all different categories, particularly in beverage lately. Whereas in some of these international markets, the entry is much higher. It is much more difficult to start a brand, to open a business. And so when you look at the competitive landscape abroad, whether it's in the UK, Italy, Brazil, Canada, Australia, it's not as saturated, particularly for the female demographic.

8:31Joel Contartese:If you've gone into any retailers in any of these countries, you will notice that the majority of brands that are sitting on the shelf are, you know, either chrome, red, black, very male dominant, aggressive colors, nothing that's really speaking towards that female consumer. And so we felt that, you know, because that was something that we saw years ago in the U.S., we're seeing that now internationally. And we're at a point now with the brand where the recognition is allowing us to go into these markets and compete for that shelf space and really be a category leader speaking to that female consumer who we've been speaking to all this time digitally.

9:15Joel Contartese:Now it's really just about making that product available where they like to shop. Yeah, so to get into the logistical nitty gritty, you know, we hear a lot about how beverage is really hard to do, period, even here in the U.S. So I do imagine, you know, what is it like to do this from the other side of the world? And yeah, if you can tell us a little bit about why your partnerships currently are kind of what is helping you leverage. some of your ability? Because I imagine not every emerging or challenger brand is able to do this. The truth is the partnership with Nutribolt has been a huge catalyst to our success internationally.

10:03Joel Contartese:Nutribolt has operated globally for well over a decade now and has established local infrastructure, on-the-ground teams, local manufacturing. And so with their partnership in the U.S., we also got access to this international network. And so it was really beneficial for us, right? Because at this point, it's really more of a plug and play. And of course, it does come with the challenges, but we're so much further ahead because of that partnership that it really has made this process a lot more digestible and easy for us to embark on. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I want to get a little bit into manufacturing because this kind of goes hand in hand with some of the challenges when it comes to regulations and labels.

10:54So, yeah, what is that like? Are you manufacturing the product in that market on the ground? Are you shipping anything overseas? How does this work?

11:06Joel Contartese:I know that's a great question. And I think the goal will differ by my market. There are some markets like the UK where local manufacturing makes a lot of sense, just given the size of the addressable market. And then there's smaller markets where, you know, local manufacturing is not really an opportunity. or does it make financial sense to go out through the process to secure that? So we take a pretty diverse approach. We have territories where we do have local production, like in the UK, and then we have other territories where we may start with shipping from the US. And depending on how the business evolves, then we may switch to local production and territories where, quite frankly, the local production may never be an option, where we would may just do a licensing agreement or, you know, find different ways of working.

11:57Maybe it's direct through the U.S.

12:00Joel Contartese:So, yeah, you have to have the flexibility because no market will be the same. Yeah. And speaking of that, I want to talk a little bit about, you know, labels, right? Because the Bloom can in the U.S., I imagine, maybe looks different in the EU or in the U.K. So, yeah, do you mind just going into some details about what you've had to do to make some of those changes based on both, you know, regulatory needs and the local consumer? Because, you know, this is not necessarily going to line up with the U.S., despite, you know, social media making it feel like everybody wants the same exact product.

12:44Joel Contartese:Absolutely. Well, we've been very blessed, again, with the Nutrible partnership, right? They have a team of experts across regulatory and legal that have really made this process so much easier than it would have been if we tried to do this ourselves. And so through that operational experience, we've been able to localize our products rather quickly. The cans themselves are as close as visually possible to the U.S. versions. The adjustments are very small adjustments. It may be the placement of certain text. It may be the size of the can. So one of the major differences, like in the case of the UK, for example, we're going to market with a 250 ml can, whereas in the US, we have a 12 ounce.

13:32Joel Contartese:Our UK version also has 80 milligrams of caffeine compared to our US version. That's 180 milligrams. And this was done on purpose because of local consumer insights into these markets. Can you say a little bit more about that? I mean, is it that the local UK consumer just has different expectations from an energy drink? yeah i think i can get into that uh i think it's it's tricky right because the truth is like we could do 180 milligrams but the the bet is that we that the female consumer is going to gravitate towards a smaller portion of caffeine rather than the 180 milligrams that we could potentially do in the UK.

14:20So we'll see how it plays out.

14:23Joel Contartese:Right. But I don't know if I want to like, I don't have any data to support that. It's really more like we feel like this is the right decision. And just based on purely like where we want to compete, we look at Red Bull and like, that's kind of where they sit. And we want to basically be the better for you version of that, that speaking to that consumer that maybe Red Bull has not spoken to. Are there any other regulatory responses that you've made to some of the labeling, you know, whether it's ingredients? I mean, we hear all the time about how the EU has different standards, ingredients. Everyone has a different take on this.

15:04So, you know, just would love to hear a little bit more about if at all, if you've had to make any changes? Yeah.

15:11Joel Contartese:So in some of these markets, we have had to make changes to our formulation in order to meet local regulatory requirements. I am curious about sort of localized flavors, right? Because, you know, there are, of course, very mainstream flavor profiles that could maybe adapt to local markets. But have you run into any sort of hiccups when it comes to translating some of your flavors to other markets or other customers in other parts of the world? Yeah. So one recent example of that is our Shirley Temple. It's one of our best-selling flavors, both on the pop side and the energy. But it's not necessarily a flavor that translates globally.

15:56Joel Contartese:Shirley Temple isn't necessarily very well known in the UK or Canada. It is one of our launch abroad. So you skip that launch, it sounds like. Yeah, or we find a different flavor name, right? So we can keep the flavor profile, but we can name it something different. So like a cherry limeade, for example, right? That might be something that the local consumer in the UK is more familiar with. And it's very close in, I guess, flavor expectation to Shirley Temple in the US. Another example on our nutrition portfolio is our greens. When we initially launched this into the UK on Amazon, we started to see a lot of negative reviews on the sweetness levels of the greens.

16:45Joel Contartese:And so it kind of forced us to take a better look at that local consumer and rework that formula to make it to adjust it to that expectation that the local consumer had for the product. Was it that the original formula was more, I think the trend is like it's more masked with like a fruit flavor in a lot of the veggie products versus just the actual greens themselves? I mean, is that what the British consumer wants is just to taste the green? No, so I think what we've noticed is that the UK consumer does expect a bit more of that earthy taste when they think about greens. They do like the flavor profiles.

17:26Joel Contartese:Like our flavor greens do really, really well there. But they want it to still feel like earthy and like greens. Whereas in the U.S., people are trying to mask that as much as possible. They really want the pronounced flavor. Whereas in the U.K., it's total opposite. Obviously, up until now, a lot of your expansion has been, you know, in other English-speaking markets. But now that you are expanding into other like foreign language speaking markets, I'm kind of curious about whether that's impacted the marketing at all. Like, have you had to tweak the language or the voice of the brand or anything?

18:07Because or, you know, sometimes things get lost in translation. So, yeah, anything you can tell us on that front would be fun.

18:15Joel Contartese:Yeah, absolutely. So one recent example that is really interesting is, and this was not in our cards at the beginning of the year, but we had a lot of interest from Iceland towards the beginning of this year. We went in with our nutrition portfolio, now rolling into our energy portfolio. And our local partner wanted to translate all of our marketing messaging into Icelandic. Like, obviously, for us here, we had no knowledge of Icelandic language, and we had to lean on them to really kind of shape what that marketing messaging would be like. And it's interesting because the translations don't always pan out the way that you expect them to.

19:01Joel Contartese:So, you know, energy to bloom is one of, you know, the key taglines that we use in the U.S., and that was not translating well at all into Icelandic. So we had to work with them to reshape what that looks like. And I think this is where brands need to have a little bit of flexibility. You do want to keep your brand, you know, essence and voice intact, but you have to be willing to adjust to the local markets. You know, hearing all of this, to me, I'm like, this sounds like a lot of work, right, that you're doing in all of these little markets across different continents at this point. But obviously, it sounds like you as a brand feel like it's a necessary bet.

19:44And I guess I just wonder, even just to you personally, like, why do you guys feel like this is all worth the investment when you are still growing pretty exponentially on the domestic side?

19:58Joel Contartese:Yeah, I think from a business perspective, right? Like, you look at these markets and you look at the brands that are playing there. It's Red Bull, Monster, right? So Coke, Pepsi. There's not a lot of challenger brands. The barrier to entry is so much higher. But once you're in there, it's very difficult for others to come in and compete. And so for us as a brand that's been, you know, seeing so much success in the States, this felt like a very natural move to expand our mission, but also our business. These brands have been there for a very long time and they've dominated that market. But the majority of them have failed to speak to the female consumer.

20:36Joel Contartese:And so when you go into a retailer in the UK or in Germany or France or wherever that may be, you will see very few options for the female consumer. In some, there isn't even any. I was just in Germany a few weeks ago and I took pictures of all the different shelves because I could not find a single energy drink that I felt was speaking to the female consumer. And so that's really exciting for us because we see an opportunity to come in there and really compete and own that space. And so, yeah, being first is definitely key, but also having the right product, the right brand. We've been fortunate to have built Bloom to the level that it is today in the U.S.

21:21Joel Contartese:And so as a result of that brand notoriety, we're able to go into these markets and really kind of, you know, plant our stake in the ground. Would you say there are other sort of consumer facing challenges? I mean, you know, you're talking about much smaller markets or customer bases in some of these other countries. And I'm just kind of curious, like, how many people are willing to spend$2.99,$3.99 in their current or whatever their currency is calling for, for a can of energy drinks? I mean, I don't know. Is that something you're running into? Yeah, I think you have to have the right price architecture.

22:00Joel Contartese:And this is kind of where, you know, local manufacturing comes into play, because obviously, when you have those local capabilities, you're able to be a lot more competitive with pricing. As in the case of the US, right, we have a can that is 250 ml, it's smaller, so it's priced, you know, lower than our US version. And that was done on purpose to go out and compete with the brands that are currently taking up that shelf space. So we have a mindset that is very flexible and we understand that the power here is not only in the liquid, but also the brand. And if we have to make slight adjustments in order to go out and compete, then we will.

22:36Yeah. So, Joel, just to kind of wrap up on, you know, a performance note, let's say, I am curious whether you've had any feedback or any sales results you can point to that show that some of the recent launches have been a success.

22:54Joel Contartese:Yeah, absolutely. So in Canada, we've quickly risen to one of the top brands at 7-Eleven, and they were our first partner to launch energy across the country. All right. Well, Joel, thank you so much for joining us and walking us through your global expansion. It's been really interesting to hear about just all the nuances that go into this. I'm sure a lot of brands would appreciate getting a behind the scenes look of this. Thanks for having me, Gabby. Really appreciate the opportunity to share our experience with your listeners and hopefully helps a few brands along the way.

23:36Thank you for listening to this episode of the Modern Retail Podcast, a show by Digiday Media. If you haven't already, please subscribe and head to Apple Podcasts to leave us a review and a rating. Find more of our coverage at modernretail.co and follow us on socials like LinkedIn and Instagram at Modern Retail. You can also follow me at Gabriella Barco, that's B-A-R-K-H-O, on all socials. See you next week. Thank you.