Powerade

History

In 1988, Powerade became the official sports drink of the Olympics, alongside Aquarius, another sports drink made by Coca-Cola. It is a rival of another sports drink, Gatorade. In July 2001, The Coca-Cola Company launched a new formula for Powerade including vitamins B₃, B₆ and B₁₂, which play a role in energy metabolism.

In July 2002, The Coca-Cola Company updated the bottles of the standard Powerade (previous logo styling) to a new sport-grip bottle.

In 2002, The Coca-Cola Company introduced Powerade Option to the United States, in response to Gatorade's popular Propel. Option is a "low Calorie sports drink" that is colorless and sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, sucralose, and acesulfame potassium, to provide sugar-conscious consumers with another rehydration choice. Powerade Option took 36% of the Fitness Water category behind Propel's 42%.

In 2007, Powerade Zero, a one hundred-calorie sports drink with electrolytes, which contains no sugar, no calories and no carbohydrates was released. Powerade Option was subsequently discontinued.

In June 2009, The Coca-Cola Company bought Glacéau, owner of brands such as VitaminWater and SmartWater, for $4.1 billion, a price tag that signaled the company’s seriousness in pursuing growth of non-carbonated beverages. Since then, the company has also given its Glacéau management team control of its Powerade sports drink brand.

Competition

Powerade's main competition is Gatorade marketed by the Quaker Oats Company, a division of PepsiCo. Gatorade, which was branded at the University of Florida in 1965, was the first commercially available sports drink in the United States. It now holds a commanding share of the market. As of 2011, Gatorade held a 70 percent market share to Powerade's 28.5 percent.

All Sport is a competitor marketed by All Sport, Inc and distributed by the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group. All Sport was marketed by PepsiCo until 2001, when Gatorade's maker, the Quaker Oats Company was acquired by PepsiCo. All Sport was sold to the Monarch Beverage Company soon after. Powerade and All Sport have each been distributed through their own direct store deliver channels. It was subsequently purchased by Gary Smith, the Chairman & CEO of All Sport, Inc. based in Austin, Texas.

Outside the United States the Lucozade energy drink (manufactured since 1927 by the pharmaceutical company now known as GlaxoSmithKline) competes with Gatorade. Lucozade's formulation differs in that it uses primarily glucose and contains caffeine. The more direct competitor to Gatorade and Powerade is Lucozade Sport.

Sponsorships

Ingredients

Ingredient:

Note: Standard 8 ounce servings meet the FDA definition of 'low sodium' and have less sodium than a glass of chocolate milk.

Substitutions and differences

Ingredients may vary from flavor to flavor and by country with High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) not used in Australia and other regions where sucrose is substituted.

Flavors

Currently, there are twelve flavors of Powerade available in the United States:

In addition, there are six flavors of Powerade Zero, a zero calorie version of Powerade:

Discontinued flavors Flavors that were previously available in the United States, but have been discontinued:

United Kingdom flavours

Australian flavors

South Korea flavors

Discontinued Flavors

Iceland flavors

Germany flavors

Denmark flavors

France flavors

Spain flavors

Colombia flavors

Switzerland flavors

Sweden flavors

Finland flavors

Venezuela flavors

Norway flavors

South Africa flavors

New Zealand flavors

Turkey flavors

Russia flavors

Canada flavors

Criticism

Like its main competitor, Gatorade, Powerade is made with sugar, syrups and salt. One Powerade ad campaign saying that Powerade ION4 is superior to Gatorade has been accused of being deceptive and false by Pepsi, the parent owner of Gatorade. The courts ruled in favor of Powerade as of August 2009.