The Rise of a Health and Wellness Entrepreneur
Tom Ryder is taken aback when I mention that I recently completed a 10km run in my fastest time in years without drinking any water or taking any special products beforehand. He asks what kept me going. "Jelly Babies," I admit. He hands me a tube of endurance tablets, packed with performance-enhancing electrolytes that help maintain hydration. "Here, you'll go even faster if you have these," he says in his distinct Scouse accent.
Ryder believes he has caught the wave of a health and wellbeing revolution. A report by retail research group Kantar revealed that sales of sports nutrition products surged by 45% in the first five months of this year compared to the same period in 2024. These were the 'biggest winners' as customers shaped their diets around lifestyle choices, with health, wellbeing, and exercise at the top of many people's minds.
Ryder, 41, has also benefited from this boom. He netted £67 million when shares in Applied Nutrition were listed on the London stock market last year. Although the share price has since fallen, the company is still worth £330 million, valuing Ryder's remaining 34% stake at £110 million. A trading update is expected this week.
His story is one of rags-to-riches. Raised by his grandparents on a Kirkby council estate after his father's death, Ryder opened his first store, Body Fuel, at 18, selling muscle-bulking protein powder, creatine, and other supplements while working as a scaffolder for the local council. After six years juggling two jobs, he created Applied Nutrition in 2014 and began working from a small factory in nearby Knowsley.
The business has grown rapidly, becoming one of Europe's fastest-growing brands. Ryder hasn't let success go to his head. The first time he felt financial freedom was when retailer JD Sports bought a significant stake in the business in 2021. He celebrated by buying a lawnmower.
Personal Discipline and Family Life
Ryder is a firm believer in personal discipline. "I learned from an early age that if you want something, you have to make some sacrifices," he says. One of those sacrifices was not spending enough time with his eldest daughters when they were young and he was busy growing the business. He's now making up for lost time and admits to becoming "a dance dad," taking them to numerous festivals and competitions in the North-West.
He is happy to have bucked the trend of home-grown companies that have shunned the London stock market. Becoming a public company has been "absolutely amazing, a dream come true," he says, adding: "It's given us a lot of credibility." He also seems relaxed about having a higher public profile, saying: "I don't mind being in the limelight. This company is my life. It doesn't feel like work."
But he admits he "completely underestimated" the extra red tape and reporting rules that came with being a quoted company. A "great" team and board, chaired by AJ Bell investment platform founder Andy Bell, helped "take that burden away from me."
Expanding the Brand and Targeting New Audiences
Applied Nutrition started out selling protein shakes to muscle-bound bodybuilders in sweaty gyms, but it has evolved into "a brand for everybody" that appeals to a wider range of consumers. So how does Applied Nutrition fit into the weight-loss craze fueled by drugs such as Ozempic?
Ryder thinks it will amplify demand for supplements. Anyone on a weight-loss drug "is more likely to make health-conscious choices" around protein, vitamins, and hydration as "they are not only losing fat, they are losing muscle, which is not great," he explains, adding: "They can't eat, they've got no appetite so the alternative is supplements."
One of the "mega-trends" he's tapping into is the move from women simply wanting to be skinny to women who want to be healthy, fit, and strong. It's an audience Ryder is eager to reach. "Wagatha Christie" celebrity Colleen Rooney has been hired as a brand ambassador to fuel demand for protein supplements among these health-conscious women.
Since then, the number of female customers has shot up from 20 to more than 40 per cent, he reveals. To keep costs down, Applied Nutrition mainly sells through distributors in local markets, exporting boxes of supplements from the Liverpool warehouse overseas to places such as the Gulf. Its products can also be found in major supermarkets and online.
Financial Strength and Market Challenges
Targeting new audiences via social media channels comes with extra marketing costs. But having raised almost £160 million in the flotation, Ryder now has the financial firepower to continue expanding at home and abroad, especially in the US, where the company has an office in Dallas, Texas.
The record price of whey – a vital ingredient in protein shakes – is "a headwind," Ryder admits, but he has been able to pass on these cost increases to customers in the form of higher prices. That helps protect profit margins, which at 29% are among the highest in the health and beauty sector – bigger even than those of French giant L'Oreal and only surpassed by Estee Lauder, according to stockbroker Panmure Liberum.
This is remarkable given that Applied Nutrition is a traditional bricks-and-mortar wholesale business, operating from a single warehouse site on the outskirts of Liverpool. Ryder won't be drawn on the Government's raid on employers' National Insurance Contributions, which has hit many companies, especially growing ones like his, which now employs 200 staff.
"What can you do?" he asks. "We don't get caught up in what goes on from a political standpoint. We just get on with what we've got to do."
The Power of the Product
So do the supplements he sells really work? Can they actually improve performance? Well, correlation does not equal causation, but after swallowing some of Ryder's endurance tablets a few days after the interview, I ran an even faster 10k time. Ryder will feel vindicated.
As he puts it: "Marketing is important, but the product has got to be right as well."