I copied and posted this from IM for anyone interested
Doggcrapp said:As you guys know, there is a huge milk shortage...and with that hand in hand goes any kind of milk based protein shortage. Basically there is a food commodity shortage all around, eggs, corn and milk....and those all are base products for other products in the bodybuilding genre-- eggs (egg protein), corn (so many numerous products to name including waxy maize) and of course milk (all wheys, and caseins, predonimantly 90% of the USA's protein powder usage)......I hate to say this but we are hearing there is no quick ending in sight here at all, in fact just the opposite. Where we source from has told us "this isnt ending any time soon, be prepared, the days of low priced whey protein powder is far gone".
For example: Our latest quote from our longtime source for Whey protein concentrate came back to us 2 weeks ago with a price that was MORE (yes more) than we currently sell it for on the Trueprotein.com site...We were beyond shocked. It jumped up well over a dollar in price per pound for us to acquire.
Ive been keeping an eye on this price wise both locally and online and Im seeing posts by people walking into their local shops and being astounded that their regularly bought 5 pound whey protein powder jug is now 20 dollars more than it was 2 months ago.
Doug, Carl and myself have really put our heads together on this one and are scouring the planet to remedy this situation as best we can for the masses....because if this keeps going, I dont care where you buy your whey protein powder from, you might just be buying a 5 pound jug of whey protein powder for 78 dollars down the road here. Thats the reality of the situation via the shortages.
I think we are on the right track and we have located a couple of distinct viable proteins that are vegetable based, very high quality, 90% pro percentage, that are an iota away from being complete proteins (and if mixed together--walla).....but unlike whey proteins, these proteins Doug and I have sourced would have very high levels of arginine, leucine and lysine. Key components in the muscle building process, predominatly leucine.
The costs of your protein powder bill (no matter where you buy it) instead of continually rising up, would go down substantially with these proteins. The world has been using and doing the research/technology on whey proteins for many decades now because it was cheap, readily available and convenient (byproduct of milk)....thats no longer feasible and the market is changing. These new proteins will most likely now become the norm because of being readily available and the low price....research and technology will now be focused on how to continually make them better (ala whey at one time with mixabilty, digestability, taste). I just came across the patent for the hydrolyzed version of one of the more promising of the vegetable based proteins today. I just want you guys to know we arent standing crossing our fingers waiting for prices to drop with whey production (its not going to happen)...and we are on this hardcore and doing something about it proactively. We have multiple samples of new alternative proteins coming in, im looking at spec sheets on my desk right now....and Doug, Carl and I will get down to business, testing, tasting, sampling different alternative proteins just like we did when we started Trueprotein years ago....to save you guys money in your pockets.
I am hoping to get most of the busy work done in August and show you guys what we have come up with here regarding this dilemna a few weeks down the road.
tpc said:that isn't an hard feat to beat, whey has never been the holy grail the supplement industry has touted it as over the years... yep read that again, i probably shouldn't say it, but there are way better protein sources than whey.
whey was pushed so hard over the years as the bodybuilders protein because, a. it tasted good and mixed extremely well, and b. it was very cheap to produce, NOT because it was the best protein. hell 15-20 years ago, whey was trash/bi product created in cheese making they used to sell to pig farmers as feed. it hasn't been until recently that they started spray drying, isolating, etc this product. don't get me wrong whey has it's uses, but don't let the "market" fool you by thinking it is the best, it's not true.
mark my word, watch in the next 6 months what all the big "econo-protein" retailers start selling and pushing as the next best thing, i'll tell you it won't be a milk product...
doug
tpc said:honestly, protein powders have never been a huge money maker for us. the econo-protein, retailer big guys pretty much ruined it for anyone trying to touch the market. protein is heavy and not easy to deal with, that is why you never really see any new protein retail companies coming to the forefront, it is so hard to make money at it. in some weird way all of this happening is kind of resetting the standard to what the public is used to, which though looks bad initially it is what that needs to happen. the days of 29.99 5lb jugs killed the industry the last 4-5 years, no body really made anything doing that unless you worked in major volume or you cut corners, that is why it is crucial for this to happen. just like you the customers require this low price, unscrupulous companies will give you that "product" at that price, but trust me they will cut corners to get it to you. with cutting product, using off spec material or using non-US based materials. again, we refused to run this route in cutting corners so in some way this is all good, it gets rid of the companies with no morals to stop doing what they have been doing.
dante and i may seem like meatheads but we are pretty well diversified in business as a whole and are involved in other industries besides just the health and fitness industry, so no worries there. tp.com is our love and drive so we will always continue what we have done from the start, we love to do it, in offering you guys the best products at the absolute lowest price (if these bastards would stop upping our costs :frusty: lol)
doug