Our journey so far...
Since launching in 2017, XITE has gone through significant changes, both as a product and a brand. To celebrate our new launch, and finally feeling like we’ve found our niche as a brand, we wanted to celebrate each stage of our wonderful journey- showing you exactly how we got to where we are today!
XITE was born from founders Oli and Meg’s desire for functional, accessible and healthy energy that does not compromise on taste. Oli, a competitive rallycross driver, needed fuel to ensure focus and peak performance. Meg, a recent graduate, saw the gap in the market and consumer need for great tasting energy that does not break the bank.
Mixologist Meg got to work and XITE Iced Green Tea Energy Drink was born. Coming in three flavours, raspberry and mint, blueberry, and mango, the performance and recovery drink prided itself in having BCAAs, vitamins and zero sugar. The flavour and concept were well received, particularly in the fitness community, but Meg and Oli felt something was missing with their product and that it did not quite match their ethos. Particularly the use of plastic did not sit well on their shoulders and they longed for the brand to be more environmentally friendly.
After much discussion, Meg and Oli decided to move away from the green tea side of the product. They wanted to make the taste more inclusive to all palettes and strip back to the key consumer need- energy. In their intensive market research, they saw how much consumers engaged with energy drinks, arguably one of the fastest growing and most saturated markets out there. Although a challenge to make waves in, Oli and Meg could see a clear gap in the market for a health/energy drink splice. With much trial and error they created XITE Original, a blend of real fruit flavourings, caffeine from green coffee beans, ginseng and nootropics. They also switched to 100% recyclable cans in order to minimise unnecessary waste and to fit their own environmentally conscious beliefs.
After an extensive look into feedback and listening to consumer needs, Meg and Oli realised that visually the can did not reflect the health conscious, zero sugar ethos of the brand. The heavy use of black was found to have connotations to typical energy drink stereotypes- full of sugar, chemicals etc- so they redesigned the can to be white, cleaner and slightly larger.
Consumers responded well to the change but Meg and Oli, ever the perfectionists, saw the need to continually improve on the brand and be reactive to customer feedback. So the can was tweaked slightly, and the blend was also stripped back to remove the taurine and preservatives. At this point, XITE caught the eye of health giant Holland and Barrett and became stocked in over 500 stores nationwide. This partnership was a validation of XITE’s health ethos and Oli and Meg began to realise more and more that that had to be forefront in the brand.
XITE has been incredibly lucky to be involved with so many great fun events , particularly gaming and rallycross ones, but Meg and Oli couldn’t help but think that it had a disconnect to the brand. When they sat down for the first brainstorm with the team, they realised that everyone was on the same page; XITE needed to fully commit to the happy, healthy ethos of our brand that rarely got showcased at events. The team also came to the conclusion that the can’s branding was too heavily tied with the racing branding and that they needed to separate in order to reflect our brand.
And here they are! The can rebrand is something the team are all so passionate about. We really feel that the can is now a true reflection of the product and our brand. With the rebrand, Meg and Oli also decided it would be a perfect timing to release our long awaited new flavour- watermelon, guava and raspberry. A fresh, sweet taste of summer, we all fell in love with both the flavour and the vibrancy the new flavour brought to our branding!