In the past year, sales of MuscleBlaze’s creatine products had tripled and the rising popularity is not only evident in India, but also other markets such as the US and Singapore where online searches for creatine had surpassed that of whey protein.
The brand, which is part of owned and managed by Bright Lifecare, also the company behind India’s nutraceutical e-commerce and offline retailer HealthKart, had expanded into Singapore late last year.
Speaking on the latest episode of our Nutrachampion podcast, Kaustuv pointed out that sales of creatine did not come from a small base and that it was already an established category.
“In nutrition, the third biggest trend that as a 11-year-old in this industry, I have not seen a trend like that ever before, which is the rise of creatine. It is mind-boggling.
“We have tripled our creatine numbers in the last 365 days, and we already have a very big base of creatine, so tripling that amount from a big base is a huge achievement.”
Prior to joining the industry, Kaustuv worked as an electronic engineer for two years, but the gym and nutrition enthusiast decided to make a switch when he noticed that there were no whey protein products that were suitable for the Indian gut.
Moreover, about five to seven years ago, whey protein supplementation was seen as something that is taken by people who were into serious gym or sports training.
Now, it has become the basis of sports nutrition and the supplementation routine has expanded to include creatine.
He sees three factors driving the popularity of creatine.
First, consumers have come to experience for themselves that creatine supplement works in as fast as three to four days.
“One is this is a supplement that works. You get evidence of a creatine working within three to four days...If you are taking a multivitamin, some people feel the changes, some do not, it's vague,” he said.
A key reason for taking creatine is to see a change in strength. The uptake of creatine has been increasing with the growing popularity of resistance training for muscle-training or fat loss among both males and females. For the females, strength training is especially popular among those who are 25 years and below.
Describing creatine supplementation as producing a “cyclical effect”, he explained that supplementation would allow one to lift heavier loads or lift the same load with less effort.
“How you build your muscle is that you break your muscle fibre by working out in the gym, you put your muscle fibre under stress, the cells get broken down and take in nutrition from the blood, which consist of protein, carbs, fats, and micronutrients like vitamins and minerals in order to make new muscle cells to lift a load.”
Creatine consists of amino acid that plays a major role in providing nutrition for the body to make new cells.
“When you have creatine, you are lifting more, you are breaking a greater number of cells, you break a greater number of cells, you get more good nutrition, more cells are formed, your strength increases,” he added.
Another reason is the prevalence of consumers spreading their positive experience in using creatine on social media, especially TikTok and Instagram.
He noticed that younger consumers tend to make videos and share content on regular habits that work for them on social media, which further drives the education of creatine and its effects.
“What is happening with the new generation is that they are very good at sharing stuffs. If something is for them, they will make a video out of it [to say that] ‘this is working for me, why don't you also try it? This is how I try it; this is my way of taking it’,” he said.
Kaustuv also recounted how he received support from his parent company to set up MuscleBlaze, one of which was the submission of a three-year business plan which earned him the opportunity to start his own brand.
Listen to the podcast to find out more.