Discover Benelux | Food & Drink | A Taste of the Netherlands
Easy meal solutions for busy people TEXT: BAS VAN DUREN | PHOTOS: JIMMY JOY
What started out in the bedroom of a young entrepreneur became meal replacement producer ‘Jimmy Joy’; a brand that started in 2014 and quickly rose to fame. They were the first to introduce nutritionally complete meal replacement shakes in Europe, and the media quickly picked up on it. The bedroom was traded in for a warehouse in Amsterdam, from where the company now ships its nutritionally complete shakes and bars to 86 different countries. A ready-to-drink variant will soon hit stores. Friends Sam Rohn and Joey van Koningsbruggen got the idea for nutritionally complete shakes and bars after hearing about the meal replacement craze in the United States. The product would have been a godsend for them as they were either going for a quick, unhealthy meal or skipping dinner altogether because their busy lives did not allow time for cooking dinner. The only problem was, that it was not available in 46 | Issue 52 | April 2018
the Netherlands. But, instead of ordering the product from overseas, they decided to create their own. Rohn: “As it is a whey and soy-based powder, the formula itself wasn’t that complex, but determining the right dosage and finding the right ingredients was. Nevertheless, we pulled through and took 24 orders in the first month, with demand only growing. By the following month, we had 500 packages to ship out and before a year was gone, we had over 20 foreign customers. Within the first 22 months, we had a revenue of five million euros with just our (Plenny) shakes. In 2016 we launched our (Twenny) bars, and later this year we’ll launch our ready-to-drink meals, that come pre-mixed and will be available at supermarkets, gas stations, and office canteens. ” Turning a profit in such a short time period is unheard of in the Netherlands, but Rohn knows why Jimmy Joy has made such an impact: “It’s a nutritionally complete product that is produced under the
supervision of professional food technologists and one that fits perfectly into any diet, although it’s not necessarily designed to be the only thing you consume. We’re there for when you don’t have time for breakfast or lunch. But we’re also there for people who need a large intake of calories, like (professional) athletes.” But most of all it is the taste of the product that sells itself. “There’s something for everyone, from our standards like banana and strawberry, to the limited edition flavours such as gingerbread and apple. It’s not just aromas we put in there, but dried fruit as well, meaning you have a much more pronounced taste. We offer a vegan variant where the whey is substituted by a rice protein. “We also work together with healthcare professionals and clinics to provide complete nutrition for those in need, and we look forward to what the future brings in this regard.” Web: www.jimmyjoy.com