Jon and Mark Sider didn’t allow news reports debunking some exaggerated claims about coconut water to derail their business plans.
The Highland Park-raised entrepreneurs stuck to their convictions that coconut water’s rehydrating benefits for athletes and serious exercisers are as valuable as ever, even if marketers had been forced to scale back on “miracle drink” claims touting the beverage’s ability to fight wide-ranging ills including viruses, kidney disease and osteoporosis.
“When we first learned about coconut water in late 2008 and 2009, it was at the very early beginnings of a health trend in the United States,” said Jon Sider, 29, a 2003 graduate of Highland Park High School who went on to earn a business degree from Tulane University.
“It was touted for its potassium content and some other health claims that turned out to be somewhat exaggerated,” said Sider. “We always knew that coconut water’s main benefit was the potassium.”
The Siders’ line of flavored coconut-water sports drinks, marketed under the label “Greater Than,” is currently being sold in Mariano’s, Costco and Whole Foods.
Sider and his older brother Mark, an accomplished amateur golfer, didn’t like the artificial ingredients and high sugar content of the big-name sports drinks. Nor were they fond of the taste of the coconut waters currently on the market.
“We thought there was space for another natural sports drink that had coconut water as the ingredient because it has such a good base of electrolytes,” said Sider of their four-year-old company. “Now coconut water is much more well known than when we were first introduced to it.”
Coconut water is totally unlike the rich, white coconut milk made from the meat of mature coconuts that is a popular ingredient in Thai cuisine. In its natural form, coconut water is a clear fluid from young, still-green coconuts.
The Sider brothers spent considerable time formulating their flavored coconut waters to taste good without the high caloric and sugar content of the major sports drinks. They say their waters have less than half the calories and sugar of the big-name, high-electrolyte beverages, like Gatorade and Powerade.
“It takes a lot of time and tinkering with ingredients, and sampling of the products to come up with the right flavor profiles,” said Sider.
Their coconut waters come in three flavors: Orange+Mango, Tropical Blend and Pom Berry, a pomegranate and mixed berry combination. They sold their first bottles during the summer of 2010 at Sunset Foods in Highland Park and EFT Sports Performance gym in Highland Park.
Greater Than’s coconut waters come in thin, 16-ounce bottles that Sider says are “ergonomic to hold in your hand.” At Whole Foods and Mariano’s, their coconut waters are individually sold off the shelf and from coolers.
In August, they moved into 70 Costco stores in a dozen states across the Midwest region. At Costco, the coconut waters are packages in variety bundles of 12 bottles, with four bottles of each of the three flavors.
“Jon and I have always been very competitive and focused on our strength and health,” said Mark Sider, 34, a 1998 graduate of Highland Park High School. “We have always been around athletic people and we sort of had this mindset that we were athletes.”
When they came across coconut water and learned of its benefits, their entrepreneurial itch kicked into overdrive. Their sporty-looking logo for the “Greater Than” brand incorporates the mathematical sign, and it’s meant to be interpreted in multiple ways.
“It’s definitely ‘greater than’ yesterday,” said Mark Sider. “We are also sort of playing on ‘greater than’ sports drinks in general. It also has an inspirational, aspirational messaging of self-improvement.”
Of course, the Sider brothers have no problem with a customer applying a literal interpretation, that their coconut waters are superior to the competitors sharing space on the shelf.