Me like!!
Saturday 29 May 2010
Friday 28 May 2010
Thursday 27 May 2010
Are whey prices about to triple?
Possibly and possibly just in the US of A (well boo hoo). According to a post on RXMuscle Dante, of True Protein announced:
****Remember 2 years ago when I warned you about the oncoming milk shortage and what it would do to whey protein prices? And across the board whey protein prices rose.....
This makes that look like a blip.
I am forewarning everyone. Two major soft drink company's (here I'll make it easy, they begin with C and P to narrow it down, thats all I'll say).....have pretty much shut down the whey protein industry for the rest of 2010. The one company is coming out with a RTD whey product and the other company and their "Alligatorade" drink (think about it) bought a half a billion pounds of whey protein in which they are going to launch their Ready To Drink protein product. Now to do this they bought up all the raw ingredients from all corners or the earth and even existing product out there to tweak into their product. The other company bought a tremendous amount of whey from Asia which in turn is making a huge shortage here in the United States with manufacturers trying to catch up.
This "Alligatorade" drink company acquisition is going to drive whey protein prices skyrocketing northward. The problem is whey is a byproduct of cheese/dairy and the dairies arent going to start manufacturing more cheese to get more byproduct=whey protein (and throw away the cheese).
So and im strongly warning you on this....STRONGLY...trust me that this is going to happen. They bought up a tremendous amount of raw ingredients of whey isolate to mix into their sugar water. 500 million pounds....The other company bought up a tremendous amount of whey protein concentrate.
Whats this mean to you?
We are going to try our best to hold the line but what we are being told is whey protein could very well go to 2 - 3 times the price per pound of what it currently is. And I mean this across the board from every single protein powder company out there.....and in any and every area of whey protein being sold out there.
We probably are in the process of getting rid of the recession whey protein pricing right today due to this but we are going to try to hold out on everything else as long as we can. You will see whey protein powder prices rise and rise and rise for the next month after month after month elsewhere in stores, in retails sites....everywhere.
Do you still want to "be like Mike"?
My prediction? That sugar water company will abandon this in early 2011 after it fails miserably but the tremendous damage will be done by then.
****Remember 2 years ago when I warned you about the oncoming milk shortage and what it would do to whey protein prices? And across the board whey protein prices rose.....
This makes that look like a blip.
I am forewarning everyone. Two major soft drink company's (here I'll make it easy, they begin with C and P to narrow it down, thats all I'll say).....have pretty much shut down the whey protein industry for the rest of 2010. The one company is coming out with a RTD whey product and the other company and their "Alligatorade" drink (think about it) bought a half a billion pounds of whey protein in which they are going to launch their Ready To Drink protein product. Now to do this they bought up all the raw ingredients from all corners or the earth and even existing product out there to tweak into their product. The other company bought a tremendous amount of whey from Asia which in turn is making a huge shortage here in the United States with manufacturers trying to catch up.
This "Alligatorade" drink company acquisition is going to drive whey protein prices skyrocketing northward. The problem is whey is a byproduct of cheese/dairy and the dairies arent going to start manufacturing more cheese to get more byproduct=whey protein (and throw away the cheese).
So and im strongly warning you on this....STRONGLY...trust me that this is going to happen. They bought up a tremendous amount of raw ingredients of whey isolate to mix into their sugar water. 500 million pounds....The other company bought up a tremendous amount of whey protein concentrate.
Whats this mean to you?
We are going to try our best to hold the line but what we are being told is whey protein could very well go to 2 - 3 times the price per pound of what it currently is. And I mean this across the board from every single protein powder company out there.....and in any and every area of whey protein being sold out there.
We probably are in the process of getting rid of the recession whey protein pricing right today due to this but we are going to try to hold out on everything else as long as we can. You will see whey protein powder prices rise and rise and rise for the next month after month after month elsewhere in stores, in retails sites....everywhere.
Do you still want to "be like Mike"?
My prediction? That sugar water company will abandon this in early 2011 after it fails miserably but the tremendous damage will be done by then.
Monday 24 May 2010
Sunday 23 May 2010
STC withdraws products from market
Having had a very long two chats with one of my buddies AND rivals over at STC they have posted this on their website. Some BIG numbers are being spoken off. As was product recall, compensation for customers and so on (see below quote for more).
''STC Nutrition products were designed with the sole purpose of delivering premium grade nutritional products at an affordable price.
This has always been our goal.
However, over the last few days it has come to our attention that the formulations that we specified for the manufacture of our products have been severely compromised without our knowledge. We have been shocked to discover that that at some point over the past few months, our formula have been tampered with by the manufacturers of these products and although we believed we were being supplied premium quality proteins made to British Standards, this has apparently not been the case.
We are absolutely appalled at this situation and are currently taking legal advice.
We would like to apologize to our faithful customers who have stood by us and are in the process of refunding those who have been sold products from these tainted batches.
We have suspended the selling of our products for the short term until we can change to a supplier who can guarantee us verifiable, periodic quality control checks on all our products.
We will be back!
If you need to contact us, email us here but please remember that we are in the middle of pending legal action and may not be able to comment on some aspects of this unfortunate situation.''
In the mean time one of the few companies with products NOT manufactured by Vydex or someone, or another contract manufacturer as above, whose products are straight up is, of course, The Whey Consortium.
Wednesday 19 May 2010
Tuesday 18 May 2010
The did it or did it not happen raid of Vydex
Lots of claims and counter claims. Thus far and having seen their (Vydex's) open letter yesterday the big issue of the day seems to be that said raid may NOT have taken place and the person claiming it did could be getting a solicitors letter soon. The lesser issue of the Dextralose (TM) not containing asartame but being included in word for word identical product descriptions of a few supplement companies protein products is still on the table.
I've just seen Vydex's letter has been made public so here it is:
Open Letter in reply to the Malicious Attack on Vydex and Others
17th May 2010
You may well, by now, have read the malicious false attacks on Vydex and Others in a number of Chat forums over the last few days.
We have already informed the Trading Standards Office, they are keenly interested in anyone abusing their service and Office to spread defamatory false rumours. The OFT (Cardiff) will confirm that no such action has taken place against Vydex, nor is there any such action pending.
We can, if required to do so, demonstrate that we do not use nor do we hold in stock the sweetener Aspartame®. We can also confirm that the Sweetening agent Dextralose® does not contain Aspartame. Brands such as Coca-Cola®, Red Bull®, and a number of Top name American Protein brands do however contain Aspartame®.
The character assassination attempt on me personally, only leads me to conclude that there are a number of individuals that have failed reach up to my standards of achievement so their only option, as they see it, is to attempt to drag me down to their own shallow standard. I find this quite saddening to be honest, and whilst I feel contempt for their behaviour, I also feel rather sorry for them.
We already know the identity of the instigators of the malicious, false attacks. We know the origins and we also now believe we know the catalyst for them. It appears obvious to us that our business strategy, customer service and high quality products has had an influence on the down turn in trade for the Brands owned by these individuals and their co-conspirators, two of whom, are in the Bristol area! (Nothing whatsoever to do with Prolab, I hasten to add!).
All involved in this spurious plot were indiscrete and even egotistical enough to leave a trail behind them that was so very easy to follow and link up that even a moonshine soaked, old bloodhound could follow!
They set out to cause a chain of libellous and false information to circulate within the Supplement / Forum scene, which they hoped would result in severe damage to out reputation and that of others. These faceless but not so anonymous individuals appear to be under some illusion that they are “clever”. Well it appears that they are not!
What they achieved is the exact opposite. There is now a wave of discussed and appellation building against them, which may well result in a further loss of confidence and thus, demand for their Brands.
There is a very strong possibility that legal action will follow against those involved. If however, a public written full retraction and apology is published in all the forums the malicious attacks were published, we will accept this and move on and put an end to the matter.
Melvyn John MIC.MED. Dip Psychol.
Managing Director
Vydex Corporation Ltd
I've just seen Vydex's letter has been made public so here it is:
Open Letter in reply to the Malicious Attack on Vydex and Others
17th May 2010
You may well, by now, have read the malicious false attacks on Vydex and Others in a number of Chat forums over the last few days.
We have already informed the Trading Standards Office, they are keenly interested in anyone abusing their service and Office to spread defamatory false rumours. The OFT (Cardiff) will confirm that no such action has taken place against Vydex, nor is there any such action pending.
We can, if required to do so, demonstrate that we do not use nor do we hold in stock the sweetener Aspartame®. We can also confirm that the Sweetening agent Dextralose® does not contain Aspartame. Brands such as Coca-Cola®, Red Bull®, and a number of Top name American Protein brands do however contain Aspartame®.
The character assassination attempt on me personally, only leads me to conclude that there are a number of individuals that have failed reach up to my standards of achievement so their only option, as they see it, is to attempt to drag me down to their own shallow standard. I find this quite saddening to be honest, and whilst I feel contempt for their behaviour, I also feel rather sorry for them.
We already know the identity of the instigators of the malicious, false attacks. We know the origins and we also now believe we know the catalyst for them. It appears obvious to us that our business strategy, customer service and high quality products has had an influence on the down turn in trade for the Brands owned by these individuals and their co-conspirators, two of whom, are in the Bristol area! (Nothing whatsoever to do with Prolab, I hasten to add!).
All involved in this spurious plot were indiscrete and even egotistical enough to leave a trail behind them that was so very easy to follow and link up that even a moonshine soaked, old bloodhound could follow!
They set out to cause a chain of libellous and false information to circulate within the Supplement / Forum scene, which they hoped would result in severe damage to out reputation and that of others. These faceless but not so anonymous individuals appear to be under some illusion that they are “clever”. Well it appears that they are not!
What they achieved is the exact opposite. There is now a wave of discussed and appellation building against them, which may well result in a further loss of confidence and thus, demand for their Brands.
There is a very strong possibility that legal action will follow against those involved. If however, a public written full retraction and apology is published in all the forums the malicious attacks were published, we will accept this and move on and put an end to the matter.
Melvyn John MIC.MED. Dip Psychol.
Managing Director
Vydex Corporation Ltd
Monday 17 May 2010
Industry news... did the shit hit the fan Friday?
This past weekend has seen a flurry of quickly removed posts appear and disappear on various UK and even US Bodybuilding forums. Relating to an apparent (did it or did it not happen?) raid of Vydex. I'll get in my disclaimer now: all is rumor and 'word on the street' until we hear otherwise. But still... what a weekend!
Vydex, as well as making their own branded products, is a contract manufacturer of a few small to medium brands here in the UK who are based in Cardiff. Claims of a raid by Trading Standards appeared on Friday with the word being that TS took away samples of several products. Posts on several of the larger UK forums appeared only to be removed just as quickly.
One giant clue as to which companies they were making products for or providing ingredients too seems to have been the rather foolishly over-looked use of a sweetener they called 'Dextrolose' which is a trade marked name used by one company only. See above. Some of the companies with Dextrolose in their product ingredient descriptions then made the claim that their product was aspartame free when, in fact, Dextrolose is a combo which includes aspartame. It's of interest (and not hard to search for) that Vydex has a few smaller companies which they seem to own interests in so can claim to have supplied ingredients to rather than made products for. A search of former employees and directors throws light upon this.
Rather than me blog who and what I'll let you take advantage of Google and search for yourself. See what brands come up. If they are furiously altering their sites today check out the labels on products in your gym. Google will, of course, take a few days to catch up so even with changes made it'll direct you to their sites. There's a list on one forum which makes it easy to check. As one member commented on Bodybuildingpro 'surely the companies asking someone to make them a product should know something about said product'?
The bigger issue, as indeed it should be, is one of the serious levels of competition that has been piling up the last few years. When, as per another forums comment, your local gym and instructors were producing their own labeled products at prices BELOW the rest of the market questions needed to be asked. Least of all is 'how can they beat the big boys?'. Answer they can't unless they're bending the rules.
It's simple economics. If WPC, as is, costs around £5.00 a kilo wholesale and then you add in flavours etc, add also the usual overheads, margins and so on then anyone offering 2.25kg for £25.00 delivered is selling you magic beans.
Let's see if it goes quiet and blows over or whether people will be talking about which brands CAN be trusted when the industry and consumers meet at Bodypower. See you there.
Vydex, as well as making their own branded products, is a contract manufacturer of a few small to medium brands here in the UK who are based in Cardiff. Claims of a raid by Trading Standards appeared on Friday with the word being that TS took away samples of several products. Posts on several of the larger UK forums appeared only to be removed just as quickly.
One giant clue as to which companies they were making products for or providing ingredients too seems to have been the rather foolishly over-looked use of a sweetener they called 'Dextrolose' which is a trade marked name used by one company only. See above. Some of the companies with Dextrolose in their product ingredient descriptions then made the claim that their product was aspartame free when, in fact, Dextrolose is a combo which includes aspartame. It's of interest (and not hard to search for) that Vydex has a few smaller companies which they seem to own interests in so can claim to have supplied ingredients to rather than made products for. A search of former employees and directors throws light upon this.
Rather than me blog who and what I'll let you take advantage of Google and search for yourself. See what brands come up. If they are furiously altering their sites today check out the labels on products in your gym. Google will, of course, take a few days to catch up so even with changes made it'll direct you to their sites. There's a list on one forum which makes it easy to check. As one member commented on Bodybuildingpro 'surely the companies asking someone to make them a product should know something about said product'?
The bigger issue, as indeed it should be, is one of the serious levels of competition that has been piling up the last few years. When, as per another forums comment, your local gym and instructors were producing their own labeled products at prices BELOW the rest of the market questions needed to be asked. Least of all is 'how can they beat the big boys?'. Answer they can't unless they're bending the rules.
It's simple economics. If WPC, as is, costs around £5.00 a kilo wholesale and then you add in flavours etc, add also the usual overheads, margins and so on then anyone offering 2.25kg for £25.00 delivered is selling you magic beans.
Let's see if it goes quiet and blows over or whether people will be talking about which brands CAN be trusted when the industry and consumers meet at Bodypower. See you there.
Saturday 15 May 2010
Thursday 13 May 2010
Bodypower 22nd and 23rd May at the NEC
Right ho. First I'll be working with Chris Hart (son of Mick) on the iharts stand. Part of the weekend will include me doing some of the strength display stuff I've done a few times. So expect to see nails bent, books torn and dumbbells lifted. I also had a look at the bodypower expo site this morning and noted, with some interest, that ultimategrip.co.uk will be there and have the HG500 challenge on. Close it and win $500.00. Nice. I'm sure they will have some other grip stuff to try out as will Pullum Sports who are also there. I emailed them both today to see what's what.
In addition, for strength fans, you've got powerlifting and strongman events running over the weekend which include Loz, sometime grip guy, on the Sunday. Go and say hi and get a photo taken with him.
Back on the iharts stand it's Chris's intention to hold 2-3 times a day promo's. You have a chance to win a t-shirt in our 'biggest bender' competition. I'll show how to bend a nail or two and then we see how can do what. Be that a time or a number on a set time and so on. The iharts mob will be promo'ing the strength themed US clothing company Ironville so I'm sure there will be some bargains available.
Whatever you do if you come drop by and say hi.
In addition, for strength fans, you've got powerlifting and strongman events running over the weekend which include Loz, sometime grip guy, on the Sunday. Go and say hi and get a photo taken with him.
Back on the iharts stand it's Chris's intention to hold 2-3 times a day promo's. You have a chance to win a t-shirt in our 'biggest bender' competition. I'll show how to bend a nail or two and then we see how can do what. Be that a time or a number on a set time and so on. The iharts mob will be promo'ing the strength themed US clothing company Ironville so I'm sure there will be some bargains available.
Whatever you do if you come drop by and say hi.
Wednesday 12 May 2010
Monday 10 May 2010
The last thick handled dumbbell you'll ever need.
Saturday 8 May 2010
Friday 7 May 2010
Another facebook pic you may have missed
One of my FB buddies, Mike, visited the York Museum. This is my fave photo:
Kai Greene: Overkill
He may have been some kind of lazy bum before making his name and there's that grapefruit thing to consider but on the plus side he's become the thinking mans bodybuilder. Add to that that it's a Mike Pulcinella effort (good camera work then) and I can see why Kai Greene's Overkill Volume 1 may, as the blurb has it, been described as 'The best bodybuilding film since Pumping Iron'.
Monday 3 May 2010
Stuff you miss out on if you're not on facebook
For those of you who aren't fans there are some gems; Kimmo Kokko double over hands a Apollons replica set up with, what he says, is 140-150-kilos.
2009 WSM on Virgin
Hey Derek, why the strap??
Those of you like me, either too poor or too tight, to add Bravo to their TV packages (a little from box a and b please Bob ha ha) will have missed out on the qualifying rounds and then later on the WSM finals. Well now Virgin 1 and +1 are showing the programs previously only watchable on their sister channel Bravo. Yesterdays episode was the Mohegan Sun (part of the Giant series). Derek Poundstone, in front of a home crowd, won 4 and came 2nd on the fifth event.
Saturday 1 May 2010
Steve Angell
If you're on facebook then add Steve Angell if for no other reason than his photos. His monster Zercher lift is worth logging on for. Steve was and probably still is one of the UK's best competitive drug free lifters. Here's one to wet the appetite.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
