OWYN’s Robert Rich on Making A Kosher, Delicious, Healthy Line of Products

OWYN  – which stands for “Only What You Need”  – makes plant-based snacks, including bars and packaged soft drinks. The protein shakes are available in four  different flavors—  “Dark Chocolate,” “Cold Brew Coffee,” “Smooth Vanilla” and “Strawberry Banana.” They are all non-GMO, kosher, gluten-free, certified vegan, soy-free, dairy-free, wheat-free, peanut-free, and preservative-free. One drink ought to provide you with all nine essential amino acids and 20 grams of protein. OWYN sets the bar high when it comes to drinks that are both healthy and sweet.

I had the pleasure of doing Q&A with Robert Rich, SVP/GM of E-Commerce for OWYN, about the past, present and future of the brand.

Jewish Journal: OWYN keeps growing and growing. What was the initial concept of the brand?

Robert Rich: OWYN was founded by a husband and wife team, both professional athletes, who recognized a need for plant-based protein drinks with super clean and healthy ingredients, while also tasting great. Nothing like that existed in the marketplace. To be honest, other plant-based protein drinks tasted like dirt and were made with all sorts of nasty ingredients while being erroneously marketed as “healthy.”

Our founders spent four years working on what became a winning, great-tasting formula. Beyond just taste, the OWYN brand is positioned quite differently from our competition, which ranges from the medicinal Ensure to the hyper-masculine Muscle Milk. By contrast, OWYN has found great appeal among female millennials, a demographic which has truly embraced the concept of living a healthy, 100 percent plant-based lifestyle.    

JJ: Did you have the “Only What You Need” name first? The concept first?

RR: The concept came first. Then the name fell right into place. 

JJ: You recently unveiled more of your plant-based drinks, which are vegan, gluten-free and non-GMO. I would assume they are kosher, in turn. Is it difficult to make products that are kosher?

RR: All of our products are certified OU kosher. Making a kosher product is actually among the easier of the numerous certification processes we have to manage. One of our unique features is we test every lot of every ingredient and every lot of finished goods to ensure our product has no cross-contact with any of the top 8 allergens: milk, fish, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, gluten, soy and egg.

We have established an extraordinarily costly and laborious testing regime, and we have the test results to prove our products are free from these specific foods. Making kosher-certified products is by no means a walk in the park, but if you only had to worry about that and not all the food allergens like we do, we’d say you had it easy. 

Was there ever pressure to become kosher-certified? Or was that a natural instinct?

RR: There was never a question that every item we sold had to be OU kosher. Our owners well understand the market value of having kosher certification, and they have had great success making kosher-certified food and beverages. Our owners are very supportive of satisfying the needs of the community.

We’re hopeful that our OU certification adds value even beyond its appeal to kosher seeking consumers.  For those in the know, OU kosher signifies a green light to our core customer – vegans and the ever-growing population of consumers looking for dairy-free beverages, that our products are safe for them to consume. 

JJ: Do you have a favorite of the current OWYN offerings?

RR: Our dark chocolate ready-to-drink protein shake is out of this world. 

JJ: What is coming up for the brand in 2019?

RR: We’ve got some amazing new innovations coming this year. You’ll have to keep us on your radar to find out.

JJ: Is there something you wish more people knew about OWYN?

RR: We’re the only National Strategic Partner of FARE, Food Allergy Research and Education, the world’s largest private funder of food allergy research and advocacy. I myself have a deadly peanut allergy and serve on FARE’s board along with our CEO, whose child has severe food allergies.

There is a food allergy epidemic in this country, and millions of people with multiple food allergies have difficulty finding safe food to eat. Many customers have reached out to us to thank us for making one of the only food and beverage products they or their kids are able to consume, so we are satisfying a growing need for safe, clean food.

JJ: When not busy with OWYN, how do you like to spend your free time?

RR: I run e-commerce for OWYN so there’s no free time. You can buy OWYN 24×7 online so I’m always on-call. That said, I love spending time playing guitar with my teenage daughter.

 JJ: Finally, Robert, any last words for the kids?

RR: Before deciding to proceed with any food brand, our owners use a simple rule. If their kids don’t like it, don’t move forward. Their kids gave OWYN the thumbs-up, so we launched and haven’t looked back since. My advice to the kids is to try our vanilla non-dairy protein shake and use it with your morning cereal. You’ll love it! 

More on OWYN can be found online at www.liveowyn.com.