Network marketer launches new energy drink featuring Reader's Choice award-winning ingredient

Jusuru is an outgrowth of Anaheim, CA-based BioCell Technology, supplier of the Liquid BioCell ingredient.  Jusuru’s founder and CEO, Asma Ishaq, holds an executive position with the branded ingredient supplier as well. Liquid BioCell won NutraIngredients’ (NutraIngredients-USA’s European counterpart) Reader’s Ingredient of the the Year award​ in 2015, given out at the VitaFoods trade show in Geneva, Switzerland. The ingredient is a combination of hydrolyzed collagen type II, hyaluronic acid and chondroitin sulfate. 

Healthy aging opportunity​

Simone Baroke, of market intelligence firm Euromonitor, who evaluated that year’s award winners​, had this to say about the ingredient:

“It is specifically designed to help the body maintain the integrity of its connective tissues, such as the skin and the joints. The product, which is convincingly backed by 37 clinical trials, comes in three incarnations: Liquid BioCell Life, Liquid BioCell Skin and Liquid BioCell Sport.​

“Any product that helps consumers achieve active, healthy aging and which can help them to cut down on the number of final years spent languishing in malaise will be universally well received. In 2014, value sales for bone and joint health prime positioned food and beverages reached €16.22bn ($18.4 billion), which gives a glimpse of just how big the scope is for an ingredient like Liquid BioCell,”​ Baroke said.

Cautionary tale​

The story of MonaVie provides a cautionary tale in the multilevel marketing industry of companies founded on beverage products. MonaVie, which based its early success on a story about the benefits of acai berries as a superfood-type ingredient, showed spectacular growth, at one time claiming more that $1 billion in annual sales. But the company crashed to earth and declared bankruptcy in 2015, leaving a string of lawsuits in its wake including one on the behalf of former employees who claim they were defrauded via an employee stock ownership plan.

Jusuru was launched in 2010 with its first collagen product. The company appears to be trying to avoid the pitfalls of MonaVie and other network marketing failures. Ishaq was appointed earlier this month to the board of directors of the Direct Selling Association, a trade group that represents companies in the field.

“The association has been instrumental in our company’s success, communicating to our customers and distributors that we adhere to highest standards in business ethics that the DSA requires,” ​Ishaq said.