From Red Bull to Tenzing: How one founder built a natural energy drinks brand

When Huib Van Bockel decided to quit his well-paid corporate job and set up his own drinks brand in his early 40s, the first person he had to convince was his wife. He presented his plan to her using PowerPoint at their kitchen table in west London.

"Here's the bad news,” he told her. “We have to move house, we can we can't afford a house with a garden and the kids will have to be in the same room.”

Luckily, she agreed his business idea was compelling and she had the security of a steady job. And so the idea for Tenzing natural energy drinks was born.

Tenzing makes plant-based energy drinks using only natural ingredients, avoiding artificial sweeteners. This was a decade ago, just as new legislation around sugar taxes on fizzy drinks strengthened the business case for healthier alternatives. Today, the UK energy drinks market is worth around £2.2bn a year, with brands offering cleaner thriving in many sectors.

After several tough years of bootstrapping with a small team, the business is now growing steadily. In 2025, it took a minority trade investment from Heineken.

Van Bockel explains that he scaled his challenger brand by first targeting niche communities, knowing he couldn’t compete with energy drink rivals like his former employer Red Bull or Monster on supermarket shelves. Instead, he focused on London and venues such as climbing walls, building the brand within the indoor and outdoor climbing community – a sport he's also passionate about. He later expanded into the running community and gyms.

From there, he raised the profile of the drink shop by shop, starting with Planet Organic. He would aggressively sample in-store to build traction and strengthen the case for future retailer buyers, collecting customer data to support his arguments.

After years of persistence, his team eventually cracked Tesco and Sainsbury’s. “Love your buyer” became the team’s mantra, Van Bockel explains. “I've heard so many people in my industry, where you're so dependent on retailers, who go like, ‘he's an ass, or she never gets back to my emails’, but as soon as you think like that, you've lost. You have to be persistent, in a friendly, charming way.”

Although he originally wanted Tenzing to be a focused, one SKU brand, it now offers seven flavours. Van Bockel admits this was difficult to accept at first, but says the data was undeniable. Raspberry is now the best seller.

“With every can you sell, you become slightly less needed [as founder CEO],” is a phrase that has stayed with him, shared by a trusted advisor. After a decade of scaling the business and selling more than 50 million cans, Van Bockel says he recognises that he is “replaceable”.

“I always think you can only develop so much," he says, "so make sure you surround yourself with people that literally compensate for you, for the bad bits, that's the most important thing.”

Still, while he describes the scaling journey as “extremely fun”, Van Bockel says he’s all-in for several more years yet.