Wyldsson Elite Nutrition
Wyldsson Elite Nutrition is a producer of trail mixes, muesli, and nut butters. The company received considerable media attention after golf champion Rory McIlroy was seen on television eating the company's ProMix product during the 2014 PGA Championship. Other clients of Wyldsson products include Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, Thorbjorn Olesen, TeamSky cycling, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Ulster, Munster, and Leinster rugby teams and TeamGB snowboarder Aimee Fuller. Wyldsson's high-end trail mixes contain specialty ingredients like organic mango, organic Persian mulberries and organic inca berries. Wyldsson snacks do not contain gluten, added sugar, or preservatives.
History
Dave McGeady, the company founder, describes himself as "sporty," but he became interested in health and healthy eating after a cancer scare in 2012. When he lost his job with a technological company, the same year, he decided to launch a healthy snack food business while searching for full-time employment. As his business grew, he spent more time on it and less time searching for other work until managing the business became his full-time job. McGeady credits some of his success with having completed the Sofaer International Master's in Business Administration degree at Tel Aviv University in Israel, a program in which he enrolled specifically because he was interested in starting up a new business.
McGeady's formula for a new trail mix was to reject what he believed to be its traditionally overly sweet ingredients or ingredients that are not in palatable proportions. His solution was to make a better version with higher-quality ingredients, including organic Persian mulberries, Inca berries, Californian pomegranate, and Belgian chocolate, some of which are rarely or never found in traditional trail mixes.
After Rory McIlroy was filmed eating Wyldsson's ProMix during the PGA Championship, Wyldsson got a huge boost in business. In a radio interview, McGeady said, "A lot of athletes are watching what Rory does and they want to copy that as well."
Operations
Wyldsson employs four people and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. All products are marketed and sold online. When Rory McIlroy was seen eating ProMix, the company's brand was not visible, but other Wyldsson customers quickly spread the word via social media platforms. The company's website crashed briefly under the high demand for its products and McGeady told the Irish Examiner that he did a month's worth of business on Monday following the PGA championship. An article in Yahoo!Sport estimates the company's value at 2.7 billion British pounds.
In April 2014, the University of Limerick announced that it would partner with Wyldsson to research the impact of specialized nutrition on golf performance. According to university researcher Mark Campbell, the study will examine the energy expenditure of golf athletes during a championship and then evaluate the value of a nut and grain energy product on desirable blood glucose levels during a simulated championship golf round.