Kroger built a program to test products that might appeal to customers taking weight-loss injections — drugs that reduce appetite but also accelerate muscle loss. Among the products it selected is a supplement made by a small Canadian company most investors have never heard of.
Promino Nutritional Sciences said in an August 24 announcement that its Rejuvenate Muscle Health drink will appear on dedicated pharmacy counter displays at 662 Kroger stores as part of a 90-day test. Kroger has already issued the first purchase order, according to the release, and the company says product should reach shelves before September 1.
The placement matters because Kroger designed the program and chose Rejuvenate for evaluation — the company did not simply negotiate shelf space in the supplement aisle. Kroger put it at the pharmacy counter, next to where customers pick up their prescriptions. That is where the conversation about the side effects of weight-loss drugs tends to happen, and muscle loss is one of them.
Promino describes Rejuvenate as a plant-based, dairy-free amino acid drink with five calories per serving. The light format — as opposed to a dense protein shake — is the pitch to patients whose suppressed appetite makes heavier supplements hard to finish.
The company says the agreement is material to its third-quarter revenue, without giving a figure. That matters: the 90-day window decides everything. Continued shelf space and customer reorders both depend on how the test performs, and Promino is a small Burlington, Ontario company for which a sustained listing at a retailer of this scale would represent a different kind of business from the one it operates today.
Janice Day, Promino's Chief Sales Officer, said in the release that the program "puts Rejuvenate directly in front of GLP-1 consumers at a highly relevant point of purchase." The release carries no sales target for the test period and no figure for what a continued listing would mean to annual revenue. What Promino does have, for now, is a deadline: the shelves fill before September, and the results come back 90 days later.