Everton FC kicks ‘bespoke nutrition’ goal with whey recovery range

11-Aug-2013 - Last updated on 16-Aug-2013 at 08:59 GMT

TPW worked with Everton players like Phil Jagielka in developing its recovery formulations

English Premier League football club Everton is working with a local sports nutrition firm to develop mostly whey-based recovery products customisable to changing player needs as the long soccer season progresses.

The Protein Works (TPW) marketing manager Ross Edgley told us this morning the partnership is ongoing with TPW nutrition experts joining with Everton’s sport science and nutrition specialists to refine the recovery products.

“The players have been involved from the start – they have been involved in the testing and we are in regular contact with Everton’s head of sport science and conditioning, Steve Tashjian,” Edgley said.

“So in that sense it really has been a partnership and a collaboration. There have been numerous other clubs in touch over this as well other sports like wrestling, boxing and cycling so it is has been a pretty amazing response.”

While the products developed for the Liverpool-based club’s elite footballers are not for sale to the general public, the club is offering members 25% discounts on TPW whey, creatine and oat-based products.

The elite formulations are not being revealed, but Edgley said they are whey-based with alterations occurring in amino acid profile for, “match days versus training days” for example.

He said the fact TPW had built its sports nutrition business on the idea of personalised nutrition, plus the fact they manufactured all products in-house at their nearby Cheshire facility had attracted Everton.

Being certified by UK third part tester, HFL via its Informed Sport program offered peace of mind that player’s were not going to pick up a doping offence over a contamination issue.

“Pushing the boundaries”

In a statement Tashijan said: “We are looking at every area of the club to see how we can push the boundaries further than ever before.”

“One of the areas that we thought we could gain a real competitive edge was in the player's fitness, conditioning and nutrition.”

He added: “Sports nutrition plays a key role in the recovery process so we have to ensure the highest quality custom-made supplements are available to work hand in hand with our own very specific conditioning programmes.”

TPW head of research and development, Nick Smith, said: “The whole process has been very complex and technically demanding, but credit must be given to Everton's conditioning team who have demanded excellence.”

The global sports nutrition market is estimated at about €22bn.