By Meline Beach

Saskatoon’s TC Nutrition is taking its Freezie-flavoured Batch 27 into convenience stores

There’s a strong wave of Canadian solidarity in consumer spending. Shoppers are intentionally shifting spending habits to protect the Canadian economy and build greater self-reliance as a nation. Many Canadian companies are stepping up to create jobs and products that customers want, across Canada and beyond.

TC Nutrition is one of them. The Saskatoon-based supplement company launched in 2017, when Founder and CEO Tony Tomas saw an opportunity for a Canadian company to combine clinically backed ingredients, at effective dosages, with flavours that customers would genuinely enjoy.

“From the outset, my goal was simple: to deliver effective formulas that tasted great at a reasonable price,” says Tomas.

What began as a performance supplement brand has grown into a vertically integrated Canadian manufacturer with nationwide retail distribution, an expanding product portfolio and a growing presence in the highly competitive energy drink category.

Anyone who has stood in front of a c-store energy drink cooler knows how crowded the category is with a few big brands dominating the market for decades. Now TC Nutrition wants to secure space in the C&G cooler, and is betting on formula and flavour to secure its spot.

Batch 27 Energy Drink is a ready-to-drink beverage that puts supplement-grade formulas into 473 ml single-serve cans. Its latest innovation is the Batch 27 Mr. Freeze collection. Based on its recent collaboration with Mr. Freeze, an iconic Canadian freeze pop brand, TC Nutrition added four nostalgic flavours to Batch 27’s lineup: White Freezie, Blue Freezie, Red Freezie and Purple Freezie.

The relationship between the two companies started about two years ago, according to Richard Kadlec, vice-president of sales and marketing at Kisko Products, which owns Mr. Freeze.

“It really came from their love of the Mr. Freeze brand and the flavours they grew up with,” says Kadlec. “That made the partnership feel pretty natural. They weren’t just looking for a recognizable name. They understood what people like about Mr. Freeze and, in particular, how strongly people remember the flavours.”

“Energy was also an interesting place for us to take the brand,” adds Kadlec. “It gives an adult consumer who already knows Mr. Freeze a completely different way to experience those familiar flavours. It feels new, but at the same time you immediately understand what it is supposed to taste like.”

Made in Saskatoon

The company produces its products in its own cGMP facility in Saskatoon. The facility holds SQF certification, which reinforces TC Nutrition’s commitment to high manufacturing standards.

“Owning production and being vertically integrated gives us control over quality, speed, flavour development, design and the small details that shape the customer experience,” says Tomas. “We began with a semi-automated setup and have recently invested in high-speed automation to keep pace with the continued growth of our canned energy drinks.”

A dedicated Quality and Compliance team handles regulatory work. It works in compliance with Health Canada’s Natural and Non-Prescription Health Products Directorate and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency on product licensing, ingredient restrictions, labelling standards and permitted health claims.
The team also tracks regulatory changes that could affect formulations, sourcing and marketing.

What Sets It Apart

Batch 27 Energy Drink is made in Canada with zero sugar, zero dyes, 180 milligrams of caffeine, taurine and VitaCholine®.

“Flavour is one of our biggest differentiators,” says Tomas. “We focus on creating an experience consumers genuinely enjoy rather than treating taste as an afterthought.”

Tomas says the Mr. Freeze partnership pairs nostalgia with a modern functional drink. The flavours are familiar, and that is part of the appeal. According to Tomas, the flavours have performed exceptionally well because they invite shoppers to try more than one.

Kadlec sees the same appeal from the Mr. Freeze side. “There are memories tied to summer, convenience stores, sports, being outside with friends and just being a kid,” says Kadlec. “Those consumers have grown up, but the memory of the flavours hasn’t really gone away. That is what makes the collaboration fun. You’re taking something people remember from childhood and putting it into a product that fits their life today. The nostalgia gets their attention, but the product still has to taste right. You can’t rely on the logo alone.”

TC Nutrition’s Batch 27 leverages a competitive advantage by directly responding to consumer demand for functional ingredients and fun flavours. This strategic alignment taps into an educated consumer base thanks to an online fitness and wellness culture. 

“Because TC Nutrition began as a health and performance supplement company, we can apply that formulation experience to convenient beverage formats and create Canadian-made products that respond to both wellness expectations and broader energy drink trends,” says Tomas.

That mix of performance and flavour shows up in customer reviews on the company’s website. Zachary writes, “The purple freezie is 100% my new go-to before a workout. It is so good!”

C. Hale says social media posts about Batch 27 sent them to a local supplement store to try every flavour. Winter Frost was the favourite, aside from the Mr. Freeze flavours. The only downside, Hale writes, is that drinks “aren’t as available as some of the bigger brands.”

For c-store operators, that availability gap could be an opportunity to draw foot traffic to their stores.

Built for the C&G Channel

In addition to performing well in specialty supplement retailers and e-commerce, Batch 27 is gaining recognition across the Canadian energy drink market with additional sales through Amazon and Costco. The company’s single-can format suits the C&G channel as it strives to reach a broader audience that may not have encountered TC Nutrition through traditional supplement channels. That accessibility creates an important opportunity for its products to become part of consumers’ everyday routines.

“Our core demographic includes men and women between the ages of 18 and 34, but the broader interest in functional beverages is helping us reach consumers beyond the traditional fitness market who are looking for energy, flavour and convenience,” says Tomas. “Our vertically integrated model gives us flexibility to work with key retail partners on combination offers such as two for $7 or three for $8.”

That shift is showing up at the store level, too. Based on Ed’s in Brookswood’s experience, an exotic snack shop in Langley, British Columbia, that carries more than 1,000 SKUs of unique snacks, drinks and specialty products from around the world, including energy drinks, Batch 27 is selling very well.

“Batch 27 really sells itself; we don’t have to push it heavily or explain the product to every customer,” says Nikhil Puri, store manager of Ed’s in Brookswood. “While some customers are familiar with the brand, others are drawn to the ingredients and some are pulled in for the flavour,” says Puri. “We have noticed that especially with the Mr. Freeze collab.”

Retailers who come on board get support to help move the product. That includes organic social media, paid advertising, influencer collaborations and in-store promotions, along with community event tie-ins that range from local activations to large-scale sponsorships with a local retail connection. Retailers can also get merchandising displays, product education and in-store sampling.

“We are confident that once consumers experience the flavour and quality of our products, they are much more likely to return and purchase them,” says Tomas.

Both Batch 27 and Mr. Freeze share ground in the C&G channel.

“Mr. Freeze already has a long history in convenience, and energy is obviously a very important part of that channel as well,” says Kadlec. “The interesting part is that the consumer who grew up buying Mr. Freeze may now be the person walking into the same type of store looking for an energy drink. We’re not suggesting they are exactly the same shopper or the same occasion, but there is a connection. Familiar Mr. Freeze flavours give someone a reason to notice and potentially try something they might otherwise have walked past.”

The collaboration has worked in the other direction too, says Kadlec, putting Mr. Freeze in front of consumers who may not normally think about the brand outside of freezer pops.

How Batch 27 reaches the shelf depends on the retailer’s structure and needs. TC Nutrition works with both direct-store-delivery partners and established distributors, such as Core-Mark, Complete Distribution and Sky Blue Wholesale, with additional distribution partners expected to come on board over the next six months. Retailers interested in carrying Batch 27 can contact the team through tc-nutrition.com, and the company will guide them through the most appropriate ordering and distribution route for their region.

Puri deals directly with TC Nutrition and says that relationship has made a difference. “Their service has been fast and reliable and that makes a big difference because if product is moving well, we want to be able to restock quickly and keep it available for customers,” says Puri.

That reliability is why Puri is happy to carry a Canadian brand.

“There are already so many large American energy drink brands in the market, so it’s great to see a Canadian company producing something that can stand beside them and still feel unique,” says Puri.

Looking Ahead

TC Nutrition plans to keep building Batch 27’s momentum and grow its presence across the Canadian C&G channel. The company sees room to grow through new retail partnerships, wider distribution and continued flavour and product innovation.

Kadlec says the same discipline applies from the Mr. Freeze side. “We’re not looking at the relationship as a one-off trend or gimmick,” says Kadlec. “We would absolutely be open to exploring other flavours together if the opportunity makes sense, but it needs to feel authentic to Mr. Freeze, make sense for TC Nutrition and, most importantly, give the consumer a product they actually want.”

“The market response to Batch 27 has shown us that consumers are ready for a homegrown, Canadian-made energy drink that can stand confidently alongside the biggest names in the category,” says Tomas.

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Meline Beach is a Toronto-based communications practitioner and frequent contributor to Convenience & Carwash Canada. In addition to freelance writing, Meline provides communications and public relations support to businesses across Canada. She can be reached at www.mlbcomms.ca.