A Chat with Charles Ebubedike, Co-Founder of O.R.S Hydration Tablets

Tell us about O.R.S Hydration Tablets

O.R.S Hydration Tablets, formulated to World Health Organisation standards, adds an electrolyte mix to water that helps your body quickly absorb fluids and restores a healthy level of hydration.

Founded in 2012 by 2 practising Pharmacists, it was the first brand in the UK to market effective electrolytes for daily wellness and lifestyle use. O.R.S can be used for Wellness, Travel, Sports, Hot weather and hangover prevention! We love getting people hydrated and keeping them hydrated whoever you are and whatever you do. O.R.S is available in the UK, Ireland, Malta, UAE, Saudi, Bahrain, Kenya and Japan.

How did you come up with the idea for the company?

My co-founder Arsalan Karim and I were housemates and Pharmacy students at the university of Portsmouth, and we always had the idea that it would be great to start a business at some point that developed products that could help solve everyday health issues. Fast forward a few years working as qualified pharmacists, and the best part of practice was that feeling when you had a patient come in with an ailment and you were able to recommend something that would work, and you see the patient next time and they would thank you. As such we noticed lots of patients were coming in complaining about feeling dehydrated for a number of everyday reasons. We realised there was nothing available that we could recommend in good faith that tasted good and was scientifically formulated to help with their symptoms.

Luckily, I had recently completed further education at Newcastle Medical School in Therapeutics and my co-founder had just completed Experimental Therapeutics at the Oxford University, so we were able to use our knowledge as practicing pharmacists alongside this further training to develop the O.R.S Hydration Tablets brand and start our company.

Tell us about your core products or service

O.R.S Hydration tablets is available in multiple variants for the whole family. It is the only electrolyte tablet that can also be prescribed by doctors due to how effective its formulation
is at keeping you hydrated. So, whether you are having a sunny day at the beach, running a 10K, or doing a HIIT class, we can help keep you hydrated. O.R.S is available in a range of variants and flavours. Our Original provides best in class electrolytes for hydration in Blackcurrant, Lemon and Strawberry. Our Sport variants have added vitamin D and magnesium to help your muscles recover from your workout. The immune variant has added Iron, Zinc, Vitamin C & D to help protect you from bugs all year round. Our general ethos is HYDRATE faster, LIVE fuller….whatever living fuller means to you, O.R.S hydration tablets can help you get there.

What most excites you about your industry?

People are becoming much more hydration aware and realise that sugary sports drinks like Lucozade and Prime are detrimental to your health and should be avoided. People are also
becoming way more focused on looking after their own health and self-care, this means there is a bright future for companies like ours that focus on providing solutions to promotebetter living.

This does mean that there is lots of competition with brands jumping on the bandwagon, but we know we are formulated to be effective and thus the noise being created eventually results in more customers for our brand. I’m also intrigued by the advance of AI and tech in healthcare, I’m also at the forefront of this, as alongside my co- founder Arsalan we have created a website platform called healthwords.ai to provide curated self-care advice instead of the haphazard experience of Dr Google.

What has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome along the way?

We started as 2 founders who were working from our bedrooms trying to take on billion pound turnover businesses, so the biggest challenge was how do we launch a brand and get retail distribution in this environment. We had to be very creative in finding ways to create an impact with retail buyers and marketing campaign with a minimal budget (savings from our time as practicing pharmacists). Thankfully we managed to get listings in Boots within 12 months of launching and our still in there today.

What is your number one piece of advice to aspiring entrepreneurs?

Start a business in a field that excites you, and that you have a real passion for and insight in.

Overnight success is a rarity, the first years as an entrepreneur is one of a few ups and plenty of downs and if you are simply in it for financial returns, you will likely not be able to ride the
low points in pursuit of success. Over the years we’ve see so many brands launching in hydration, and the ones that don’t survive are often created on a purely opportunistic mindset.

What can we hope to see from O.R.S in the future?

We are currently working on some exciting new variants and flavours to add to our Original, Sports, Immune and Kids variants. We are also looking to launch in some big international markets. All of this is due to happen in the next 12 months so stay tuned!