How a Former Convict Turned Sports Drink Entrepreneur Made a Fortune Selling Prime in the UK
Prime, the elusive sports drink, has become a sensation among kids - akin to a crypto craze. Parents rush to snap selfies and stock up on the sought-after beverage.
WAKEFIELD, England—This time last year, Mohammad Azar Nazir was running a humdrum convenience store in Wakefield, a small city in the north of England, trying to turn his life around after a four-year stretch in prison for drug offenses.
“I was the biggest numpty you could meet,” he said, meaning a bit of a fool in the local Yorkshire slang, flashing a gold tooth as he smiled. He said he fell in with the wrong crowd and made some poor choices.
That was before Mr. Nazir figured out how to sell sports drinks at a huge markup, in particular one called Prime, promoted by YouTube celebrity Logan Paul and English rapper KSI.
Costing $1.88 a bottle at Walmart, it’s a mixture of coconut water, electrolytes and amino acids and is supposed to speed up recovery times after exhausting workouts. It was pitched in an ad before the Super Bowl this year.
In the U.K., it’s harder to come by—which means Mr. Nazir has become something of a celebrity himself for charging up to $50 a bottle at his store, Wakefield Wines, often filming the sales and posting them to TikTok and Instagram. “What’s the best shop in Wakey?” he typically asks, with customers yelling “Wakey Wines!”
Some of Mr. Nazir’s videos get a million or more views, and he has his own management team and a line of baseball caps and other merchandise to make the most of the attention.
The store now has security at the door to help control the crowds on weekends. Mr. Nazir makes guest appearances at nightclubs, pitching a locally made sports drink, Operate, in which he was given a stake, and has plans to expand to a nearby space where he says he won’t sell liquor.
His latest stunt is a music video. The camera follows Mr. Nazir as he pulls up at Wakefield Wines in a Rolls-Royce and dances around the store with a pair of young women to some bass-heavy beats.
Drinks industry analysts say the frenzy for Prime in the U.K. is part of a broader shift toward energy and sports drinks, fueled by a growing gym culture in working-class towns and cities, where fitness is often more prized among young men than how many pints of beer they can sink.
The drink is especially popular among pre-teen boys, quickly selling out at the few supermarkets that stock it. Many had grown up watching Mr. Paul’s videos on YouTube and regard Prime as a status symbol.
“It’s like crypto but for kids,” said Steven Lancaster, a 19-year-old college student.
Some schools have banned students from taking it to class after a secondary market for the brightly colored bottles evolved, changing hands for multiple times their face value.
Prime was launched by Louisville, Ky.-based Congo Brands, along with Mr. Paul and KSI. It could be a sign of what’s to come as Congo and companies like it search out figures on social media rather than sports stars or other more traditional endorsers, and chase consumers who might never have sat down and watched old-school TV as their parents did. Congo didn’t respond to requests for comment, nor did representatives for Mr. Paul and KSI, whose real name is J.J. Olatunji.
“This is targeted, this is algorithmic, and it’s a very young audience,” said Mark Borkowski, a London-based publicist and writer. “What this guy in Wakefield has done is learn how to amplify what’s already happening with Prime, and it’s set him up as a first mover, in a way that everyone else is focusing on him.”
Mr. Nazir says he first became aware of Prime last summer. His 8-year-old son, Ibrahim, woke him up at 6 to go line up with him at a nearby supermarket because a hot new drink was on sale.
“There were queues out the door,” Mr. Nazir recalled. “By the time we got to the shelf, all the Prime was gone. Kids were crying, mothers were crying. I told him, ‘Don’t worry, l promise I’ll get you some Prime.’”
He phoned suppliers for his store. Nobody had the stuff. He then started calling people in the U.S., who said they had plenty of it.
The problem was how to get it to the U.K. Mr. Nazir ended up hiring two people to buy it wholesale and then send it back to England while demand was still high.
“It cost an arm and a leg,” he said.
KSI, though appreciative of how Mr. Nazir has boosted Prime’s profile, was among those who complained about the price tag he put on the drink. Other YouTube performers have turned up at Wakefield Wines and offered to sell Prime at knockdown prices on the street outside as they try to build credibility and clicks with their own audiences.
Mr. Nazir doesn’t mind. “I saw the market there and I took it. Who wouldn’t?” he said.
And customers are continuing to come through the door.
Tyrone Miller traveled from Nottingham with his seven-year-old niece to pick up two 16.9 fl. oz. bottles of Prime for £35 apiece—that is $43—and get a video taken with Mr. Nazir.
“I want to show her she doesn’t have to live inside her phone,” he said. “It’s important that she can experience this for herself in the real world.”
Jodi Lilly, who visited the store with her two children and a friend to get a selfie with Mr. Nazir, knew she was paying above-market prices. “But as a mother you want to make your kids happy,” she said. “It’s an experience for them.”
Mr. Nazir, meanwhile, was busy looking at mock-ups for a new milkshake he and his management team are planning, Wakey Shakey. They were still discussing flavors, but he wasn’t convinced on the longevity of the branding, which features a cartoon of his smiling face.
“They want to put me on it—I don’t know about that,” he said. “I’m thinking about something that might last a bit longer.”
