By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Arnold Koss, background, and Duane Kurisu look over
a store's display of Recovery Power Foods. The health-
food alternative to conventional food supplements is
ready to go nationwide, they believe.

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Marketing
an alternative

An entrepreneur who has made
Hawaii his home wants to repeat his
success in the health-food business

By Jerry Tune
Star-Bulletin

A lifestyle decision three years ago has made Hawaii the marketing base for Recovery Power Foods, a line of food supplements for senior citizens.

Health-food entrepreneur Arnold Koss and local businessman Duane Kurisu are working to get their product on more Hawaii store shelves and to expand nationally.

Their company, Great Circles Inc., is positioning Recovery Power Foods as a health-food alternative to Ensure, Sustacol and Boost in the food-supplement market.

"Ideas can make a difference in the marketplace," Koss said. "Products like Ensure have artificial color, and artificial flavor. They are more like coffee creamer with vitamins."

Those products account for some $600 million in annual gross sales, Koss says. He hopes Recovery Power Foods can get 5 to 10 percent of that market.

Koss, the president, lives in Makawao, Maui. He came to Hawaii about three years ago for the climate and culture. "It was a lifestyle decision," Koss said. He met Kurisu through a mutual friend, organic food distributor Gene Kahn.

Hawaii businessman Kurisu, 43, who is best known as founder and owner of the Hawaii Winter Baseball league, is the majority partner in Great Circles.

While Koss, 46, handles marketing, his twin brother, Ron, works on product development out of company headquarters in Montpelier, Vt.

Great Circles isn't the Koss brothers' first venture involving health food. In 1984, they established Earth's Best Baby Foods as an organic alternative to traditional baby food.

The company struggled, and eventually the brothers turned to venture capitalists for financial help -- but had to give up their controlling interest in return.

After several years, the venture capitalists sold the operation to H.J. Heinz Co. for about $30 million. The Koss brothers' stake amounted to less than $300,000.

The idea for Recovery Power Foods came after the Koss brothers looked around for something to feed their ailing mother.

Because Recovery Power Foods uses more costly ingredients in its drinks, powders and bar products, they cost more than the competition, he said.

"We use fructose as our sweetener," Koss said. "Pure crystalline fructose is known to cause a more gradual change in blood sugar and insulin compared to other sugars. We use no casein, egg, gluten or soy (as competitors do for protein). We use hydrolyzed rice protein which is better for digestion."

It is this aspect of the product the company hopes will get Recovery Power Foods into hospitals.

"We're in discussions with hospitals, clinics and cancer centers in South Florida and we'll be starting soon to go out to hospitals in Hawaii," Koss said.

Recovery Power Foods are available in many Longs Drug stores on Oahu.

They started putting them on shelves about three weeks ago, and Koss wants to go statewide.

The company began marketing the product in California in January. Koss says it is now sold in Longs, Sav-on Osco Drug stores and the Whole Foods Market chain of health food stores, which carries them nationwide.

Kurisu said the company is talking to national and international manufacturers and distributors of food products in a bid to take Recovery Power Foods worldwide.

Great Circles' biggest competition comes from products such as Ensure, made by Abbott Laboratories, and Sustacal and Boost, by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.

The main use for food supplements is for senior citizens who are unable to make their meals every day, or someone who had their wisdom teeth out and can't eat regular food, Koss said.