The global creatine crisis and its effect on Wheyl

Wheyl-o there! 🐳

You’re probably here to learn more about why we’ve increased the prices of our creatine after seeing our announcement online or after hearing of it from your community managers or friends. 

This 3-minute read will teach you a thing or two about creatine monohydrate, the rising prices on all kinds of goods, the global shipping crisis, and Wheyl! 

Without further ado, let’s start! 

The truth about creatine

Creatine monohydrate could very well be the most popular sports nutrition supplement. With hundreds of studies bringing clear evidence for its muscle building, strength-boosting, and endurance-giving effects, it’s a great aid if you’re serious about improving your performance. Plus being highly safe, widely available, and very affordable, it’s a no-brainer to add creatine to your supplement stack.

While the price and availability of creatine monohydrate have been largely stable for many years, our favorite supplement hasn’t been immune to the supply chain turmoil kick-started by the pandemic. Consumers from other countries started seeing emptier creatine shelves in late 2021. Nowadays, stock replenishment is slow and prices are climbing everywhere. 

You’ve probably started noticing a similar situation for the Philippine market recently and this is a trend we can expect to be happening worldwide. Many brands are out of stock, replenishment is slow, and prices are rising. 

Sports nutrition brands like us started noticing signs of the creatine shortage as early as April 2021, but until now not enough people are talking about it. To provide better context, we’d love to talk a bit about where creatine comes from. 

Where is creatine from?

Creatine can be consumed naturally from meat but this is normally still not enough for its performance-boosting effects. Thus, supplementing with creatine monohydrate is typically recommended.

The creatine monohydrate supplement you enjoy is not from food sources but is synthesized in a lab. 

99% of creatine around the world is made by pharmaceutical labs in China. And just like most reliable brands, we partner with trusted Chinese pharmaceuticals to produce the KREA creatine you all know and love. 

What’s going on with creatine?

The global creatine crisis started in 2020 when Chinese pharmaceutical manufacturers operated at a reduced capacity as a result of COVID-19 work suspensions.

In 2021, their government continued to crack down on the industrial sector as they hurried to meet environmental targets, while managing a terrible power supply crisis. This meant countless plants across different industries had to close down or operate intermittently. 

Several commodities continue to be affected by this. On the supply end, output is low and stocks are tight as the world has started to normalize with consumer demand ramping up. 

Consequently, international sea freight costs are up almost 10x from pre-pandemic prices and shipping availability is limited by port congestions. The huge consumer demand and limited manpower meant ships and containers are often stuck in ports awaiting unloading – what normally took a few hours would take a couple of days. 

It’s the classic law of supply and demand driving costs up.

The bottom line is that commodities’ prices are at an all-time high, including creatine. This is all part of the whole supply chain disruption, a domino effect started by the pandemic. You may be seeing its effects on many of your other purchases as well, from electronics to food.

How does this affect Wheyl and KREA creatine?

We’ve been affected by rising costs in many ways for the past years, even before the current supply chain crisis. Beyond creatine, there continues to be a rise in prices for rent, utilities, labor, packaging, and other raw materials.

Being committed to keeping our supplements accessible, we’ve always prioritized maintaining our affordable prices. However, the cost of creatine raw materials has grown by six times the past year. Stocks have also become increasingly limited. With that, it’s no longer feasible for us to offer KREA creatine at its usual price.

We understand that a large price hike for a staple supplement is upsetting. Despite the circumstances, we continue to remain committed to always offer the best price possible! While raw material costs are largely out of our hands, we'll continue to find other ways to make sure you always get the best value for your money, whatever the price may be.

What we’re doing

The whale in the room is that KREA creatine is back but its price is now PHP799, from PHP499. It’s now PHP13.32 per serving compared to PHP8.32 before.

To thank you for your continued support, we’re running a comeback promo at a friendlier price of PHP639 until Friday, February 4! That’s a 20% discount for 3 full days, allowing you to stock up on one of your staple supplements. 

We’re also bringing back our Power Couple bundle at PHP1399 for two tubs of KREA creatine, which comes to about PHP699 per tub. That’s a 12.5% discount deal that you can avail after the comeback promo!

As we continue to navigate creatine’s new landscape, we’re on our toes to develop different ways for you to save and experience better value, too. 

In the coming months, you can expect us to create bigger tubs packing more servings priced even friendlier. You can also stay tuned for more promotional discounts and unique bundles that’ll allow you to enjoy your KREA creatine as economically as possible.

But even beyond how we’re looking to give back to the community through improvements on the KREA creatine experience, we commit ourselves to improving holistically as your partner in fitness. 

Powered by your continuous patronage, we’ll be able to grow and develop Wheyl in that direction, such as improved community management and logistics service, a more seamless website ordering experience, more interesting supplements and merchandise, more physical establishments nationwide, and so much more! 

We see ourselves as more than just a sports nutrition brand. We create experiences by making nutrition the most enjoyable part of your fitness journey.

Sky’s the limit with what we can build with your support, and we promise that you’ll be getting the Wheyl team’s best foot forward as we navigate through difficult moments such as this!