PEMBROKE PINES, Fla., Oct. 10, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today, Vital Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“VPX Sports” or “Vital”), along with certain of its domestic subsidiaries and affiliates, announced that it has filed a voluntary application for Chapter 11 protections of the Bankruptcy Code in the Southern District of Florida. VPX Sports is a producer of Bang Energy Drinks, among other consumer products. All business operations will continue with enhanced product delivery and service to retailers through the newly formed legacy VPX/Bang Energy distribution network of more than 269 world class distributors. VPX’s Chapter 11 effort is supported by additional financing of $100 million from VPX’s estimated syndicated lenders to ensure its operations continue uninterrupted during the restructuring process.

“We are excited about our future and particularly the new distribution system that we have spent most of this year building,” said Jack Owoc, CEO and Founder of VPX. “Leveraging our new state-of-the-art Decentralized Direct Business Distribution (DSD) will allow Bang Energy to return to our meteoric annual success of several hundred percent year-on-year growth prior to Pepsi. We’re coming like a freight train and we’re unstoppable.”

VPX/Bang Energy intends to regain the significant market share that shrank when Pepsi was the national distributor of Bang energy drink products. Right before VPX/Bang Energy switched to Pepsi in early 2020, Bang’s share of the energy drink market was around 9.7%. About 3.4% of this market share was lost under distribution by Pepsi. At $200 million per share, that’s the equivalent of $680 million in today’s energy drink market. Bang Energy’s newly orchestrated and soon to be launched direct sales network currently covers almost 95% of the entire US market.

“The primary goal of our new DSD network is to regain the tremendous market share we acquired before Pepsi and continue…