Steve Nickolas

_ Steve Nickolas is not a "con artist," contrary to a cowardly anonymous comment left on the Investors Hub website. Read the full story about that cowardly comment and Steve's real background here.

Fortified beverages have been around for some time, but believe it or not, industry experts say further growth is attainable if ingredient suppliers, beverage manufacturers and consumers could all get on the same wavelength. As Steve Nickolas, president of Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Beverage Science Labs, puts it, “no one really knows what they want.”Can that really be true? In this time of harried consumption, when manufacturers have seemingly penetrated each beverage segment with fortified options to help healthy-minded consumers guzzle good-for-you nutrients on the go, how can no one know what they want?

Nickolas explains that while the applications are innovative, ingredient efficacy and consumer understanding still haven’t gelled. “As an industry we are not assuming a leadership role in providing the consumer with a selection of fortified beverages that have an impact on consumers’ health,” he says. “Consumers, on the other hand, have no clear concept as to what they want their beverages to do; the term functional has virtually no meaning for them.“For years, all a beverage had to be was thirst quenching and good tasting, not necessarily healthy,” he says. “I see many more years of trial and error until the category matures.” Read the full article

Steve is Founder and Chairman of the Board for The Healthy Food Project Leadership Team. The Healthy Food Project is a nonprofit social enterprise, dedicated to making the processed foods we eat and depend upon healthier; while maintaining the familiar characteristics in the foods we enjoy. The Healthy Food Project is the ONLY charitable organization dedicated to solving the world’s health problems at the manufacturing level. Watch Steve's interview with ABC-15.

Steve has 35 years of international and domestic management experience in the beverage and food science industries.

He started his career with Anhauser Busch in Southern California in 1973, later opening in 1980, the first bottled water company in the state of Hawaii.

Between 1981 and 1990 he developed bottled water companies globally including in Hawaii, Micronesia, Indonesia, Philippines, Israel, Egypt and Germany as well as several companies in North America.

He founded Apani Bottled Water in Phoenix, Arizona in 1990, becoming the first bottled water company licensed by the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB.

He founded Beverage Images, Inc. in 1998, becoming the first bottled water company licensed by all major Hollywood studios, including Sony, Universal, Disney, DreamWorks, Warner Brothers and Marvel Comics.

Steve has provided consulting services and has served in a variety of management positions for a number of major beverage companies including Nestles, Whitlock Packaging, P&G and Suntory.

Steve has degrees in Economics and Government from The Claremont Colleges and post-graduate studies at Cal-Poly Pomona.