Danny Duncan is expanding his claim in the land of creator products. The Florida native has announced a partnership with Circle K that will bring his Matador Energy brand to more than 7,000 convenience stores across the United States.
Duncan’s merchandising efforts have included his Virginity Rocks apparel line, a personalized Chia Pet, and an outdoor athletics brand called Good Sport. Now, like several other creators, he’s looking to move the needle with a consumable product that contains “better for you” ingredients. In March, he announced Matador Energy, which emerged out of a years-long development process undertaken by Duncan and the Austin-based management company Night.
Initially, Matador Energy’s travel-sized shots rolled out on a small scale at Spencer‘s locations in the U.S. At the time, Duncan explained that he “initially struggled to find a convenience store that believed in me,” though he planned to give Matador a wider release in May.
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Sure enough, May has rolled around, and Matador is getting the 6,000-store expansion Duncan planned for. On LinkedIn, the YouTube star — who counts more than 7.5 million subscribers on his primary YouTube channel — thanked Circle K for believing in him and his latest product. “All I felt like I needed was one legitimate c store to make this brand of mine huge,” Duncan said, “and I couldn’t be more honored to have them backing me.”
Chris Pruneda, a veteran of the consumer packaged goods industry, is the CEO and Co-Founder of Matador Energy. In a statement, the former Vitaminwater, Smartwater, Pirate’s Booty, and Koia Protein exec said that Circle K was “top of mind” as Matador hunted for its c-store partner. “The team has been amazing to work with, providing us a speed-to-market opportunity to create national availability for Matador Energy,” Pruneda said. “This will be very important as Danny delivers 100s of millions of impressions to the brand, driving his energy-seeking fans into their stores.”
If Duncan is to be believed, the Circle K distro deal is only the latest step in a methodical expansion plan. When the Virginity Rocks founder announced Matador earlier this year, he explained that he hopes to bring the energy shots to 10,000 convenience stores before the end of the year.
