“Creatine is skyrocketing,” said Robert Alber, vice president of human nutrition at the Alzchem Group. “New trends in sports and applications outside sports (e.g. female health, longevity, cognitive function) have led to quickly increasing demand [...] for our two brands Creapure and Creavitalis. This is limiting our possibilities to fully supply all new inquiries.”
To address shortages, Alzchem has invested €120 million to construct a new production facility in Germany, which is scheduled to come online late next year.
An expanding consumer base
As the only manufacturer of creatine monohydrate outside of Asia, Alzchem holds a strong position in the Western creatine market. Its flagship ingredient Creapure, which is manufactured in Trotsberg in Bavaria, is widely recognized as the highest purity creatine on the market, consistently guaranteeing a minimum of 99.9% purity.
This has made Creapure popular among elite athletes concerned with cross-contamination with banned substances, while broader interest in creatine’s potential health benefits—from women’s health to cognitive function and healthy aging—has expanded its appeal to mainstream consumers.
The shift has fueled a sharp rise in demand. Data from market research firm SPINS indicates that U.S creatine sales have grown by 60.6% over the past year.
“What really stands out about growth in creatine is how much the audience is expanding,” said Rahul Roy, senior insights manager at SPINS. “It remains highly relevant for performance-focused shoppers, but we’re also seeing it move further into women’s health and into multifunctional ‘Creatine+’ products that combine hydration, energy, muscle maintenance, recovery and healthy aging support.”
Powder drives the majority of the market, Roy added, and a recent SPINS consumer survey suggests that one in five shoppers now regularly purchase creatine. Younger shoppers are predominantly driving this trend.
“With innovation entering the space almost weekly, expansion into new consumer groups and more research emerging around additional benefits, including cognitive health, we do not expect momentum to slow anytime soon,” Roy said.
This rising demand is evident from Alzchem’s latest financial report, which shows that the company’s EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) grew from €62,046 in 2021 to €116.5 million in 2025. But while Alzchem has consistently maintained that creatine demand would rise, the intensity of the current boom has exceeded expectations.
“We’ve always said that creatine will grow in popularity, and we were preparing for that, but while we were expecting growth, we didn’t expect it to be this exponential,” Alber said. “We’ve just finished conducting a new market assessment with our team, and in the past two years, demand has tripled globally.”
The new manufacturing plant aims to close this supply gap, with the increasingly automated production facility expected to generate additional annual sales in the low hundreds of millions and deliver a corresponding boost to earnings.
In the meantime, Alzchem has had to turn down or delay new business opportunities to ensure that it can continue meeting orders from existing customers.
“We are giving back loyalty,” Alber said. “For all the customers who have been loyal to us for 10 or 20 years or more, we make sure that they get product, but for new businesses, we have to look at the strategic value […] so unfortunately, we are indeed unable to fulfil all inquiries coming in.”
New suppliers enter the market
As demand for creatine continues to surge, new suppliers—notably Qura Creatine BV and Jenerise—have brought high-purity creatine monohydrate to the global market in recent months.
Jenerise’s ‘precision-grade’ creatine monohydrate, marketed as Cr.01, reportedly delivers a 99.96% content assay with dicyandiamide (DCD) limited to 7 ppm. Co-founder Steve Jennings said the decision to launch a new creatine ingredient was largely driven by the rising consumer demand.
“The white space we saw was simple: we are going to hit a serious bottleneck in growth projections if the supply capacity alongside trust, quality and transparency aren’t handled with care,” he said. “We’ll say openly… we’re excited to see others recognizing this opportunity. You can’t grow a category at +25% CAGR and reach 116 million people in five years with a category of one branded creatine player. The more great brands take this seriously, the greater the impact on people’s health.”
Indeed, Alzchem’s two creatine products have long been the only major branded, trademarked versions of pure creatine monohydrate, in a market largely supplied by Chinese manufacturers.
Cr.01 is also produced in China, developed as a branded blend to meet Jenerise’s own stringent specifications.
Co‑founder Rachael Jennings said Jenerise is proud to work with a premier manufacturing partner in the region and is keen to challenge the misconception that creatine produced in China is inherently low quality.
“China manufactures 84% of the world’s creatine supply—writing that off is just short-sighted, irresponsible and doesn’t help consumers gain confidence in creatine,” she said. “You can find poor-quality anything in most countries, and it’s important to remember that, due to government restrictions, we can’t just open creatine manufacturing facilities wherever we want to. If it were easy, that’s what everyone would be doing.”
In addition, creatine manufactured in China is typically cheaper due to the economy of scale, mature supply chains and lower labor and energy costs, making it an attractive option for some businesses focused on price.
Alber said Alzchem’s creatine is roughly 30 to 40 cents more expensive per dose than creatine manufactured in China, with prices forecast to remain the same despite the current shortages.
But as the market continues to grow, Rachael Jennings expects that creatine manufacturing could be brought back to the United States, creating further competition for established suppliers such as Alzchem.
“We’re watching with excitement as multiple founders work to bring creatine manufacturing back to the USA,” she said. “If that happens, it changes the supply chain story in ways none of us can fully see yet and that’s great for everyone.”
