The vibe inside Hydro Flask’s Bend headquarters is exactly what one would expect from a company that makes water bottles for outdoor adventures.

Participation in pre-dawn backcountry ski outings is tracked on a blackboard. Many people work at a stand-up desk. Dogs are allowed. There’s a bottle-filling station near the front entrance, and employees sip their water or coffee out of brightly colored Hydro Flasks.

Hydro Flask kept its playful culture but delivered serious results after being acquired last March by the consumer-products company Helen of Troy. Now it’s being rewarded with further investment by the El Paso, Texas, parent company, which says Hydro Flask is one of its strongest brands.

“Hydro Flask is doing well,” Helen of Troy CEO Julien Mininberg said during a January conference call about third-quarter earnings. “You heard us talking about getting behind it, and we are building its future.”

Hydro Flask, which posted $34.3 million in sales during the three months that ended Nov. 30, exceeded the company’s expectations, Mininberg said. So some of that excess will be re-invested in brands that have the most sales potential, including Hydro Flask, Oxo household gadgets and Pur water filtration products.

This month, Hydro Flask announced hiring two new senior directors in marketing and product design, as well as four other managers. Hydro Flask has grown from 52 employees a year ago to 75 and expects to continue hiring at the same clip, spokesman Lucas Alberg said. Hydro Flask moved into a new headquarters in NorthWest Crossing last fall, and it could outgrow that building this year, Alberg said.

The challenge facing Hydro Flask, General Manager Scott Allan said, is to grow without sacrificing the brand’s premium status. “For us it’s not about that growth en masse.”

Top-selling water bottle

Hydro Flask began as the outdoor enthusiast’s answer to flimsy bottles that won’t keep water cold.

The vacuum-insulated stainless steel flask, produced in China, is the same technology found in coffee thermoses, but Hydro Flask came up with sleek designs that work for hiking, working out or just working.

Helen of Troy bought Hydro Flask for $210 million in cash. Stephanie Wissink, senior analyst at Piper Jaffray in Minneapolis, said that’s a relatively high price for a company of Hydro Flask’s size, but Helen of Troy probably sees the potential to expand Hydro Flask with new products, such as the food containers that debuted last year. Hydro Flask could also provide a gateway to the outdoor lifestyle market for other Helen of Troy brands, she said.

”You’re probably going to see a mash up at some point with Oxo,” Wissink said.

Already, Hydro Flask is way beyond water bottles. An entire line of bottles is designed to fit under home coffee brewing machines. There are food flasks, beer tumblers and mixed-drink tumblers. In the fall Hydro Flask will roll out a wine-size bottle with accompanying tumbler.

“The investment Helen has to make in Hydro Flask from a brand perspective is very small,” Wissink said. “It’s more about investing in the commercialization of the product. What Helen of Troy relies on the Hydro Flask team for is innovation — bringing new products forward.”

This year Hydro Flask became the top-selling water bottle at specialty outdoor stores such as REI and Dick’s Sporting Goods. It had already been the top-seller in vacuum-insulated, stainless steel products, Alberg said, but in 2016 it outsold even the thin plastic bottles that people carry on their bikes. That’s no easy task, considering Hydro Flask bottles cost about twice as much as plastic.

Hydro Flask purposely does not sell in big box stores, such as Target and Wal-Mart, Alberg said, because it wants to preserve its reputation as a premium brand. But it does sell in natural-food stores such as Whole Foods and Market of Choice.

Recent consumer research shows Hydro Flask is “like a trusted sidekick,” right there with wallet and keys as one heads out the door for the day, said Yiorgos Makris, director of marketing. Hydro Flask has a strong relationship with its “fan base,” he said, and that’s mainly three categories of people: outdoor enthusiasts; fitness enthusiasts, who work out in a gym or run outside; and people who want a “balanced” life, meaning they do yoga, or they’re very conscientious about nutrition.

Hydro Flask is looking to deepen the relationship with those core audiences and bring more people in, Makris said. Already selling in Europe, Hydro Flask recently started distributing in Japan. Makris said Hydro Flask is also looking to build brand awareness in parts of the U.S., including the South.

Allan said Hydro Flask is keeping a close eye on competitors Yeti, another outdoor-oriented brand, and S’well, but won’t follow their strategies blindly. “We want to do it our way,” he said.

Hydro Flask is dazzling its new parent company on multiple fronts. Asked during the January conference call about the food flasks, Mininberg gushed: “It’s amazing how well they work. When you put hot soup or ice cream … and you come back hours later and you open it, you will have hot soup or ice cream, not mush, and from the ice cream standpoint, it’s really remarkable.”

Mininberg said other food containers are in the new-product pipeline.

Hydro Flask has also impressed the parent company with its sales methods. Last year it launched the MyHydro site, where consumers can choose from seven sizes of bottles in 14 colors, two lid types and four accessories. Mininberg told investors on a conference call that’s an example of the potential in online sales. Hydro Flask has even managed to grow its direct-to-consumer, online sales faster than sales through Amazon.com, he said.

One reason the honchos are talking up Hydro Flask is that Helen of Troy’s overall sales are down, Wissink said. Helen of Troy, which owns the Revlon, Pro Beauty Tools, Pert and Bed Head brands, started in the beauty business, but sales in that category are projected to decline.

So while Helen of Troy is investing in Hydro Flask now, the Bend division’s future growth could go toward supporting a brand that’s flagging.

“They would take those dollars and put them toward another brand,” she said. “That’s how these portfolio companies are managed.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7860, kmclaughlin@bendbulletin.com

Hydro Flask kept its playful culture but delivered serious results after being acquired last March by the consumer-products company Helen of Troy. Now it’s being rewarded with further investment by the El Paso, Texas, parent company, which says Hydro Flask is one of its strongest brands.