By Daniel Fabricant, PhD, Executive Director and CEO, Natural Products Association
In the year since I’ve been back in the natural products industry, I’ve made it my mission to turn the tide on the political apathy that has plagued the industry in recent years, and to make it clear that whether you like it or not, if you’re in this...
April 8, 14:00 CET: Experts debate hot issues in NutraIngredients omega-3 forum
Are omega-3 fisheries really under threat? How many functional foods have cracked omega-3 blockbuster status? How is the sector recovering from the ‘Brasky effect’? How are developing markets developing? How is the latest research influencing regulation?...
As the middle class continues to grow in China, penetrating this market becomes a priority for US brands. Negotiating that bewildering process may have gotten a little easier with the launch of a web portal whose express purpose is to peddle ‘Made in...
After four separate rounds of testing, supplement retailing giant GNC has announced its Herbal Plus product line meet all requirements for safety, quality, purity and proper labeling.
Growth in organic, raw, non-GMO and allergy-free products is outpacing rest of business
Sprouts Farmers Market is exploring online delivery options, but hasn’t found a model that works, yet, chief financial officer Amin Maredia said this week.
Retailers not involved in the NY Attorney General’s investigation into the quality and standard of botanical supplements are also feeling an impact, albeit slight, says Tony Truesdale, CEO of Vitamin Shoppe.
GNC Holdings has responded to the NY Attorney General’s actions with full and robust responses to every question raised in the cease and desist letter, including original test results and the results of retesting that was performed on the product lots...
The overall sleep aid category is growing at an eye-watering 27% and is expected to hit $732 million in 2018, but natural products and dietary supplements only occupy a small portion of the market. NutraIngredients-USA explores the challenges and opportunities...
More consumers are seeking healthy foods and beverages at convenience stores, creating an opportunity in a previously often overlooked channel for manufacturers of these products to expand their reach, according to new market research from Technomic.
Non GMO positioning is becoming an ever hotter topic within the supplement realm. NutraIngredients-USA will examine the topic in an online forum on Feb. 26 with an expert panel drawn from trade organizations, manufacturers and retailers.
Supplement retailing giant GNC is teaming up with American Media, Inc. for an exclusive, multi-year ecommerce partnership on Shape, Men’s Fitness, Fit Pregnancy, Natural Health, Muscle & Fitness, Flex, and Muscle & Fitness Hers websites.
As we enter the twilight days of 2014 the editors of NutraIngredients-USA become a reflective bunch. A lot of things happened this year, and here is our top 10 of most important events of 2014…
Fresh ingredient and recipe delivery service Blue Apron helps start-ups and small ingredient suppliers build brand awareness and consumer demand by introducing at home cooks to new products and taking the guess work out of the prep.
Personalization is the new ideal of dietary supplement marketing. While many experts base this idea on the potential of genomic information, Walgreens has gone the other direction and is basing the idea on actual people.
Two ends of the supplement marketplace—one highly committed and the other far less so—have an outsized role in driving the continued growth of dietary supplements. And for these and the other segments of consumers, health care practitioners are still...
Supplement retailing giant Vitamin Shoppe has reported a 3.1% increase in comparable retail store sales and a 10.5% increase in e-commerce sales, but despite this positive performance 'comparable sales were at the low end of our expectations',...
Supplements retailing giant GNC is undertaking a ‘reset’ with an increased focus on natural, organic and vegan-vegetarian consumers, while also boosting its plant protein offerings, says the company’s new CEO.
Desires to align product portfolios with messages of corporate social responsibility are driving some of the M&A activity regarding organic and natural companies, says Euromonitor International.
Supplement retailing giant GNC has hired Jeffrey Hennion as its new Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing and eCommerce Officer, and has also appointed Daisy Vanderlinde joins as Chief Human Resource Officer.
The restructuring of Twinlab is complete, as the entity Twinlab Consolidation Corporation has concluded its first deal, the acquisition of Twinlab Corporation itself.
FitLife Brands, maker of nutritional supplements sold under several brand names, has bucked the headwinds that have afflicted the dietary supplement sector in recent quarters, notching an 18% rise in revenue in its second quarter 2014 results. The company...
Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, a regional health food store chain based in Colorado, reported strong results in its third quarter of fiscal 2014 that included expanding the company’s footprint.
Vitamin Shoppe, Inc. posted increased sales in the second quarter of its 2014 fiscal year, in line with analysts’ expectations. The company fell slightly short of earnings expectations as the company dealt with softness that has affected the supplement...
The past year has been a tough one for the sales of dietary supplements, and retailing giant GNC is not immune to those trends. In the company’s second quarter 2014 earnings GNC reported declines in both overall revenue and net income year-over-year.
Activist investor William Ackman’s much publicized webinar on Herbalife, which he characterized as a ‘death blow’ to the company, turned out to be anything but. The company’s share price rose 25% yesterday, much of that rise coming during Ackman’s exhaustive...
The Vitamin Shoppe announced this week that it plans to have all of the labels on products sold in its stores to be submitted to the National Institutes of Health Dietary Supplement Label Database. The move was welcomed by Steve Mister, president and...
Kroger’s purchase of online retailing giant Vitacost.com is part of ongoing retailing consolidation in the dietary supplements and natural foods business. But rather than viewing this process with alarm, as is often the case with smaller brick-and-mortar...
The Kroger Co. has acquired all outstanding shares of Vitacost.com for approximately $280 million, with the grocery giant seeing Vitacost.com’s healthy living products as complementary to it fast-growing natural foods business.
While the percentage of groceries purchased online remains significantly below that of books, TVs and pretty much everything else, e-commerce sales of food and consumables (food, beverage plus home/personal care items bought via online grocers) rose 13.7%...
Consulting firm Ingredient Identity is offering a way to help companies manage their social media platforms to avoid crossing regulatory boundaries. The new subscription service can help flag posts that make disease claims that could bring unwanted attention...
Downturns in the retail of fish oil and multivitamin supplements should turn around as we ‘cycle’ though the negative media, said Tony Truesdale, CEO of Vitamin Shoppe.
Store sales at GNC’s domestic company-owned locations decreased by 0.7%, while franchise locations saw decreases of 3.2% in the first quarter of 2014, with the company’s CEO attributing the decline to a combination of bad weather in January and February...
If you want to see what success looks like in US grocery retailing, look no further than Trader Joe’s. Its unique combination of affordable prices, innovative private label items and gourmet, organic, and natural foods have helped drive sales per square...
The Natural Products Association (NPA) announced this morning that Daniel Fabricant, PhD, will succeed John Shaw as chief executive officer of the organization effective immediately. Shaw had tendered his resignation several days ago, the organization...
Having a social media strategy as a foundational piece of a business can yield huge dividends in growth, as Lincoln, Neb. startup Bulu Box has demonstrated. Founded by couple Stephanie and Paul Jarrett, Bulu Box uses a sampling method pioneered elsewhere...
Amway, the world’s largest network marketing company, has broken ground on a $25 million manufacturing facility in Bihn Duong, Vietnam, the company announced recently. The facility will be devoted to the production of the company’s Nutrilite brand of...
Supplement retailer Vitamin Shoppe is continuing to expand its private label offerings having launched more than 60 private label products in 2013, and the latest – Next Step – is said to be its most ambitious launch to-date.
Severe and unusual winter weather has affected the entire US economy. And it has affected supplements retailing giant GNC, too; in its Q4 2013 earnings posted yesterday the company cited winter storms as the prime factor in missing its projections despite...
Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage has reported a 26% net sales increase year-over-year in its first quarter of fiscal 2014. The company also recorded 10.6% comparable store sales growth, maintaining momentum in this key metric.
Nutraceutical International Corporation will continue to align itself with a growing list of dietary supplement manufacturers and ingredient suppliers in seeking out acquisition opportunities to grow the business, chairman and CEO Bill Gay said.
Growth in private label and one of its recently launched MyTrition products already a top selling product, Vitamin Shoppe is planning more new product introductions by year end, said the company’s CEO.
A dossier of scientific data that convinced Health Canada and Intertek Cantox of the safety of bitter orange extract, synephrine, has been sent to Finnish authorities which recently banned weight loss products containing the stimulant, along with caffeine.
The membership of the Natural Products Association rejected a move to expand retail membership beyond traditional health food stores. But it passed another bylaw change that might make future adjustments of the organization’s bylaws easier.
Supplement manufacturer Doctor’s Best learned some surprising things through the first six months of its front-of-label QR code education initiative. While it was aimed at consumers, it’s the retailers who seem to use it the most.
Dutch authorities have issued a warning against a US fat burning food supplement called Dexaprine after 11 adverse reactions including hospitalisations and severe heart problems.
Herbal dietary supplement sales increased 5.5% in the United States in 2012 according a new report in HerbalGram, the publication of the American Botanical Council.
Sales of organic products rose 13% to $11.2bn in the year to July 6 in the US retail market, with the highest growth found in shelf-stable meats, poultry and seafood (+61%); followed by baby food (+34%); and shelf-stable functional beverages (+33%); according...
Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, Inc., a major dietary supplements and organic foods retailer, has reported 30.5% sales growth and double digit comparable store sales growth in the third quarter of fiscal 2013.
