What’s new with Olly? Functional foods, new positioning for protein, and targeting travelers
Olly started as a gummy specialist, but this year it has added bars and probiotic quick-melt sticks to its portfolio.
Taryn Forrelli, VP of Product at Olly, is a panelist at our upcoming webinar
Join us to discuss the Beauty-from-Within supplements market in the US on Thursday, Sept. 20 at 1 pm EST.
You can register and submit a question ahead of time for the Q&A by clicking HERE.
It’s not just the three-year-old brand’s product portfolio that has expanded, its distribution has as well. Though it already has major national retailers like Target, CVS, and Kroger under its belt, it added the natural channel giant Whole Foods Market last month.
“Even though we’re not focused on the natural channel, [a deal with Whole Foods] was a nice validation that the way our gummies are formulated and the efficacy behind them—the clean label nature of the products—can resonate with a natural channel shopper consumer as well,” Taryn Forrelli, the company’s VP of product, told us.
As a private company, Olly is tight-lipped about its retail sales and revenue, but CNBC reported last October that Olly is on track to bring in roughly $80 million in retail sales.
For context, that’s more than many of the long-established multivitamin companies like Pharmavite (Nature’s Made and MegaFood) and Nature’s Way Products, which in 2016 made $70.2 million and $66.7 million in sales respectively, according to Statista.
Targeting the traveler
More in distribution news, Olly now has some trial travel pouches at Paradies stores, the convenience retailer found in travel hubs like airports and train stations.
“We are starting to reach customers in unexpected ways,” she said. “We have our sleep and our stress gummy travel pouches, and we think [Paradies] has great consumers with that need.”
Going into functional food
This year the company expanded its non-gummy product offering. In April, it launched plant protein bars.
How Olly started
We spoke with Brad Harrington, CEO and co-founder of Olly, about the company's origins and how it started its category conquest with cuteness. (Originally published 04/04/17)
“Our approach is to make plant protein really fun and indulgent,” Forrelli said. “It’s not a cookie, but the round shape is very unique within the category, and the flavors we launched with really signal that delicious that delicious experience to help people get more protein.”
It comes in chocolate coconut chip and zesty lemon crème.
Olly’s first foray outside of gummies was with plant protein powder, which it launched a couple of years ago, but it learned some valuable lessons along the way.
“We’ve actually simplified our approach to powders. We just launched what we call our plant-powered protein, which we moved away from benefit positioning in protein powder. When we initially launched in protein powders a couple of years ago, we had a lot of different benefits,” she said.
“But what we found is that, for your average protein user, they’re pretty much just looking for a great tasting protein,” she explained. “Plant-based, we think, is important and still on trend, but we believe in some cases you can actually confuse consumers if you put too much in one product.”
Taryn Forrelli, VP of Product at Olly, is a panelist at our upcoming FREE Beauty-from-Within Webinar
“Beauty-from-within is definitely a signature category for us,” Forrelli told us. It has the gummies Undeniable Beauty (with vitamins C, E, biotin, and keratin), Vibrant Skin (with hyaluronic acid, collagen, and sea buckthorn), and Flawless Complexion (A blend of antioxidants and minerals with botanicals) in this category.
She will be joined by Sarah Greenfield, director of education at HUM Nutrition; Dawna Venzon, Principal Research Scientist at Amway Nutrilite; David Tyrrell, Global Skincare Analyst at Mintel; and Simon Pitman, Senior Editor of CosmeticsDesign.com for a 60-minute roundtable discussion with a Q&A. Register and submit your questions today by CLICKING HERE.
