American households - and eating habits - are changing, and food marketers need to catch up, says the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) in its 2015 US Grocery Shopper Trends report. Here are 10 things that caught our eye...
In a climate of soft dietary supplement sales Vitamin Shoppe endured what CEO Colin Watts called a “difficult quarter.” The company is embarking on a new course that will see it pivot more toward functional foods and personal care, he said.
As Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage nears its 60th birthday, the company is nearing another milestone, too; the company is slated to open its 100th store this month, CEO Kemper Isley said.
GNC Holdings, whose revenue has been under pressure in recent quarters, delivered another mildly disappointing report for its second quarter 2015 earnings. Same-store sales were down and manufacturing revenues were off, with the company’s franchise store...
Distributors across the dietary supplement and natural products businesses are requiring higher liability insurance limits for their suppliers. That’s the bad news; the good news is that the insurance is cheaper than it has been in a while, said an independent...
US Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) has sent letters to the Food and Drug Administration and 15 major retailers after launching an inquiry into products, regulations, and retailers in the dietary supplement industry that specifically market to seniors...
Executives are aggressively defending Whole Foods Market’s high prices, even as they tout the potential cost-savings for the consumers at the retailer’s newly named value chain.
Stepping beyond a company's in-house expertise and hooking into a provider of ingredient- and product-specific data can make R&D into more of a science and less of an art. Experts at Bulu Box, which generates data from its subscription-based...
In another confirmation of the transitory nature of the NYAG affair, Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage reported stable growth in supplement sales in its half-year earnings results in which the dietary supplement and organic foods retailer saw overall...
Unable to shake its reputation for being notoriously expensive, Whole Foods Market is changing tack to appeal to less affluent millennials with the launch of a new value-focused chain.
‘There is plenty of innovation going on in dietary supplements’ and the NY Attorney General’s investigation is ‘a wake-up call for the retailers’, according to participants of NutraIngredients-USA retailer forum.
It's your last chance to register for the NutraIngredients-USA View from the Aisles Forum, with the hour long discussion to be broadcast tomorrow at 11am EDT - 10am CDT – 8am PDT.
Lower consumer engagement and an inadequate assessment of the impact of prior-year promotions, but not the NY AG’s probe, are responsible for a ‘disappointing’ Q1, said GNC’s CEO Mike Archbold.
By Daniel Fabricant, PhD, Executive Director and CEO, Natural Products Association
The digital marketplace, participating in advocacy efforts, and why membership of a trade association is important: In this guest article, Daniel Fabricant, PhD, Executive Director and CEO, Natural Products Association gives his views on the retail landscape...
Special Edition: View from the aisles: The retailers' perspective
The actions of the New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman have yet to filter down in a big way to the kind of questions retailers are getting from their customers on supplements. But business executives contacted by NutraIngredients-USA said that...
Special Edition: View from the aisles: The retailers’ perspective
The first retailer standard for dietary supplements in the Global Retailer and Manufacturer Alliance (GRMA) should be available this year, giving retailers a single standard and auditing program to help reduce audits and costs while strengthening safety,...
Special Edition: View from the aisles: The retailers’ perspective
Ingredient suppliers can spend a lot of time and money differentiating their products but how do they communicate with the consumer, what issues are important to retailers, and is the investment worth it?
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.
