Special Reports Archive

Nature’s Bounty launched a line of aromatherapy products under the Nature’s Origin banner. The line includes an essential oils kit designed to attract new shoppers, as well as a “Travel with Scents” that has four scents packaged in a branded tin and diffused in easy-to-carry inhalers. The lineup features three diffusers, including one that can be in continuous operation for up to eight hours and fill a room of up to 400 sq. ft. with the optimal scent. A second diffuser can be in continuous operation for up to four hours for a suggested room size of 50 sq. ft.

Overall, sales of multivitamins are relatively flat — 0.2% annual growth toward a $1.8 billion base. But according to the latest consumer survey from the Council for Responsible Nutrition, 3-in-4 adults use a multivitamin. So, have sales of multivitamins plateaued, or are there pockets of opportunity out there?

The proof a category is hot can be measured not only by the number of players looking to participate in that category, but also by the heft of new entrants. Such is the case with aromatherapy, and this year, a major player in the VMS space is “getting their sniff on.”

Drug Store News spoke with Troy Talarico, VP sales Fusion Diet Systems, regarding the consumer diet aid trend favoring meal-replacement offerings over quick-fix solutions.

(Click here to view the full VMS Report.)

DSN: What are the factors driving the growth in sales of diet aids and meal-replacement solutions across retail pharmacy?

Nutrex is introducing a new pre-workout product called OutLift that is differentiated by having no proprietary blend (full disclosure ingredients) and contains no “banned” ingredients. Fully-disclosed labels means the formulation of the product isn’t hiding within a proprietary ingredient. “It’s 10 clinically-dosed ingredients,” said Raul Gil, Nutrex research VP sales.

A key trend captured by the 2016 TABS Analytics Vitamin and Minerals Supplements study is the continued decline in the number of heavy buyers (those who purchased more than three types of vitamins in a year). Heavy-buyer penetration peaked at 40% in 2012, but in 2016, heavy-buyer penetration dropped to 30%.

(Click here to view the full VMS Report.)

Perhaps because of their parents and grandparents, millennials are taking a shine to the use of dietary supplements as a strategy toward being healthier, according to the 2016 Consumer Survey on Dietary Supplements conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs on behalf of the Council for Responsible Nutrition. Overall, as many as 170 million U.S. adults, or 71% of the population, take dietary supplements.