Mixed fortunes for US supplement industry
there was a more positive performance from minerals, non-herbals
and weight control products, according to sales tracker Information
Resources (IRI).
Sales of vitamins and herbs in the US dropped during 2001, but there was a more positive performance from minerals, non-herbals and weight control products, according to sales tracker Information Resources (IRI).
The organisation tracked sales of all supplements in the supermarket, pharmacy and mass merchandising channels (excluding Wal-Mart) throughout 2001, and calculated that the total market grew by a tiny 0.8 per cent compared to the year before.
According to IRI, sales of herbal products were down 21 per cent to $337.2 million (€386.8m) during the year, although there were good increases for certain products such as black cohosh root (up 106 per cent to $9.6 million), multi-herbs (up 68 per cent to $6.3 million) and milk thistle (up 12.8 per cent to $7.0 million).
However, there were marked declines for St John's Wort (down 40.5 per cent to $24.1 million), Ginkgo biloba (down 35.3 per cent to $46.1 million) and ginseng (down 32.8 per cent to $30.9 million).
As far as minerals were concerned, there was slight growth of 0.8 percent to $375.7 million, with multi-minerals (up 26.7 per cent to $5.2 million), iron (up 4.6 per cent to $50.3 million) and calcium (up 1.4 percent to $265.4 million) driving the growth.
Total sales for non herbal products were up 7.9 per cent to $470.5 million, with flaxseed products (up 46.4 per cent to $8.7 million), fish oil/fatty acid products (up 21.2 per cent to $13.6 million), co-enzymes and CoQ10 products (up 12.6 per cent to $31.8 million) and acidophilus products (up 10.7 per cent to $10.6 million) proving the most popular. However, there were declines for products made from bee pollen (down 28.4 per cent to $1 million) and gelatin (down 12.3 per cent to $14.1 million).
Sales of letter vitamins were down 9.1 per cent to $498.6 million, although there were increases in sales of vitamin B (up 0.5 percent to $63 million) and vitamin K (up 31.9 percent to $14,290). Total multi-vitamin sales were up 0.1 per cent to $640.2 million, with the biggest increases seen in antioxidants (up 19.1 per cent to $13.9 million) and adult multivitamins (up 1.1 per cent to $520.7 million).
As for weight control products, sales rose 14.8 per cent to $954.2 million in the liquid/powder category, led by Slim Fast which garnered a 41.4 per cent share of the market.
