Sales rise at Naturade

Naturade​, a producer of soy protein products designed to boost heart health, saw sales grow by 9 per cent in 2001, following a strong performance from the Total Soy brand.

The 9 per cent rise in net sales to $17.1 million (€19.4m) included a 31.8 per cent increase in repeat purchases, especially for Total Soy. This excludes growth due to added distribution and due to a channel shift in which certain mass customers switched to direct purchases from Naturade rather than purchasing from health food distributors, the company said.

Naturade said it had maintained its strong health food sales base in protein powders and aloe vera products during 2001, while at the same time expanding its mass market business. Health food stores represented 49.1 per cent of 2001 Naturade volume and core health food net sales were up 1.2 per cent compared to 2000. This gain was calculated after factoring out the channel shift from health food distributors to direct mass accounts and sales lost because of the company's decision to discontinue lower volume products.

It was not all good news, however. The company posted a net loss of $2.7 million because of the decision to invest heavily in new mass market distribution. However, the growth potential of soy protein generated by the FDA approval of a health claim that '25 grams of soy protein daily, in a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease' was seen as more than reason enough to justify this investment.

Naturade claimed to be the number one supplier of natural soy protein powders to supermarket, drug store and mass merchandiser outlets with a 37.7 per cent share of the market.

A number of financial transactions during 2001 - principally the conversion of shares and warrants and the extension of a line of credit, has enabled the company to raise funds for the continued expansion of the Total Soy brand, and Naturade remained confident that further significant growth could be achieved throughout 2002.