Healthspan and healthy aging
“This is one of the most exciting areas,” Dicker said. “We’ve been talking about healthspan now for a couple of years, and we’ve really seen it evolve to the point where this is probably the thing we’re seeing most on the show floor.”
The trend is manifesting in different ways, he said, from antioxidant support to ingredients like protein and creatine for muscle and bone health.
“Also, hormonal health is big, as well as beauty-from-within,” he said. “So now you are seeing healthspan broken out into the different components, and a lot of these things that were taken throughout the lifecycle have a new way to market and position them really gaining consumer sentiment that way.”
Weight management
“Targeted weight management products have been declining by mid-single digits for each of the past two years,” Dicker said. “That’s actually accelerated—to I believe like 12% year over year right now—and that’s in traditional things like fat burners, appetite suppressants.
“But there are a lot of bright spots, actually. So GLP-1 is everything people are talking about for weight loss,” he added.
The market appears to be fracturing into companion products for GLP-1 users and competitor products like berberine, which fall into that traditional weight management supplement space. Berberine continues to set records month after month, according to Dicker.
“And then the other side of it, which I’m more bullish on, is the companion products, and so that’s like pushing all these other wellness products, filling nutrient gaps,” he said.
“I thought multivitamins would have their best year in a while, and thankfully that’s so far proven [true]. If people look to fill nutrient gaps, multivitamins certainly have higher household penetration.”
Mind and mood
Linked to both healthspan and weight management, Dicker said another big trend that was very visible at SupplySide Global was around mind (cognitive) and mood (relaxation and sleep).
“We’re seeing it with nootropics and brain health in a lot of products focused on mental performance, different types of concentration,” he said. “And another thing is it’s finding a home in energy products as well, so both as an additive to caffeine products and also as an alternative.”
On relaxation and sleep, Dicker said the market is being driven by three ingredients: L-theanine, ashwagandha and magnesium.
Gut health
Dicker also noted that consumer interest in gut health continues to grow, with fiber playing an increasingly prominent role.
“It’s very interesting to note that people are trying to make the connection between gut health and all different areas of focus, and so this is one thing attached to healthspan, but also attached to all these other areas that we’re looking out for,” he said.
Dicker noted that SPINS recently performed a study on gut health and identified a split among the generations. Younger consumers prefer to get digestive health products from food and beverages, he said, while older consumers are over-indexing on supplements.
Watch the video for the full interview.
