Supplement Brands Disrupt the Market When Leaving their Roots
Supplement brands across the US are looking for ways to increase their business. While the gyms and the specialty sports nutrition retailers are plentiful, there’s always room to grow. Many brands are turning to c-store in order to create a new channel for their growth. They might think this is a good idea, however, sometimes it comes back to bite them in the butt. Do I think it’s a smart move? Yes and no. Let me explain.
Supplement Brands Crushing Their Existing Retailers
As some of you know, I worked with a large supplement manufacturer for nearly a decade. I’ve seen many changes—some of which killed the specialty channel that I was a part of.
When brands decide to take existing products and move them into other markets it can completely disrupt all of the other channels. If any of you remember EAS, they were one of the huge supplement brands owned by Abbott Nutrition and had huge sales in the specialty sports nutrition channel. They then decided to go mass market in order to grow, and just about all of their specialty retailer dropped them for turning into sell-outs. They forgot about who actually helped them build their business and who supported them from day one by bringing in their product line.
While many supplement brands are still entering FDM (food, drug, and mass) markets, it leaves a bad taste in the mouths of current retailers. The buying power of these types of businesses is enormous compared to specialty sports nutrition retail stores, and because of this, the FDM retailers demand better pricing—which they get. Understand why sports nutrition stores drop these brands?
Let’s say you go to the gym and purchase a MET-Rx Big 100 Colossal bar for $3.00 (or more). If you drove home and on your way stopped by the grocery store, you could generally purchase that exact bar for under that price and could even find them on sale 2 for $4.00. See where I’m going with this?
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