the Food Supplement Market | United Kingdom

2.1 Profile Analysis: The British Consumer

This section’s focus is to highlight and understand the consumer behavior patterns in the U.K. Moreover, it breaks down which products are the most sought after. Finally, it looks at trends which have, and will, shape the U.K. market for Food Supplements.
Weak Per Capita Expenditures in a ...

2.2 Rising demand for new products: veganism and CBD

An increasingly old population could drive demand for supplements

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Obesity will Increase Demand for Health-related Supplements
Since ****, the fraction of the population in the U.K. who are overweight or obese has increased from **% to **% [***]. NHS projected that this figure will increase and could reach **% by ****. Consequently, the demand for ...

3.1 Value chain of the market

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3.2 Overview of main competitors and brands

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In the category Vitamins and Dietary Supplements, Viabotics holds the largest company market share (***). The market is dominated by large conglomerates, such as Procter & Gamble and Bayer who operate in several markets and industries.
The top four largest companies make up **% of the market, consequently showing that although the market ...

3.3 Strongly Regulated Production Processes

The development of food supplements is closely controlled by quality and safety requirements, which ensure products are of high quality and durability. In particular, Regulation ***/****/EC, specifies the general hygiene provisions for food business operators.  The following diagram illustrates the entire manufacturing process of food supplements.
The Food Supplement Regulatory Process ...

3.4 Distribution: Store-based retailing vs non-store-based retailing

Store-Based Retailing

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Food supplements are to a smaller degree sold in stores. As the graph above depicts, for all three retail segments, sales through physical stores decreased. Health and Beauty Specialist Retailers, which include chemist/pharmacies, drugstores, optical goods stores etc., saw a marginal decline from **.*% to **.*%.
Meanwhile, Traditional Grocery ...

4.1 Products on the market

Products on the market include are categorized based on sales, content, and end goal. Consequently, there are five larger segments:


The Guardian reports of a survey concluding that “memberships, vitamins and supplements, prescriptions, exercise classes and healthy food will cost the average Briton £**,*** over a lifetime”. Moreover, respondents in the survey ...

4.2 Selling prices: General supplements & Vitamin supplements

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Vitamin supplements
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4.3 Supply trend: botanical supplements

Botanical trend
In ****, Europe’s highest share of sales belonged to Botanical Supplements. [***] The leading categories consisted of vitamins, proteins, amino acids, enzymes and botanical supplements. Moreover, the same source reports that new product launches were correlated to trends; Nootropics, Collagen, Mushrooms, Zinc, and Hemp were included in this scope of ...

5.1 Current regulation

United Kingdom’s legislation on food supplements is covered by the Food Safety Act ****, the European Commission’s Food Supplements Directive, Food Information for Consumers Regulation, and finally Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation. [***]. Below follows a breakdown of each legislation.
The Food Safety Act **** is the national legislation regarding food. The ...

5.2 Future regulation: the slight distinction between food and medicine

The distinction between whether to label food supplements as food or medicine remains unclear from a regulatory perspective. For example, a product categorized as food in the U.K. could be labelled differently in the U.S. Sales remain dependent on the ability of firms to navigate through these regulatory ...

6.1 Segmentation

• Vitabiotics
• Nature’s Bounty Co
• Procter & Gamble Co Ltd
• Holland & Barrett Retail Ltd
• Boots
• Healthspan
• Solgar