Like many other health categories affected by the pandemic, drastic lifestyle shifts have created new priorities and opportunities in sports nutrition. How have existing trends accelerated over the past year? How is the whitespace in female nutrition and esports being addressed? What is the opportunity for personalised nutrition? Carla Hill reports.
COVID-19 has been both a challenge and an opportunity for the sports nutrition market. Closure of gyms, limitations on personal exercising during lockdowns, and restrictions on professional sport have led to many consumers being isolated and unable to train, slowing demand for supplementation.
Rick Miller, associate director of specialised nutrition at Mintel, points out that “sports venue closures have meant that traditional marketing channels and retail outlets for novel products were non-existent for a period.” Meanwhile, Dr Susan M. Kleiner, founder of High-Performance Nutrition, LLC, adds that “research labs were also closed, so new product development slowed from that angle."
On the other hand, the pandemic has increased awareness of the importance of overall health, leading to a general increase in interest of dietary supplements. Specifically, lockdown has been an opportunity for many consumers to focus on physical activity.
Dr Sara de Pelsmaeker, global business development at Rousselot Health & Nutrition, explains that many consumers are simultaneously trying to boost their health by adding exercise to their daily routine, often using online apps or streaming sessions at home. “With more and more people looking to achieve an active, healthy lifestyle, demand for high-quality sports nutrition solutions that can help consumers meet their fitness goals is rising globally. The undeniable link between health and physical activity has set the sports nutrition segment up for a CAGR of 8% over the next four years,” she adds.
Furthermore, Kleiner notes that with lab researchers closed in at home, there seemed to be a surge in digital research publications that may have otherwise taken longer to reach the manuscript phase. She notes: “The pandemic may have also allowed for a growth of subsets of the sports nutrition market to emerge in greater numbers, such as healthy ageing, mental focus and female-focused nutrition.”
We have witnessed considerable success stories of manufacturers, brands and consumers alike adapting to the circumstances of the pandemic. Brands have had to adapt by leveraging e-commerce and social networking e-commerce channels to their fullest, as Miller observes. “This means that brands that were operating in a mostly direct to consumer (DTC) fashion have continued to thrive, such as MyProtein, which partnered with Les Mills to offer online home workouts for consumers in lockdown.”
This report explores how the market is tackling the challenges caused by COVID-19, and details how many of these challenges are leading to opportunities within—and arguably dictating the future of—the sports nutrition market.