Diet/weight loss

Drug Store News,  May 20, 2002  

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If it could be said that the diet category is a "heavyweight" business, then Metabolife 356 sales weighed in off the charts in 2001. The company more than doubled its sales last year--even though the product contains the much-maligned ephedra supplement that a lot of people seemed to want banned. However, consumers obviously are not shying away from the ingredient in spite of the bad press--and obviously neither are retailers.

Clearly, weight management is driving profits at the front end of the store. Looking over the top 10 biggest gainers across all front-store categories, two were OTC diet products-- namely, Metabolife and the Hollywood Celebrity Diet (no ephedra)--and only three OTC products made that list, which was composed mostly of big beauty care launches.

Looking ahead in the bars and liquids side of the business--the much larger piece of the business--category leader Slim Fast has ramped up its support for the overall category with the introduction of a 29-cent snack bar promotion to spark new trial.

The bar segment continues to grow both in terms of dollars and proliferation of offerings. Slim Fast added two new snack bar options as part of new weight-management regimen the company is endorsing, which factors healthy snacking into the program.

Going forward, it appears that this will continue to be a hot category for new product introductions, with several strong brands having expanded their product lines recently, including PowerBar, Clif Bar and Balance Bar. In addition, Celebrity Products earlier this year introduced a new line of Hollywood Celebrity Diet bars.

Top 10 brands in drug

Brand/segment                      $ sales (*)  % change

Metabolife 356--candy/tablets        $70.0        126.9%
Ultra Slim Fast--liquid/powder        46.8          6.6
Ensure--liquid/powder                 29.3         -4.2
Ensure Plus--liquid/powder            20.3         -6.7
Slim Fast--snack bars                 13.3         14.9
Metab O Lite--candy/tablets           13.3        -41.6
Hollywood Celebrity Diet--            13.0          N/A
liquid/powder
Boost--liquid/powder                  11.7          5.0
Dexatrim Natural -- candy/tablets     10.1        143.5
Stacker 2--candy/tablets               9.3      5,192.5

(*)Sales in millions
Top 10 gainers in drug

Brand/segment                     $              %    $ (*)
                                sales (*)   change   change

Metabolife 356--tablets         $70.0        126.9%   $39.2
Hollywood Celebrity Diet--       13.0           NA     13.0
liquid/powder
Stacker 2--tablets                9.3      5,192.5      9.1
Carb Solutions--snack bars        9.0      2,186.7      8.6
Xenadrine RFA 1--tablets          7.6        480.7      6.3
Ensure Glucerna--liquid/powder    4.0      9,018.0      4.0
Hollywood 48-HR Miracle--         3.5           NA      3.5
liquid/powder
Xetalean--tablets                 3.0           NA      3.0
Ultra Slim Fast--liquid/powder   46.8          6.6      2.9
Carb Solutions--liquid/powder     2.9      1,934.3      2.7

Source: Information Resources Inc. for the 52 weeks ended Dec. 30, 2001

(*)Sales in millions
Diet/weight loss scorecard

                              Total F/D/M (*)       Drug stores
Category/                      $          %chg.          $
segment                    sales (**)  vs. yr. ago   sales (**)

Weight loss/nutrition--   $957.4          15.1%     $206.1
liquids and powders
Weight loss--              332.3          39.0       195.2
candy and tablets
Snack bars (+)           1,357.3          12.9       106.6

                         Drug stores       Drug chains only
Category/                   %chg.          $         % chg.
segment                  vs. yr. ago   sales (**)  vs. yr. ago

Weight loss/nutrition--     15.7%     $175.3          20.0%
liquids and powders
Weight loss--               25.0       168.8          26.8
candy and tablets
Snack bars (+)              20.7        94.9          23.7

Source: Information Resources Inc. for the 52 weeks ended Dec. 30

(*)Total F/D/M excludes Wal-Mart

(**)Sales in millions

(+)IRI tracks snack bars along with granola bars, as part of the
consumables business.

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