Children's remedies came out strong in an otherwise lackluster year for the cough-and-cold category in supermarket chains.
In much of the country, the milder than average winter took a bite out of sales and a toll on profits for adult cough-and-cold medications at grocery chains, with sales dropping 0.8% to $590 million, according to Nielsen North America, Schaumburg, Ill.
Still, the children's segment flourished.
"My impression is that cough-and-cold was a little on the weak side last year. But children's cough-and-cold is a strong segment in the category. It seems to me that children's products were markedly increased," said Dan Van Zant, buyer-supervisor of health and beauty care and general merchandise at Ray's Food Place, a 34-store chain in Brookings, Ore.
Most HBC buyers agree that cough-and-cold is a constant with young people every year and is a more dependable category for sales than its adult counterpart. "We always do well with the children's cough and cold and we do merchandise the products together," said Kim Botkin, HBC buyer for the 21-store Gerland's Food Fair, Houston.
Bill Mudge, HBC buyer for the 54-store Harvest Foods, Little Rock, Ark., observed that children's products were the biggest grossing sector of Harvest's cough-and-cold category last year. Mudge estimated that children's products accounted for between 35% and 40% of Harvest's overall cough-and-cold business.
Anchorage, Alaska, ran contrary to the national trend in cough and cold last year. There, at Carr Gottstein Foods, the cough-and-cold business held up well, said Gary Schloss, vice president of groceries and nonfood. "Children's was excellent for us. We did extremely well with cough-and-cold here last year. It was up at least 10% overall from the year before." The 10 top-selling children's products generated $60 million at food stores for the year ended Dec. 10, 1994, an 11% increase over the previous year, according to Nielsen North America. The $60 million figure reflects a steady climb in supermarket sales for children's cough-and-cold remedies over the last five years of Nielsen tracking. During that time, the category grew at an average rate of 10%.
This season children's products are expected to energize sales once again with the introduction of several new cough-and-cold products produced to meet children's specific needs.
Manufacturers are providing new and more targeted options for parents and caretakers who have to deal with stuffy noses, sneezes and the "I don't feel well!" from young consumers, too small to select their own remedies.
The first Children's Motrin from McNeil Consumer Products, Fort Washington, Pa., is expected to be on the market soon after getting approval earlier this year from the Federal Food and Drug Administration to be switched from prescription to over-the-counter.
Warner Wellcome, a division of Warner Lambert, Morris Plains, N.J., recently launched a grape-flavored Benadryl and is in the process of introducing a children's Sudafed. Warner Lambert, meanwhile, is debuting Halls junior cough drops.
Enthusiasm about these new products was reflected by Betsy Turgeon, HBC buyer for Big Y Foods, Springfield, Mass.
"I think the new products will do very well, especially the Children's Motrin, since it was a prescription and is now OTC," Turgeon said. "In general, the segment will do well because there is a lot of promotion behind the products."
Said Randall King, HBC buyer at Byrd Food Stores, Burlington, N.C., "I look forward to these products because they always improve segment performance. I've seen the Halls and the Sudafed, but I haven't seen the Children's Motrin yet. When we get all the new products in, then we'll decide what we're going to feature." Schloss of Carr Gottstein said, "Whenever a manufacturer wants to strongly promote a new entry on a national basis, we want to be the first ones out there with the product." For the upcoming cough-and-cold season, Carr Gottstein will feature endcap displays to promote its key items and increase promotional activity for its best sellers. It also is looking for additional space in the HBC aisle to give more visibility to children's and adult remedies, said Schloss.
Finding space to display new items is always a problem, he added. "If we bring in new stockkeeping units we have to drop others. It's survival of the fittest in the cough-and-cold category."
Botkin of Gerland's said that due to a mild winter in Houston, the cough-and-cold category did poorly overall. Gerland's will maintain the category with about 200 SKUs.
At the end of every 13-week cycle, the chain weeds out the "weak sisters" and brings in new products. "We will work with a number of major manufacturers, and will promote in our store circular several products in conjunction with the companies," Botkin said.
Larry Miller, HBC buyer for 30 John C. Groub Co. stores, based in Seymour, Ind., said, "We are talking to our suppliers about freestanding racks and displays to promote children's cough-and-cold, trying to generate some new business." Harvest Foods plans to continue its regular promotional program this season and will increase SKUs in the entire cough-and-cold category by about 5%, according to Mudge.
A source at a major southern California retailer said, "Overall in cough-and-cold, we had a bit of a tough time getting our season going because it took us a while to get our new schematics and new display programs implemented. But once we got going, we had a long season in southern California due to the rain."
Therefore, the source said, cough-and-cold seems to run right into allergy season, so the last two years have been very good in terms of sales. "We've been very timely getting new introductions onto the shelves and that's helped sales a lot," he added.
The retailer has about 600 SKUs in cough-and-cold, out of which about 15% are children's. Spartan Stores, Grand Rapids, Mich., does not separate the children's segment from adult cough-and-cold. Shari Steinbach, a spokeswoman for the chain, noted that Spartan, a wholesaler that services about 500 supermarkets, had a 6% overall increase in the category last year.
Spartan carries about 300 SKUs in cough-and-cold. "The 6% increase was stimulated by the introduction of some new items and also by the fact that it was a late cough-and-cold season with sales running from February to April," Steinbach said.
For the coming season, Spartan will be using many off-shelf promotions in the form of manufacturer's floor stands to promote sales. Also, Spartan encourages its stores to cross-merchandise vaporizers and other cough-and-cold-related health care items with its cough-and-cold remedies. The combination of need, a viable and growing market, and new solutions from manufacturers promises to make children's cough-and-cold a better and an easier season for all. Van Zant of Ray's Food Place remains optimistic about the entire cough-and-cold market. "Even though the entire cough-and-cold was a little slow last year, due to the weather, we feel that cough-and-cold will be up tremendously next year with a normal season. We are planning to increase our cough-and-cold category by about 25% for next season," he said.
Remedies on the Rise
Sales of children's remedies grew an average of 10% over the last five years, according to A.C. Nielsen, Schaumburg, Ill.
