Audio slideshow: Talking wellness

SN's annual Whole Health survey of industry professionals illustrated demand for health and wellness products is alive and well at supermarkets. Whole Health editor Jon Springer discusses some findings from this exclusive research.

For more research findings: SN Whole Health Wellness checkup

Reporting by Jon Springer and video production by Jim Haines

Transcript:

For an industry struggling to post sales above inflation levels, one thing is clear: “Good for you” is “good for supermarkets.” In fact three out of every four retailers say that sales of health and wellness items increased during 2013, with more than 40% of them saying sales increased by 10% or more over the previous year.

I’m Jon Springer, Whole Health editor of Supermarket News. Those figures were revealed in SN’s annual Whole Health survey, which was taken online during the month of January.

In all, 82.4% of all poll respondents said health and wellness categories showed sales increases over the past 12 months; that’s up from 68% in 2012 and 66% in 2011.

Around 15% said those sales remained the same in 2013 and just 2.5% said sales decreased. Of those identifying themselves as retailers or wholesalers, 75% saw a sales increase in 2013, 20% said sales remained the same and 5% saw sales decline.

Powering the sales increase is growing consumer awareness of food as a means to a healthier lifestyle, which is triggering a greater supply of health and wellness products in stores, as well as higher sales of existing products, poll respondents said.

The leading wellness trend at supermarkets in 2013 was gluten-free, with 40% of retailers and wholesalers citing it as the top trend of the year, followed by organic (16%), whole grains (11.3%) and non-GMO and natural/organic private label.

Not surprisingly, more than half of conventional food retailers identified natural food stores as the strongest competitor for their health and wellness sales, followed by mass merchants, drugstores, club stores and dollar stores. What advantages do their competitors have over supermarkets? Most —more than 56% — said selection. Service, education materials and price were also a factor.