Sporting an up trend

The market for sports nutrition looks good. All categories grouped by Drug Store News in this space — nutrition and energy bars, energy shots and ready-to-drink protein shakes — currently are trending up significantly. Taken together, sales of these three categories are up 15.8% to $2.2 billion for the year.


Abbott has reinvigorated its RTD shake line with the new PediaSure SideKicks line extension for children, to help moms ensure their children are getting the nutrition they need. And the Ensure brand has had success targeting adult populations with new products like Ensure Muscle Health, an RTD solution that contains 13 g of protein.


Meal replacement bars continue to sell well. General Mills told NACDS Marketplace executives earlier this year that the company has increased its consumer education around fiber intake, noting that more pharmacies are utilizing nutritionists to help patients better navigate the food aisles.


And energy shots, a category more or less crafted out of Living Essentials’ 5 Hour Energy brand, may have some legs in the coming year as well. There were a number of vendors, iChill Beverages for example, looking to provide the yin to 5 Hour’s yang with relaxation shot introductions.

The article above is part of the DSN Category Review Series. For the complete Sports Nutrition Buy-In Report, including extensive charts, data and more analysis, click here.