Focus On: Simply Good Foods emphasizes wellness through nutrition
Officials at Simply Good Foods, the parent company of the Atkins brand and its various diet plans, want retailers to know that they are doing the hard work for them. And, the result, if they get on board, will be an uptick in sales and profits from one of the hottest categories at retail these days.
With various diet plans, broad merchandising and marketing strategies, and a growing list of in-demand products, company officials are confident that their retail partners significantly can increase their bottom line by developing a dedicated section to low-carb and low-sugar foods, and stocking it with a broad assortment of Atkins products.
The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. Simply Good Foods, a publicly held company based in Denver, registered nearly $525 million in sales from its Atkins products last year, a dramatic and extremely respectable 20% increase over sales volume from the previous year. Shipment volume also increased by around 20% last year.
“This is an extremely vibrant category that is helping more and more consumers live a healthier lifestyle,” said Scott Parker, the company’s chief marketing officer. “I have been in the marketing business for many years, and I can tell you that Atkins is one of the strongest brands I have ever seen. It has a loyal and growing consumer base, all searching for great-tasting products in the low-carb and low-sugar categories.”
Retailers are chiming in, too. A number have made it clear that offering consumers a wider array of products — especially those considered in the better-for-you segment — can attract more consumers, as well as those shoppers with more disposable income. At the same time, many merchants are counting on suppliers like Atkins to pay more attention to educating consumers about the benefits of better-for-you lifestyles through advertising and with in-store vehicles.
Noting that Atkins is a leader in addressing two key issues — obesity and Type 2 diabetes — Parker, who has spent about 10 years with Atkins after a decade-long stint with Jenny Craig, said that about 10 million consumers are active members or in the Atkins database. Another 10 million are registered with the company and are always looking for more information about the category and the brand.
“We have studies that show that not only are we the category leaders, but we are also generating the most growth,” he said. “We bring new people into the category all the time. On average, our customers buy more than 100 servings of our product every year.”
He said about 10% of the domestic population has diabetes and as many as another 75 million people have pre-diabetes, and many of them realize that they have to change their lifestyle, including what they eat. “We have studies that show that an Atkins-type low-carb diet can significantly improve the blood sugar level of the user,” Parker said. “It can result in the remission of Type 2 diabetes.”
“We are doing all in our power to educate consumers and make it clear that it is critically important to them that we want to help people adopt different, healthier, lifestyles,” Parker said. “We are doing all we can to build awareness of the power of living a better lifestyle.”
Those efforts include a $20 million marketing campaign in television, digital and print that feature actor Rob Lowe as the company spokesperson. “He has lived a low-carb lifestyle for the last 24 years,” Parker said. “He is a perfect candidate for us to help us get that message across to consumers that living a healthy lifestyle can make a difference in how they feel and how they look.”
The company has nearly 50 different items in the shakes, bars and treat segments, offering users a variety of ways to get more fiber, protein, calcium and other vitamins into their systems without sugar. The company also licenses out a frozen food line. Parker said Atkins is looking to expand the assortment, adding such items as baked goods and savory snacks in the near future to satisfy consumer demand. Other products also will be added to the line in the near future, he said.
Today’s Atkins is the current generation of a company founded by Manhattan cardiologist Dr. Robert Atkins in the late 1990s. Parker said that Dr. Atkins had quite a few heart patients who were overweight, and he searched for nutritional approaches that could help them. He developed a diet plan that lowered cholesterol and often led to a dramatic loss in weight for those patients.
Word hit the street and, eventually, a writer at a major national magazine asked Dr. Atkins to help her lose weight with his program. That story made it into print and the revolution took off. The company was sold to Goldman Sachs in 2003, but just two years later, with changing diet demands by consumers and overexpansion by the company, it went bankrupt.
Private equity got involved, and leadership cut down on the number of products, getting rid of slow-moving merchandise in favor of the products with the best turn rates. “We really made a strong effort to rebuild this franchise,” Parker said. “By 2017, we were in good enough shape to take the company public. Now we are the Simply Good Foods Company, and we are doing very well in the marketplace.”
And, how does the future look? Parker is confident that more and more people will look to healthier products to make them feel better, look better and live better. That should lead to more household penetration and an opportunity to improve sales per buyer.
“Our future is extraordinary and I think any astute member of the trade will be seriously looking to expand their low-carb section to meet their customers demands and interests,” he said. “Consumers are looking for these products as an option for all meals — breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacking. Now, we just have to make them aware of what we offer and our many benefits.”