Got fiber?
It seems that more Americans are getting the message; fiber’s good for them and they just don’t get enough of it in their diets.
Sales of the top three fiber supplements—Metamucil, Benefiber and Citrucel—totaled $106.9 million across food, drug and mass (minus Wal-Mart) outlets for the 52 weeks ended Sept. 7, representing growth of 5.2 percent, according to Information Resources Inc.
And it’s not just the laxative benefits that are driving sales of fiber supplements; there have been quite a few promotional messages around the health benefits of fiber, beyond its use as a natural laxative. The American Heart Association, for example, cited the cholesterol-lowering benefits of fiber.
Kellogg in the past year has parlayed its success in promoting heart-healthy breakfast foods into a line of good-for-you meal-replacement bars. Most of those bars are positioned in the meal-replacement section of pharmacy operators, but at Wal-Mart, some of those fiber-fortified bars are being sold in the digestives aisle alongside Meta-mucil, Benefiber and Citrucel.
And GlaxoSmithKline recently sponsored a sampling event at select Wal-Marts in which the company’s Citrucel fiber supplements were offered to customers walking past Wal-Mart’s health-and-wellness area along with some literature on fiber health. GlaxoSmithKline was promoting its new fiber soft chew, a new delivery system for fiber supplements, available in chocolate and caramel flavors, according to the company. GlaxoSmithKline suggested consumers take four fiber chews per sitting.
Novartis Consumer Health also recently introduced a new delivery system to the fiber category—a stick-pack format, making it more convenient for on-the-go consumers to take up to 3 grams of fiber with their bottled water. The new fiber stick pack, part of the Benefiber family of products, is flavored cherry-pomegranate.