The Arthritis Foundation partnered with Blue Emu Maximum Arthritis Pain Relief Cream, NFI Consumer Products announced Monday.
“Since the launch of our Blue Emu Maximum Arthritis SKU, we have received many letters praising the help this product provides to customers with Arthritis," Benjamin Blessing, executive vice president sales and marketing for the Bristol, Tenn.-based company, said. "It just made sense that we partner with the Arthritis Foundation so we could help raise awareness for the pain many of our Blue Emu Maximum Arthritis customers deal with every day.”
The partnership continues through 2018 and features a specially marked Blue Emu Maximum Arthritis tube with the Arthritis Foundation logo. By partnering with the Arthritis Foundation, Blue Emu will help raise awareness about arthritis and support the Arthritis Foundation’s mission to help the more than 54 million Americans chart a winning course and make each day another stride towards a cure.
“At the Arthritis Foundation, we’re committed to helping people with arthritis live their best life, which includes managing and relieving their pain,” Ann McNamara, the Arthritis Foundation senior vice president of revenue strategy, said. “This new partnership with Blue Emu underscores our belief that people with arthritis should have a variety of treatment options when deciding how they control their pain.”
Blue Emu will ship the specially marked Maximum Arthritis product beginning in February 2018. The product is the No. 5 branded external analgesic, according to the latest IRI sales data, and it's growing fast. Sales for the 52 weeks ended Dec. 3 totaled $42 million across total U.S. multi-outlets, representing growth of 22.3% . That outpaces growth of 17.8% for the entire category, which reached $723.6 million in sales in that period.
And that growth is coming from a premium pain relief SKU. Blue Emu sells at a 2.3 x premium to the average pricepoint of $6.71 for the category with an average price per unit sold of $15.38. NFI sold 2.7 million units in the same period noted above, representing growth of 22.2%.