New products meet demand for probiotics

NEW YORK — A recent survey commissioned by Dannon found that 68% of consumers believe certain probiotics help regulate the digestive system, yet one-third of Americans agree that they don’t get enough probiotics in their average daily diets.

That suggests an upside for an already hot category — sales of probiotics were up 16.2% across all channels to $232 million for the 52 weeks ended Oct. 28, according to SymphonyIRI Group data.

“Last year, we introduced our Digestive Health probiotic,” said Doug Jones, Pharmavite spokesman. It’s the third probiotic brand for Pharmavite, Jones said, and it is entering a space that is projected to reach $400 million in sales in the not-too-distant future.

In addition to Pharmavite’s new launch, both Pfizer and Bayer recently launched probiotic offerings under their respective supplement brands — ProNutrients Probiotic, from the makers of Centrum, and TruBiotics from the makers of One-a-Day. And Upsher-Smith Labs in June launched a probiotic specifically designed for women called Provella.

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