Q&A: Element Nutrition CEO discusses innovation in adult nutrition

Drug Store News: Tell us about Element Nutrition. What is your mission?
Stuart Lowther: At Element Nutrition, we believe quality of life is valuable and maintaining your health is paramount to living life to the fullest. We believe nutrition is the key element to optimal health. Our mission is to provide you with the nutritional tools you need to enhance your health. We deliver innovative, science-based products that provide quality nutrition and empower you to live stronger longer.

Maintaining our health allows us all to live a better, active and more fulfilling life. In our fast-paced world, this can be a challenge for all of us. Therefore, we are dedicated to providing nutritional solutions that support you as you take on the challenges of life on a daily basis.

DSN: Proper nutrition is a big part of consumer thinking these days. How is that impacting the mass retail industry?
SL: To aging demographics, key nutrients and daily maintenance have become more prevalent for overall health. The aging population wants to maximize their health and slow the aging process as much as possible. They are looking to nutrition as the key driver that will allow them to achieve their goal. Additionally, the 50-plus age demographic is the fastest-growing market, adding 16 million individuals over the next decade. They own the majority of financial assets, accounting for 63% of financial assets in North America. Their assets have 197% greater value than other groups, which translates into spending power. Therefore, retailers need to be in tune with new trends and demands of this demographic.

DSN: What do retailers need to do to maximize sales?
SL: The 50-plus demographic is an underserved market with only 10% of marketing dollars targeted toward them. This is a large untapped market expected to grow even further. It is pretty clear that retailers can maximize sales by focusing on this core demographic across all areas of nutrition.

DSN: How are you helping them in this regard?
SL: We are helping in a number of ways. First off, we have launched our new Rejuvenate Muscle Health into the North American market. Rejuvenate Muscle Health is a patented formula with over 25 peer-reviewed clinical studies supporting its formulation and efficacy. It is clinically proven to help your body rebuild muscle and can therefore play a key role in everyone’s daily diet to help prevent and/or slow muscle loss due to aging.

Secondly, we have recently gone to production with our Rejuvenate ready-to-
drink product. It is 15 g of organic plant protein combined with our patented Rejuvenate formula. No added sugar, no artificial sweeteners or colors. It is an extremely clean label and only 100 calories. So we are bringing innovation to the adult nutrition category and supplying products that consumers are looking for. We launched this on Amazon in February and went on shelf with 1,000 Food Lions stores in the southeast. This June, we are launching across the nation with Walgreens.

DSN: Tell us what is new or coming down the pike from you these days?
SL: As I mentioned, we are in the middle of launching our new Rejuvenate Muscle Health organic protein ready to drink that is clean label, gluten-free, sugar-free and only 100 calories. We have a significant pipeline of new innovative products in development, both in the beverage sector and also other areas of the VMS and adult nutrition category. Our goal is to innovate wherever possible and bring that innovation to our customers by partnering with our retailers. Rejuvenate will be the go-to brand for all the nutrition needs of the 40-plus demographic.