Dietary supplements demanding a place in retail

As a result of increased stress in our lives and our increasingly polluted environment, dietary supplements are becoming more important for consumers than ever before. – Nowadays, what we read and hear everywhere is that our accelerated lifestyle results in unhealthy diet, with little or no fresh fruits and vegetables – says Andrea Kiss, marketing director of Maspex-Olympos Kft. – We also need to remember that the pollution of our environment is having an adverse effect on the ingredients of our food – adds Dr. Wang Fan, managing director of Oriental Herbs Kft. Dietary supplements can be sold through all distribution channels, which means these are quite easy for health conscious consumers to find. – With increasing health consciousness, dietary supplements will become another item on our shopping lists, which will be used for prevention as well as a cure – says Attila Korfanti, sales director from the food division of Naturland Kft. According to László Révész, managing director of Naturprodukt Kft, MLM schemes are very successful in Hungary, which is a major obstacle for the development of retail sales. The primary target group for dietary supplements is composed of young adults, owing to their lifestyle. For university students, being able to cope with exams is the number one priority. This is why Plusssz extractive tablets have been developed with a combination of minerals and vitamins and other supplements which enhance mental activity. In the opinion of Dr. Wang Fan, the majority of their customers are ladies. Dietary supplements are not recommended for children under 3, but the number of products intended for children like the Plusssz multivitamin chewing tablet is growing. Dietary supplements are classified as food which means their labels should not suggest that they have a therapeutic effect. For consumers, prevention of diseases is the primary motivation. The market share of anti-oxidants, vitamins and minerals is declining, while that of herbal agents is growing. Dietary supplements are also getting increasingly specialised. Sales of vitamins show more dynamic increase than minerals, but the latter segment also has potential for growth. More complex products are expected to dominate the market in the future. Modern distribution channels are not ideal for dietary supplements as distributors are generally small enterprises which cannot afford the costs related to doing business with large retail chains. Even if such products get listed by these, sales are often hindered by bad shelf placement, because dietary supplements are impulse products. It would boost sales substantially, if these were placed near cash registers, without the astronomical charges which usually accompany such placement. Another good location for dietary supplements would be the shelves used for bio and health related products. A further difficulty is that modern retail channels are not providing enough help for customers in terms of information yet. Plussz is one of the oldest and best known brands in the market of dietary supplements. The Plussz product line contains all basic vitamins and minerals. Naturland offers a similarly wide assortment and a new product line intended for children is also to be launched soon. Naturpodukt, distributor of Dr. Theiss capsules and Dr. Munzinger fruit juices is trying to find non-pharmacy distribution channels as well, but still focuses on pharmacies. Oriental Herbs Kft, distributor of Dr. Chen Patika products, focuses both on constant development and on traditional Chinese medicine.