By Doug Desjardins
Millions of people who made losing weight and getting healthy their New Year’s resolution will find some less expensive options to choose from this year as the diet and nutrition business continues to adjust to the recession.
January is always a busy month for businesses like Jenny Craig, NutriSystem and Medifast and the annual push to attract new customers is more important than ever after a year when most saw their sales drop, in some cases by double-digits. The stress of an uncertain job market and the lure of cheap, fast food is a potent distraction during hard times. “People gravitate toward food that is rich in calories during a recession,” noted Adam Drewnowski, director of the nutritional sciences program at the University of Washington.
With that in mind, companies in the diet business have changed their approach to the market by offering deep discounts and selling their products in new retail venues. In fall 2009, Weight Watchers took the unprecedented step of offering one month of free meetings to new members and launched an online support system. NutriSystem allowed its foods to be sold at Costco and Wal-Mart at discount prices for the first time and is now offering new members free foods for 2 weeks. And Jenny Craig has a new promotion that charges new members only $20 for the first 20 pounds they lose.
The discounts and promotions are something new for businesses that, in some cases, are weathering the first real recession they’ve had to deal with. “Dieting firms are trying to combat consumer pullback with aggressive promotions,” said Rosa Welton, an analyst with investment firm Mesirow Financial.
But the down economy hasn’t had much impact on the vitamin and nutritional supplement business, which produced $25 billion in sales in 2008, according to the Nutrition Business Journal. A survey from the Council for Responsible Nutrition found that 74 percent of adults surveyed said the recession has not affected their purchasing habits of dietary supplements. And 65 percent of respondents said they regularly used some type of supplement in 2009, including vitamins, compared to 64 percent in 2008.
That trend was reflected in the latest sales results from nutritional supplement maker NBTY. The company reported in January that total revenue grew 14 percent in its 2010 fiscal first quarter to $751 million. NBTY also reported that same-store sales at its retail outlets in North America increased 4 percent during the quarter.
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One Response to “New Year Brings Less Expensive Diet Options”
Does Nutrisystem still offer their food in stores like Wal-mart? I've never seen it there.