Reputable manufacturers are making a name for themselves by developing sports supplements that deliver on an unwavering commitment to athletes of all levels.
FEw industries in recent years have had to suffer the amount of criticism and scrutiny that sports nutrition has. Through the negligence and downright irresponsibility of a few foul players, legitimate manufacturers and ingredient suppliers have had to endure shots from politicians to professional athletes to everyday consumers, all responding to fears of adulterated products spotlighted in today’s mass media.

In addition to adulteration, some of the practices from a few unscrupulous suppliers, according to Abhijit Bhattacharya, COO of OmniActive Health Technologies, Ltd. (Short Hills, NJ), include mislabeling, sub-optimal levels or deliberate spiking of supplements with inappropriate or unauthorized ingredients.

What has resulted are headlines about athletes taking tainted products which have grossly overshadowed the fact that the vast majority of sports nutrition products have undergone extensive safety testing and quality control.

This has led to an underserved black eye for sports supplement manufacturers abiding by the rules.

Yet, contrary to most instances of media backlash, the effects have not weakened the market as a whole, but rather proved sports nutrition to be resilient and up to the challenge.

“Media alerts have not appeared to have affected growth of the sports nutrition supplements category. The market response to sports nutrition tends to remain strong,” said Bill Wheeler, PhD, ACSM and senior scientist at Life Extension (Fort Lauderdale, FL).

“Additionally more mainstream consumers, those interested in exercise and sports for overall health and leisure versus competition, are turning to sports nutrition for their performance support.” What is helping to lead many of these consumers to sports nutrition products are the measures being taken to assure purity, potency and overall quality of ingredients. This includes the aggressive steps being taken by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) such as testing for controlled substances in sports products. “The FDA is also looking to regulate liquid dietary supplements as foods, and this could have a large impact on the liquid supplements that are marketed to the sports nutrition market,” said Larry Kolb, president of US operations for TSI Health Sciences.

(Missoula, MT). “Manufacturers must increase their control of their supply chains in an effort to control adulteration.” Now that the mandates of the cGMPs are in place for all manufacturers regardless of size, consumer confidence has even more potential to grow and, with it, the market for sports nutrition.

Current Trends In an economy where many longtime stable markets are failing, the sports nutrition market rose six percent in 2009 to reach $3 billion in the US, according to a report titled “Sports Nutrition-US” from market researcher Euromonitor International. Since 2000, “sales of sports nutrition products have expanded dramatically beyond competitive (on a professional and amateur level) athletes to include a growing group of recreational fitness enthusiasts,” the report went on to state. “Traditional sports supplement users looked to specialist retailers, mail order catalogues and the internet to purchase their products, and those channels still make up 70 percent of total sector sales.” As noted in the report, sports nutrition is expanding to athletes of all ages, levels and genders. “Sports nutrition no longer exclusively belongs to men wanting to show off their powerful muscles, and women are becoming the center of attention in new product development, with greater visibility for sports nutrition,” said Monica Feldman, industry analyst-consumer health for Euromonitor in her presentation on “Global Consumer Health” at the SupplySide East Tradeshow this past April.

Bhattacharya has seen this trend as well. “While clearly men across all age groups are becoming aware of an active lifestyle, the relative growth in the number of women in the area of sports and active lifestyles is probably likely to be even more striking if one analyzes the statistics of women participants in sports, gym and fitness activities,” he said.

“In addition, the Baby Boomer market, though not as high intensity as most sports nutrition, is quickly growing,” said Kathy Lund, vice president of sales and marketing with Bioenergy Life Science, Inc. (Minneapolis, MN).

“Supplements for daily nutrition and energy have and will grow in response to the Boomers’ desire for longevity.” Other trends in the market, according to Karen Todd, director of marketing.

With Kyowa Hakko USA (New York, NY), involve consumers watching for ingredients that are associated with negative side effects, like tingling sensations, increased/racing heart rate, water retention, swelling and joint pain. “I think that consumers need to watch for ingredients’ slight or mild side effects, which may not be safe for everyone and might even be dangerous, and depend on one’s overall health and level of fitness,” she said.

Category Growth The giant strides made in sports nutrition have taken it from a category dominated by powdered supplements and sugary drinks in years past to one where, today, the variety of products provides options for just about everyone’s tastes and athletic goals. Much of its current success, in fact, can be attributed to how successfully manufacturers have been able to incorporate ingredients into both supplement and functional food/beverage form. “Athletes cannot survive on supplements alone,” said Eugene Ung, CEO of Best Formulations (City of Industry, CA). “Those that exercise on a regular basis are more likely to purchase functional foods as well as dietary supplements.” One of the segments that appears to be experiencing the greatest success, said Ung, is energy shots, which appeal to athletes and non-athletes alike.

“High-quality protein formulas are extremely popular, and we’re seeing interest in vegetarian/non-animal protein formulas as well.” Overall, though, Ung added that there will always be room for growth since the sports category touches nearly every individual whose goal is to exercise more and be healthier.

While functional foods and beverages have brought a new audience to this category, according to Darren Rude, vice president of NeoCell (Santa Ana, CA), dietary supplements have and will.

Remain the bedrock of sports nutrition. “Dietary supplements are the future of this market because they don’t contain the sugar or calories that many functional foods and beverages contain,” he said. “Many of those products are loaded with things people don’t need in their diets. Dietary supplements deliver proper nutrition without the sugar or calories that many shakes, drinks and bars contain.” Steps to Assurance With assurance on top of everyone’s priority list in sports nutrition, manufacturers have the challenge of educating the consumer on the various safe products out there that will help them exercise longer or harder, or recover faster, as well as the many steps involved with the quality control of each product.

To start, Kyowa Hakko’s Todd recommended manufacturers work with an efficacious ingredient manufacturer that has tested the product for efficacy and is willing to support a manufacturer’s product by increasing awareness and education to consumers and sports professionals.

She then posed several questions that should be on the minds of manufacturers as they research supplier companies’ raw materials they intend to use in their products:

• Does a company manufacture the product itself and control all the production processes?

• Can it produce the technical documentation easily without delay?

• Does it support the use of the ingredient in products in the marketplace with additional studies and educational information/seminars?

• Has the ingredient been tested in clinical studies and does it have a positive performance record without negative side effects?

Delving further into the importance of ingredient verification, Armond Scipione, certified personal trainer and Florida sales manager for Life Extension, explained that clinically effective doses of products that are supported by scientific studies will result in customers getting the results they are looking for and will encourage them to come back to purchase the product again.

Another necessity, said Micah Osborne, president of ESM Technologies (Carthage, MO), is that “responsible manufacturers are going to have to invest more heavily in testing for banned substances in their precursor or actual forms before bringing a product to market. The more sports figures who test positive for banned substances and then sue the marketer is only going to reflect poorly to the consumer.” Preparing for the Journey Ahead “Like most products in our society, consumers are looking for convenience.

Whether supplements, foods

Or beverages dominate the market is a matter of which delivery method is most convenient,” explained Bioenergy Life Science’s Lund. “Today we are seeing much more convenient combinations and delivery methods in all three channels and the winner will not be the market segment (supplement, food or beverage), but the company that understands this consumer demand and produces the best product for their needs.” While most of the current development of new products is focused on products targeting pre/post workout or during exercise, Todd sees a new market arising in the future. “A new direction would be to develop products specific to an individual’s sport that would match an athlete’s type of activity,” she said, “or a new line of products that can be used in the off-season or pre-season versus just focused around the activity.” A greater differentiation among products will also be important in new product development. “The market is saturated with products that contain long lists of ingredients with product claims that push the envelope … new brands will have to invest enormous resources to create a critical mass and awareness in a market that is enormously competitive,” said TSI Health Science’s Kolb.

“They must understand the consumer they are targeting. They must have clinical substantiation behind the claims they intend to make, and they must ensure they have a marketing budget and a long-term commitment to build the brand.” For manufacturers that can deliver a product athletes want, their investment has the potential to make significant gains in the years ahead. According to the Euromonitor report, “Sports nutrition is expected to show a robust compound annual growth rate of two percent as sports nutrition gains mass acceptance.” As a last piece of advice for manufacturers, Best Formulations’ Ung added, “If you want to be a long-term player, you really have to understand the quality and regulatory component. With the new FDA GMP regulations, the barrier to entry for manufacturers has certainly raised. Establishing trust with your customers and having a clean track record is critical in our ever more regulated environment.