A couple of weeks ago saw the annual behemoth that is Natural Products Expo West. Held across five days, 15 halls and one arena, there was a LOT to take in, but the journey home provided a good opportunity for reflection, so here it is.
The first thing to remember about Expo West is that it’s a “natural and organics show”, and so that is what we’re going to see. Within this context, areas like plant-based, natural, organic, non-gmo and clean label can’t be considered trends in the same way they might be at another event.
Instead, we can look at what over-indexed and take deeper learnings from there.
So what was over-indexing?
- Functional drinks – so, so many functional drinks, covering all major health benefits from mood and gut to energy and anything else you can think of.
- Women’s health – and it’s about time, too. Really positive to see such a big focus on this.
- Gummies – huge reflection that the market is rapidly shifting format away from traditional capsules and tablets
- Mood – everywhere and across a huge variety of products, the promise of an improved mood.
- Bars – the bars market might have contracted in 2023, but there were still a lot of bars on show. Interesting that it was less a case of new products and more a case of brand advertising – are they making sure the smaller number of products they offer sell well?
- Cookie dough is the new peanut butter – very American, will Europe follow suit?
- Quality and sustainability – particularly when it comes to dairy. Think grass-fed, regenerative agriculture. Great to see less demonisation of dairy in general.
- All natural foods are trying to be indulgent – it’s what consumers want.
- Naturally functional ingredients like dates and honey showing their strength.
- Coffee/cold brew – building on last year, a format that isn’t showing signs of slowing down.
- Meat snacks – the ultimate natural, high protein, low sugar snack.
Brands that are doing things right
- Huel – the British brand had one of the best looking stands there. A clean look and super vibrant, it really stood out.
- Bloom – recent investment from Nutrabolt is helping accelerate Bloom’s growth and you can tell. Another brand that stood out and offered great products. There’s a lot to be learned from what they’re doing right now.
- Birdman – a cool brand with even cooler branding. Want to turn heads in a crowded marketplace? Put artistic CGI birds all over your packaging.
My main takeaways
So what did I learn?
- Functional drinks and all the claims they come with are way too ambiguous. In order to win, brands are going to need stronger grounding – as it stands, it’s all a bit too fluffy.
- Too many products talk about what they’re not before what they are.
- It’s ironic that a natural show has become engulfed in indulgence. Brands need to be careful not to lose sight and compromise what they are; there’s a fine line between evolving and becoming something your customers don’t actually want.
- I love cauliflower pizza.
Expo West in a nutshell
This cookie dough snack bar from Whoa Dough is Expo West in a nutshell. “The first health-conscious plant based, gluten free cookie dough snack bar. For kids. For adults. For the cookie-dough-craving, bowl-licking kid in all of us. We make real cookie dough bars with real ingredients.”
