Special Edition - Natural Products

Gourmet Business predicted earlier in the year that a major trend driving demand in 2012 was going to be products related to living a healthy lifestyle and enhancing a person’s well-being. We have seen this trend explode in the specialty food business, with a plethora of gluten-free and other healthy offerings hitting the market. We have seen this trend affect the kitchenware market, where interest in juicers and pressure cookers has grown as more consumers learn about the health benefits of consuming foods prepared in such a way as to retain important nutrients and without the addition of fats and sugars. This market will continue to grow, and we believe it presents a major selling opportunity for specialty retailers. In this issue, we hope to bring you greater understanding of the growing U.S. market for goods and services focused on health, the environment, social justice, personal development and sustainable living, known as LOHAS.

LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) describes a marketplace of goods and services that is conservatively estimated to be valued at $290 billion. Approximately one in four adults – nearly 41 million people – in the United States are considered to embrace the LOHAS lifestyle. The $290 billion in spending is broken into six market sectors: personal health, eco tourism, alternative transportation, green building, natural lifestyles and alternative energy. We are most interest- ed in the segments of personal health and natural lifestyles that represent $127 billion in spending, but it’s also important to understand how the demand in the various segments is interconnected. A consumer who tends to buy organic vegetables is also more likely to prefer products made with recycled materials, and also drives a hybrid automobile.

The statistics will lead us to believe this is a major marketing opportunity, but you need to think beyond the narrow view that it’s all about healthy products. In this issue, you will find products that are focused on personal health and those made with recycled materials, organic compounds or sustainable materials. You will also find that a number of products are being marketed as supporting an important cause or, in some cases, supporting an entire local economy (as you will find with Fair Trade products in our upcoming coffee issue). While these products seem varied, they are all connected in the minds of LOHAS consumers. We hope this issue will help you build an interesting and diverse product assortment that will speak to these consumers.

If you’re interested in discovering more about this segment of products, I highly recommend you consider attending the Natural Products Expo East, which will take place in Baltimore later this month, Sept. 20-22, where you will meet many of the suppliers whose products are featured in these pages. For those of you on the West Coast, there is also a Natural Products West show in Anaheim, March 9-11, 2013.

For those of you who don’t get a chance to attend these shows, you can count on our editors to bring you back a full report. Enjoy the issue and live healthy.