#1 Where are the price decreases?

The big question on the tip of everyone's lips is at what point will brands decrease the price to the consumer of whey protein. This is based on the fact that whey protein (ingredient price) is much cheaper than it was this time last year.

And this is what we track - the price to the consumer (retail and promotion) - on a monthly and quarterly basis for all protein powder types (e.g. whey, plant), for the biggest brands (e.g. ON, Myprotein), across Europe and the US/Canada.

Figure 1 shows the median retail price over time for whey and plant protein for a 1kg pack (± 250g) in Europe. For all categories shown (WPC, WPI etc) there are no indications of any price decreases when compared to Jan. 

For context, perhaps the most important price to track is the ‘actual’ price sold to the consumer (i.e. after promotion/discount) - and this data also shows no decrease. 

However, there is huge variation in the prices available in the market and promotional tactics  - so for that reason, we do look for individual brand and/or product indications too. Again, there is no evidence of movement, with the benchmark cost to the consumer for WPC being €26-27 and for WPI it is €37. This is based on tracking the leading direct-to-consumer brands.

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#2 The proof is in the (plant product) description!

In recent weeks we have been having a lot of fun analysing keywords and phrases within product descriptions. Whether this is taste or texture based, or claim specific.

The area we have been most interested in, is the description of whey protein versus plant protein. Our hypothesis being that plant protein is a conduit to a more mainstream health based consumer and as such product descriptions would support this. 

Figure 2 shows the percentage of products including top keywords for plant protein only. Whilst we are not showing the comparison to whey protein, it should not escape your attention that “muscle growth” is #9 and “recovery” is #15, with the primary claims being nutrition based. 

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Whilst there are many ways to interpret data, we believe there is strong evidence to support the notion that plant protein communicates a different proposition to whey protein and is creating its own role for consumers, rather than directly competing with whey.

#3 VitaFoods

With just two weeks to go until Vita Foods, it is time to start ramping up our excitement for our latest product and extension to the ANIE family, ANIE Insight. 

We have always had the ambition to make accessing good quality, real-time data and insight as easy as possible, and ANIE Insight does just that.

Accessible via a mobile app or your desktop, ANIE Insight is a gold mine of information on the active nutrition sector.  And we expect that it will quickly become your go-to place to keep on top of the latest developments within the market.

Bringing expert data analysis and insight to the palm of your hand - the multiple data-driven posts per day deliver detailed analysis on key product characteristics such as pack size, texture, and flavour, amongst many other attributes. This is based on unearthing the emerging trends across key product categories such as protein powders, bars, protein RTDs, collagen, gaming and much much more…  

And it’s not just data, we will be highlighting new products and concepts to hit the market as well as sharing our thoughts on the key topics impacting the sector.   

If you’re heading to Vita Foods, come find us and we’ll give you a quick demo.

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#5 Save the date

Feels a bit scary discussing dates for June, but we’ll be hosting our next webinar on the 8th June so pop it in your diary now and more details to follow… 

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