Conference Identifies Key Challenges in Sports and Performance Nutrition

15 Apr 2014 --- The sports and performance nutrition industry discussed the business and innovation outlook in Cologne, 1 & 2 April at the 4th Sports & Performance Nutrition 2014 platform. More than 150 key specialist gather to talk and network.

Challenges identified at the Conference are:
•    At Retailing level: How to better position the category? Towards mainstream consumers looking for "performance"? Where is the growth and in which area: health driven or sport focused? Where are growth opportunities, category, consumer or product-wise?
•    Industry-wise: What are the leading category trends and what is the relevance for marketing the category? Where are the growth markets and opportunities globally, in Europe and in some specific markets like; Germany, United Kingdom, Scandinavia, Italy, The Netherlands and in Switzerland? How will the industry look like in 3-5 years: more consolidation, more mainstream sales, more brand building?
•    In the Research field relevant questions are: How to make better products with novel ingredients and technologies? How can the mainstream consumer benefit from research for athletes? What are the next breakthroughs? Which health claims can give an extra boost to the category? Where will personalisation of nutrition, training and food intake meet or not?

Yasemin Ozdemir, Market Analyst at Innova Market Insights spoke about how sports & energy products are being positioned. She noted that gluten free and allergen friendly claims show top growth, coinciding with general trends. Clean label claims have reached this category in full force, but that the fastest riser however is “no added sugar” claims.

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