We consume it to fight against stress, sleep better, pamper our intestines, strengthen our immune system against winter attacks, maintain the flexibility of our joints, reduce the inconvenience of menopause… In the space of two decades, food supplements , these concentrates of plants, nutrients (vitamins and minerals) and other substances intended to supplement the nutritional intake of our sometimes disordered diets, have invaded our daily lives. And the French are enjoying it: nearly 60% of them have already succumbed to it during the past year.
What to give a boost to the sector. In ten years, sales of these products have jumped from 1 billion to 2.6 billion euros in France, placing France on the podium of the biggest consumers of these nutritional cocktails in the European Union, behind Italy and Germany.
Shaken by the controversies over the effectiveness of slimming cures, which have long driven market growth, manufacturers have for several years refocused on natural health promises in order to establish their credibility with the general public. A winning recipe, while the appetite of the French for alternative medicine continues to grow. “Consumers want to be reassured. We do not promise what we do not know how to guarantee or prove by scientific literature “, explains Nicolas Brodetsky, CEO of the Vendée group Havéa.
Resulting from the merger, in 2017, of the family business Ponroy Santé and the Parisian start-up specializing in probiotics Aragan, the industrialist, now majority-owned by foreign investment funds, has become one heavyweights on the market, with 234 million euros in turnover in 2022. “We expect to reach 290 million euros in sales [en 2023] »specifies his boss, who is aiming for one billion euros by 2030.
The Vendéen has embarked on a series of purchases for this purpose to accelerate its growth and expand its areas of expertise. After the acquisition, in 2018, of Densmore laboratories, specialized in food supplements in ophthalmology and gynecology, and, in 2020, of Laudavie, owner of calmosine, used against colic in infants, he got his hands in recent months on the German company Bears With Benefits, a specialist in “gummies” – food supplements that look like jelly candies –, then on the French company Biocyte.
You have 64.03% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.