You could call them vitamins. You could call them cold remedies. You could even call them energy boosters. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you’d be able to find products such as Emergen-C and Airborne in any of those categories within the merchandising footprint of the convenience store.
And while the vitamin and nutrition category last year experienced a doubledigit increase, many retailers are still struggling to figure out where exactly these products belong.
“In food, drug and mass, [these products] are doing quite well, and they’re typically placed with the cold remedies,” says Andy Batt, vice president of merchandising of OTP, HBC and supplies for Naperville, Ill.-based Eby-Brown. “It’s kind of tricky because food, drug and mass have much more space than we have.”
And they have a much quicker turnaround, according to Tom LaManna, vice president of merchandising services for Melrose Park, Ill.-based Convenience Valet. “Introducing products into the c-store isn’t a quick process. It’s not like Walgreens that switches their products every two weeks. Once you take up shelf space, it’s not that easy to introduce replacement items, and no one wants to do it often.”
With that limited shelf space, finding the perfect fit can be difficult. Because both Airborne and Emergen-C are available through c-store HBC repackagers Convenience Valet and Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based Lil’ Drug Store Products, they come in two-count peg packages that are merchandised easily within HBC, but also at the point of purchase.
“What happens is that we have Emergen-C that is just dissolvable into water; Airborne has something very similar, but they also have a tablet that dissolves into water, but they also have chewables … and that gets confusing as well,” Batt says. “We do our SmartProcess custom plano-grams for chains, and then annually we do different categories each year. Both brands make the cut in a large 8-foot set, but neither makes the cut in a 3- or 4-foot set. It varies.”
On a broader level, the issue of c-store shopper habits also comes in to play. C-stores arguably attract customers that are looking for immediate gratification, not necessarily preventative medicine. Have a headache? Buy some pain reliever. A cold? Grab some cough suppressants. It’s not every day a customer wanders into a c-store looking to prevent an impending runny nose or cough. This could explain why manufacturers notice stronger sales as the colder months approach.
“We do experience a seasonal increase in usage [of Emergen-C] during times when our consumers are looking for added immune support, such as the onset of the fall and winter season,” says Eddie Moye, spokesman for New York-based Pfizer.
“We all know that people go to c-stores for immediate need. They go in if they have a headache. They don’t go in to replenish their medicine cabinet. Not necessarily for maintenance items, anyway,” LaManna says. However, “the thing about vitamins in the stay-well category is that the feeling of an impending cold can hit you at any time.”
An Upward Trend
According to LaManna, data from 2012 and 2013 shows that there has been a 19% to 20% increase in the vitamins and nutrition category. And Convenience Valet’s own data shows an increase in sales of 18% in the Super Orange Emergen-C SKU, and a 10% increase in the tangerine-flavored SKU year over year since the company began marketing the product three years ago.
“There is this trend for what I call stay-well or better-for-you products. It’s not a fad. When we have the space and it’s justified, I will consider taking one or up to three underperforming SKUs in a store and putting one to three SKUs of this category in,” LaManna says. “Category management isn’t brand management; it’s doing the best for that category.”
Manufacturers of both products expect to ramp up their focus on the c-store market, too. Now that sales are solid and trending upward in food, drug and mass, repackagers and manufacturers can turn their focus to this industry; the dedicated, heavy users of these stay-well and immunity-boosting products also shop at c-stores, and the application is a natural fit.
“As we have done with our food, drug and mass accounts, we will continue to expand distribution with multiple flavors and locations throughout the store by providing an alternative to high-sugar and caffeinated beverages,” Pfizer’s Moye says.
Some repackagers are taking this inevitable upturn and using both brands to diversify their offer further. Convenience Valet’s LaManna says the company began distributing the Airborne products within the past 18 months and is altering the flavor profile and delivery method from Emergen-C to change things up a bit.
“We do not attempt to establish a brand; we just identify trends and look for opportunity gaps,” he says. “EmergenC in 10- and 30-packet boxes has been a leading seller in a major drug store for years and it appears in their ads about 20 times a year. Consumers know the brand, the product and the benefits. It is an established brand. … We started working with Airborne, another excellent, wellrecognized and accepted brand.”
As the category continues to grow, one thing experts can agree on is that there is a place for immunity products and boosters within the c-store realm.
“They certainly have their place in a hierarchy of items,” LaManna says. “Our data, our results, show that they do have a place.”
On the Up and Up
In data provided by Lil’ Drug Store Products, annual sales in the vitamin category (in which these products fall, according to Paul Rossberger, vice president of sales and marketing for Lil’ Drug Store Products) are up 26.2% from one year ago.
- Within c-stores, the vitamin category enjoyed more than $104 million in annual sales.
- The vitamin category moved up in ranking to become the sixth-largest subcategory in convenience HBC.
- The vitamin category is made up of multiple subcategories, primarily liquid vitamins and minerals, which account for 56% of sales. This subcategory includes Emergen-C and Airborne products; mineral supplements (male supplements, energy or nutrients such as potassium, ginseng, etc.), with 37% of sales; multivitamins, 6%; and single- and double-letter vitamins (vitamin C, D3 caplets, etc.), 1%.
- Emergen-C as a brand, supplied by Pfizer, ranked No. 22 in top vitamin-category brands.
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