Dietary Supplements in Kenya

PROSPECTS

Greater trust and education needed to encourage greater uptake of dietary supplements

Dietary supplements remained a much smaller category compared to vitamins in terms of value and volume sales, dominated by herbal/traditional products with an increasing number of consumers self-diagnosing and identifying their specific health requirements online. While herbal/traditional products supported value growth for the overall category, volume sales stagnated.

New act to address counterfeit sales to be introduced

Following concerns over the lack of regulation regarding dietary supplements and the possible harm that can result from purchasing products from unscrupulous channels, the sales of counterfeit supplements is predicted to drastically drop due to proposed amendments to the Nutritionists and Dieticians Act, which will expand the regulatory powers of the Kenya Nutritionists and Dieticians Institute (KNDI) to include the registration and inspection of businesses that prepare and sell dietary supplements. The mandate would enable the institute to identify those businesses that target consumers with counterfeit and potentially dangerous products.

Mid-income millennials more confident about shopping online supporting rising interest in internet retailing

The distribution of dietary supplements continued to be dominated by chemists/pharmacies in 2019, where consumers are less likely to purchase counterfeit products and can receive advice from pharmacists. However, a growing mid-income consumer segment of well-connected and well-travelled Kenyans is increasingly moving online to research products and enjoy the expanding choice of dietary supplements.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Greater consolidation amongst players offers barrier of entry to smaller brands

Dietary supplements is more consolidated than vitamins in terms of players, in line with the smaller size of the category where a higher number of smaller players has not been able to emerge and establish themselves. However, between them, the main producers offer a wide range of dietary supplements across the category.

Despite segmentation, general health is most popular positioning

Spurred by an ageing population and heightened interest in preventative health, sales of dietary supplements that offer greater segmentation continued to experience stable demand. However, while traditionally, marketing has been focused on promoting a specific ingredient such as taking omega 3 for heart health, advertising is now starting to be tailored to a focus on a more holistic approach with the aim of encouraging greater usage of a broader array of products and thus broader brand positioning.

Players increase advertising spend to promote benefits of dietary supplements

Dietary supplements players are increasing their spend on advertising as local retailers launch aggressive price promotions and therefore, brand loyalty remains the only way to sustain share. Increased advertising is often directed to young and urbanised millennial consumers who enjoy higher disposable incomes and are therefore more likely to allocate part of their discretionary expenditure to dietary supplements when doing their routine shopping.

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