Herbal/Traditional Products in Ireland

PROSPECTS

Irish consumers increasingly turn to more natural alternatives to address certain health-related issues

Herbal/traditional products continued to record a solid performance due to increasing demand for natural products, and a continuing interest in health and wellbeing in Ireland. Consumers are increasingly looking at preventative measures to support their immune systems, particularly notable with ongoing demand for herbal/traditional paediatric dietary supplements as parents place greater trust in products that have a natural positioning for their children.

Herbal/traditional dermatologicals attract consumers searching for gentler solutions to skin conditions

Growing from a low sales base, herbal/traditional dermatologicals is predicted to continue to be one of the strongest performers over the forecast period. Due to their fair skin, Irish consumers tend to suffer from a number of skin conditions such as rosacea and psoriasis, which is encouraging them to seek more natural products in the hope that they will not exacerbate the condition and will gentler on their skin, rather than turn to standard products that use chemicals.

Strongest performance for herbal/traditional topical analgesics due to direct targeting of problem

Also growing from a low sales base, herbal/traditional topical analgesics recorded the strongest performance in both retail volume and current value terms in 2019. This is supported by the small but growing number of consumers who are increasingly concerned about the strain that some systemic analgesics can place on internal organs, encouraging them to seek alternative topical solutions.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

High fragmentation for herbal/traditional products

The competitive landscape of herbal/traditional products is highly fragmented with the highest collective value share held by “others”. Mondelez Ireland Production Ltd retained its overall leadership with popular brand Halls present in larger category, herbal/traditional cough, cold and allergy (hay fever) remedies, with several variants including Halls Soothers and Halls Mentho-Lyptus.

Category unlikely to be strongly impacted by proposed application of VAT on certain consumer health products

VAT is set to be added to some consumer health food products by the end of 2019, despite criticism from organisations such as the Irish Association of Health Food Stores (IAHS) and Irish Health Trade Association (IHTA), which claim that these products help consumers to maintain their health and therefore help to relieve an overburdened health system. While this could negatively impact demand for demand for herbal/traditional dietary supplements, which already suffered from declining sales in 2019, the overall impact on the category is likely to be limited as many herbal/traditional products do not include food.

Private label continues to hold low but increasing share of herbal/traditional products

Private label continued to hold low but increasing value share within herbal/traditional products in 2019, recording strong current value growth. Many products within the category are from small niche brands that have no scope for upscaling.

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