Supplement industry WINS with high-dollar

The vanity of the Brazilians and the devaluation of the real against the dollar are supporting the nutritional supplements. Unlike the rest of the market, domestic manufacturers celebrate increase in sales this year.
Billing supplements industry must move 15% in 2015, reaching the mark of r $ 1.4 billion, according to the Brazilian Association of manufacturers of nutritional supplements and food for special purposes (Brasnutri).
"People are increasingly concerned about the body and ageing well, it all helps to boost the sector," says the President of Brasnutri Synésio Batista da Costa.
He explains that the domestic manufacturers began to see a slowdown in the pace of growth last year, reflecting the consumption retracted. Despite the lower rate of expansion, the appreciation of the dollar against real in this write helped gain competitiveness over competitors who import products.
"The exchange rate has a double effect in supplements, because while the finished product that comes out gets more expensive, favoring the local brands, companies are very dependent on imported raw material", he ponders.
The leader says that approximately 10% of today's supplement market imported goods before 15% at the beginning of the year. "We estimate a 5% loss in recent months, a lot in Exchange function", adds the Executive.
Competition
The Integralmédica, one of the leading domestic manufacturers of supplements, purchase 60% of inputs from other countries and cannot substitute for escape from the high-dollar. "With that we're missing a little of the profit margin, but the positive effect is that the imported product is much more impacted, leading to migration of demand for national supplements," says the company's Chairman, Philip Bragança.
The Executive expects an increase of 15% to 17% in sales of the manufacturer this year, boosted by increased concern of Brazilians with the physical.
"This has been one of the main factors of growth for the segment and, as the products still have a low rate of consumption by the population, we expect quite a business expansion over the medium and long term on the basis of the natural increase of the market."
The income of consumers more pressed this year, however, worried about Portugal. He estimates that, if the economy does not improve in the next year, the segment's performance tends to be affected.
"The increase of income of Brazilians in recent years helps explain part of this growth and, as soon as you no longer have that factor, it has direct reflection in business", CITES him.
In response to this scenario, the Integralmédica's strategy has been to concentrate investments in short-term actions. "We are investing a lot in more immediate return strategies, because in times of crisis, everything's [Economic] restricted and have prioritized investments in points of sale of our customers."
In Food and supplements lab Supley, the strategy has been to offer promotions, in addition to actions in points of sale. The company director, Alberto Moretto, evaluates the measures help customers accept the adjustments in the price list.
"Increase is never well received by retail, but we always try to offer some promotion, to increase the margin of the shopkeeper in the same proportion", detailing it. This year, the owner of the mark Max Titanium, raised the prices of the portfolio by about 13%, and expects to end the year with a high of at least 25% in turnover.
"We have achieved the goals with the expansion of the market and also to growth on competition", CITES Moretto. The Executive also says that the high dollar has favored competition with imported.
Trend
"In the medium and long term, the products more appear with prospect of growth are the ready for consumption, packaging with smaller portions for those who live alone or just want to try and the anti-aging line. In addition to the women's line, which now represents 15% of our business and follows advancing ", says the Director of Supley.
In evaluating the President of Brasnutri Synésio Batista da Costa, with the increase of the elderly population in the country, the trend is that demand for anti-aging products to gain greater relevance.
"This niche will be increasingly expressive, both companies already have products to the public with more than 50 years," says he.
In the Integralmédica, anti-age products make up the portfolio with other four lines. "Each line aims to meet a specific demand, and we realized that with the change in the population pyramid should attend an increase in demand for supplements to the need of older people," says Braganza. But he considers that the company did not plan to leave aside the niche sports nutrition, which is already established.
Barriers
To ensure that the thread continue to expand, executives heard by the DCI argue that we need to change the regulation on supplements, made by the national agency of sanitary surveillance (Anvisa).
"The organ that regulates the sector has acted very restricting the supply of products, which is one of the main barriers of this market," says Integralmédica Executive.
For him, the lack of Brazilian habit in consuming supplements is another barrier. But, according to Portugal, the advance of sales shows that the population comes increasingly adhering to consumption. "The investment in product development is also important to ensure advancement. In Integralmédica we have 14 people working at the research lab ", reveals.
Already Moretto, Supley, remember that the exchange rate remains one of the main challenges in the industry, because it has a double effect on the industry. "This is a barrier for us because while the real devalued help in competition with imported, raises the costs linked to raw materials," says he.
Next year, the expectation of the manufacturers is to keep the strategies adopted this year and, with that, keep the market growth in the double digits. "Without doubt this market still grows wild in the next few years, against the industry," says Costa, Brasnutri.