Herbalife Plans Foray Into Sports Nutrition

Having catered to nutrition, weight management, and personal care products, Herbalife Nutrition, an Indian arm of the US-based Nutraceutical Corporation, now plans to introduce sports nutrition products under its umbrella. However, the date of introduction of the newest segment remains tentative.

Speaking to BW Businessworld, Ajay Khanna, Vice-President and Country Head of Herbalife Nutrition said that with growing popularity of sports nutrition products, the company is keen to be more active in this segment. “India is witnessing a changing outlook towards fitness and exercise with rising consumer awareness about the importance of sports nutrition products for better results and enhanced workout efforts,” Khanna said.

Currently, sports nutrition is a booming segment in the country growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 14 per cent since 2011. Based on reports, its total market size was pegged at Rs 830 crore in the previous year. The category has witnessed a steady growth from 2011-2016. According to a report by Euromonitor International, the sales of sports nutrition products stood at Rs 304 crore in 2011 that jumped to Rs 5,27 crore in 2013, and to Rs 720 crore in 2015.

Sports nutrition is the fastest growing consumer health market category, according to reports. Protein products continue to dominate sports nutrition domain with around 80 per cent of global sports nutrition value sales in 2016. Sports protein is projected to reach $14.6 billion globally by 2021, based on recent reports.

GST Impact on Herbalife:

Talking about the impact of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on sales of Herbalife India, Khanna said that the company has not witnessed any negative growth due to the implementation of the newly introduced tax reform. Agreeing to it, Vishwanathan said that in spite products seeing a rise in the price range post-GST, sales have remained constant. “Customers will not stop buying products which are required in their day-to-day lives. This has enabled our sales to be constant post-GST, even when the price range of the products went up,” he added.

Herbalife Nutrition is a global nutrition company since 1980 and is headquartered in California, US. The distributors of Herbalife are spread all across the globe in over 90 countries including India. The company started its operations in the country in 1999. It recorded annual sales of $4.5 billion in 2016, which is consistent with the previous year’s performance, claimed the company.

According to the company's annual report, the net sales in India stood at $167.9 million for the year ending December 31, 2016. The company said that the net sales decreased by $1.5 million, or 0.9 per cent, for the year ended December 31, 2016, as compared to the same period in 2015.