Personal care - health 2025: Supplements become core to wellness

Supplements are fast becoming “a cornerstone of everyday wellness”. So says NIQ analytics executive Silvia Ghosh, who has noticed an ongoing shift away from their use to treat symptoms reactively. Instead, Brits are seeing supplements as a proactive way to keep them at bay.

That change in attitude has made vitamins, minerals & supplements (VMS) the standout performer in health. While the likes of winter remedies, condoms and analgesics are facing declining or stagnant volumes, VMS is on the up. Value has risen to nearly £690m, driven by a 3.4% growth in volumes.

“The supplements category has had another brilliant year,” confirms April Preston, product director at Holland & Barrett. “It’s no longer just about topping up on vitamins when you feel run down. People are now weaving supplements into their daily lives as part of a broader shift towards proactive, personalised wellness.”

Holland & Barrett certainly appears to be benefiting from that mindset. Over the past year, it has been busy growing its partnerships with other retailers. Holland & Barrett now has more than 50 concessions in Tesco stores, a ‘shop in shop’ digital marketplace in Ocado, and is trialling travel-tailored fixtures with WH Smith too. Plus, in a landmark move into convenience in August, the retailer rolled out ‘health and wellness’ bays into 125 Co-op stores.

It’s a vote of confidence in a market that’s picking up ever more dedicated shoppers. Crucially, those shoppers aren’t just stopping at multivitamins. “One big driver has been the rise of ‘supplement stacking’, where shoppers mix and match nutrients to target specific needs, from energy and sleep to gut balance,” Preston explains.

Against that backdrop, five of the top 10 VMS brands have delivered volume gains. Number two player Vitabiotics Ultra is up 10.4% in volumes. Smaller brands have delivered even faster growth. Like BetterYou, which is up 20.4% in value driven by a 22.4% rise in volume sales of its spray formats.

Tellingly, a Vitamin D+K2 spray is a core part of BetterYou’s lineup. Number three brand Centrum’s sales of vitamin D are also booming, driven by growing awareness of the need to supplement in the winter months. To that end, Centrum added Vitamin D Boost – which contains six times more of the vitamin than Centrum Advance – in September. Already, it “has seen success in the UK”, says Michael Durkin, GB sales director at Centrum owner Haleon.

Another promising area for the brand is women’s health. Its women’s range has delivered double-digit growth in the past year, adds Durkin, driven by “impactful initiatives such as the ‘Get Lippy’ campaign and GenM partnership”.

Centrum is not the only brand to report growth in this area. Vitawell MD John Sutcliffe says women’s supplements “have emerged as one of the fastest-growing segments in the wellness market”, driven by “increased awareness of specific health concerns such as menopause and perimenopause, as well as a growing focus on preventative care among women”.

Finally, the demand for gut health support shows no sign of slowing down. Holland & Barrett’s Preston says “gut health remains one of the strongest growth areas” in the category. That rise in interest has inspired a slew of innovations including our Top Launch from Symprove (see below).

Another notable launch came from Megan Rossi, aka The Gut Health Doctor, who brought out Smart Strain live bacteria supplements in February. Other brands are rolling out fibre supplements to both support gut health and tap the ‘fibremaxxing’ trend of increasing daily fibre intake.

The conversation around key nutrients such as fibre could become even more important as GLP-1 weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro gain ground.

“The rise of weight loss medications has added another layer of momentum, sparking demand for nutritional support products to help maintain energy, muscle, and nutrient intake,” says Preston.

Supplements are going even further, offering an alternative to weight loss jabs. In March, supplement brand Feel launched Pro Metabolic. It’s designed to stimulate the body’s secretion of GLP-1, the hormone that makes weight-loss jabs so effective. Already, it’s “doing seven figures a month in revenue”, says Feel founder & CEO Boris Hodakel.

And if supplements can crack that booming market, we could be seeing even higher rates of growth this time next year.