NOW Foods is one of the biggest names on the US natural products scene with over 1500 products spanning supplements, personal care, sports nutrition and natural food.
The company has had a limited presence in Britain for several years but in early 2013 the brand was relaunched with a tightly edited range of six products reformulated and repackaged for the specialist UK health food trade.
International Sales Manager, Philip Pittsford, recently talked to Natural Products about the company’s fresh strategy for the UK market.
“We partnered with Fuel PR to relaunch and refocus NOW Foods’ offer to the UK health food market. What we’re aiming to do is identify key gaps in the market where we have a particularly strong product offer. And although it’s a very targeted approach we can already see some really good opportunities.
“It was important that products were fully shelf-really for the UK market. So all the products we relaunched this year – made in our own GMP accredited and certified organic facilities – have been reformulated and relabelled for the UK market.”
Pittsford says the company has held “lots conversations” with stakeholders in the UK healthcare and wellbeing sectors. These conversations, he says, directly informed the initial UK product line-up – currently comprising its best-selling Better Stevia liquid stevia product, a men’s multivitamin (Adam), a women’s multivitamin (Eve), two D-Mannose products and a liquid chlorophyll.
“We’re doing a lot of listening and learning. We want to offer retailers here products with a real point of difference. We’ve got a lot of high-quality, science backed products and a deep heritage to draw on, but we will develop the range very selectively.”
“We’re doing a lot of listening and learning. We want to offer retailers here products with a real point of difference”
Pittsford says NOW Foods places a high value on education – both for the retailer, to which it is fully committed in UK also, and the consumer. “Our industry is all about helping 
maintain the health of individuals. We’ve been running the NOW University successfully for seven years and it’s a major part of our effort to help people achieve their health goals.
“It’s early days. But the range is out there and brand awareness and sales are building well.”
NOW Foods is distributed in the UK by Vital Life, sister company to London-based Fuel PR.
