Glanbia ‘follows the evolution’ with online sales presence

E-commerce sales now account for 25% of Glanbia’s US-branded sports nutrition sales, more than keeping pace with its sales in specialist sports stores.

Around 70% of Glanbia’s branded sports nutrition products are sold to the US. Its British sports nutrition sales, while smaller than the US, are also enjoying growth. In both markets, online and in-store sales are following similar patterns.

Glanbia group managing director John Moloney said: “It is all about assisted selling. People go into specialist stores looking for information. People also go online looking for information.

“A lot of people in the 18-25-year-old bracket are now buying online, and there is a natural progression between specialist stores and specialist websites.

“Both channels are very important to us, but we also sell in a lot of what you might call ‘Mom and Pop’ stores in the US. We are growing in all geographies and across all channels. We are following the evolution in the way people are consuming.”

Similarly, Irish sports nutrition consumers visit specialist websites such as bodybuilder.com, while also shopping in stores such as Holland & Barrett and Maher Sports.

Last week, Glanbia hosted an investor presentation to explain its consumer strategy. Davy Stockbrokers subsequently produced a report, noting that Glanbia’s Optimum Nutrition division had six products in the top 20 and 12 in the top 50 on bodybuilding.com.

Davy noted that Glanbia has its own branded products e-commerce platform for Optimum Nutrition, BSN and ABB. It uses specialist platforms such as bodybuilding.com and more mass market platforms such as amazon.com. Davy said e-commerce is one of the channels that is eating into the sales growth of traditional stores for sports nutrition products.

Davy stated: “Optimum Nutrition also has a significant presence on amazon.com, with three products ranked in the top 100 of the broad health and personal care (HPC) category on amazon.com. This is a strong performance given the vastness of the category with tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of products listed. The majority of other brands featured in the top 20 on bodybuilding.com do not feature in the top 100 HPC products on amazon.com.”

According to Davy, US-based Vitamin Shoppe estimated that the e-commerce channel for supplements is growing at about 14% versus 6% for the overall industry. Glanbia appears to have a strong position on both specialist and mass market e-commerce platforms, Davy noted.

“Internet sales are growing in high double digits, particularly in branded goods, and we see that continuing,” said Mr Moloney.

“That growth is across both general internet platforms, some of our own operated sites, one in particular in the UK, and through specialist sites like bodybuilding.com.”