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Meal replacement bars-both for bulking up as well as slimming down-have become big business. Worth nearly $100 million in the drug channel, where sales grew more than 25 percent during the 52 week-period ended Aug. 12, according to data from Information Resources Inc., meal replacement bars still represent one of the better growth opportunities in the store. Drug stores control just a little more than 6 percent of all dollars spent in the category-a category nearing $1.5 billion in sales across all retail channels, and still growing at some 13 percent.
At that rate, the bar category, which IRI tracks together with granola and breakfast substitute bars, will add more than $195 million in incremental sales next year.
According to Greg Jacobson, director of marketing at Slim Fast, there are a couple of factors fueling that growth. For one thing, "dieting" has become passe; "weight management," on the other hand, is en vogue. There is something to be said for sensitivity to a segment of the population that's made up of as many as 74 percent of Americans, according to a Gallup poll, Jacobson suggested. "Most people are actively managing their weight ... and [consuming bars] is a...